You are the sole judge of a new literary competition in which you must Essay

You are the sole judge of a new literary competition in which you must choose the best novel of the 20th Century. 1. Examine the critera to be applied in choosi - Essay Example The novel is something that often falls between the cracks of such taxonomy, however, since any given novel might embody one or any number of the above classifications of literature. As such, it becomes important to rely on a different, often personal, classification system and related critiquing methodology. Various prestigious literary awards are given to authors who meet the specific criteria of each organisation; for example, the Booker Prize is awarded for the work which is the â€Å"best work of fiction by a British or Commonwealth writer†, and the Nobel Prize for Literature is given to the author who has â€Å"produced in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction† (ibid., p.199). Often, the criterion for judging literature rests on the personal opinions of the original organizing committee, however once this has been established it is the role of recruited judges to stay with such ideals and work within the boundaries of the competit ion or publication. Danson Brown proposes that there are three terms which are of vast importance in any literature judgement: taste, aesthetic and canon (p.200). Taste, in modern society, is related directly to consumerism and to each individual choosing literature that suits his or her own idea of what a novel should be. The tastes of each reader and therefore each judge will vary from that of another and it is this simple principle that makes brass judgement of literary works so difficult. Aesthetic refers to (again in modern society, as the word has evolved since its inception into the English language) the role of philosophy in judging literature. This criterion would have a critic assume that each novel should have undertones that inspire deeper thought on the part of the readers and propose some otherwise hidden aspect of the world or of the human psyche. Canon refers to the ability of the literature