American Canons, Southern Fiction, and the Institution of Literary Prizes

This chapter examines Robert Penn Warren’s All the King’s Men and Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man in the context of their winning of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, respectively. While considering the authors’ resistance to reading overt political commentary in their work, favoring a moral reading instead, the chapter argues that their insistence dovetails with the purpose of such large, national literary prizes: to reward works that best demonstrate the values important to the nation. Therefore, literary prizes such as the Pulitzer and National Book Award, as well as other cultural prizes (such as the Grammys, Academy Awards, Tonys, and Emmys) reveal themselves in the context of the Cold War to be awards that reinforce and reward correct ideological perspectives in the guise of good, democratic art.