- Prize awarded by
- AILC-ICLA
- Application Deadline
-
To be announced
As outlined in the Bulletin of the International Association of Comparative Literature, vol. 22.2, the Anna Balakian Prize was officially announced on August 14, 2004, as part of the XVII AILC-ICLA Congress in Hong Kong.
The prize, in the amount of US $ 1,000, comes from a joint donation from the family of Anna Balakian and the Friends of the AILC-ICLA. Its purpose is to promote the scientific research of the young comparatists and to honour the memory of Professor Anna Balakian, a reputed comparatist.
The Anna Balakian Prize is presented at the Triennial Congress of the ICLA, in order to reward an exceptional first monograph in the field of comparative literary studies, written by a single author who has not attained the age of 40 years. To facilitate attendance at the Congress, travel expenses of up to US $ 1,000 are offered to the prize winner.
Criteria / How to apply
Books published between 1 January 2025 and 31 December 2027 will be eligible for the 2028 Prize.
Eligible books must be a doctoral thesis of an author under the age of forty at the time of the publication of the book.
Submitted books must evidence the use of literary criticism approach. They will examine, from a comparative perspective, subjects such as: aesthetics or literary poetics, literature and the arts, literary movements, historical or biographical influences in literature, reciprocal contributions between regional or national literature, literary criticism on an international level. Studies devoted mainly to notions of ethnicity and monographs centred on a single national literature are not eligible.
Books that are not written in English or French, the official languages of the AILC-ICLA, must be accompanied by a summary in English or French of at least 2000 words.
Submission information will be announced in due course.
What is the Prize/Grant
US $ 1,000 USD + travel expenses of up to US $ 1,000 to attend the prize-giving ceremony at the ICLA triennial Congress.
Application Deadline
To be announced
Who can apply
An author who has not attained the age of 40 years.
When decisions will be made/communicated
Information to follow.
Jury
See the Balakian Prize Committee page
Other information
Previous Winners
2025: Adhira Mangalagiri, States of Disconnect: The China-India Literary Relation in the Twentieth Century (Columbia University Press, 2023) (winner)
Xiaolu Ma, Transpatial Modernity: Chinese Cultural Encounters with Russia via Japan (1880-1930) (Harvard University Asia Center, 2024) (honourable mention)
2022: May Hawas, Politicising World Literature: Egypt, Between Pedagogy and the Public (New York and London: Routledge, 2019) (winner)
Joseph Cermatori, Baroque Modernity: An Aesthetics of Theater (Baltimore and London: Johns Hokins University Press, 2021) (honourable mention).
2019: Shuangyi Li, Proust, China and Intertextual Engagement: Translation and Transcultural Dialogue (London: Palgrave, 2017) (winner)
Maya Boutaghou, Occidentalismes, romans historiques postcoloniaux et identités nationales au XIXe siècle : Juan Antonio Mateos, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, Markus Clarke, Jurji Zaydan (Paris: Honoré Champion éditeur, 2016) (honourable mention)
2016: Alexandra Berlina, Brodsky Translating Brodsky: Poetry in Self-Translation (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2014)
2013: Aurélia Hetzel, La reine de Saba: Des Traditions au mythe littéraire (Paris: Classiques Garnier, 2012) (winner)
Shun-liang Chao, Rethinking the Concept of the Grotesque: Crashaw, Baudelaire, Magritte (Oxford: Legenda/Routledge, 2010) (honourable mention)
2010: Karen L. Thornber, Empire of Texts in Motion: Chinese, Korean, and Taiwanese Transculturations of Japanese Literature (Cambridge, MA: Harvard-Yenching Institute Monograph Series, 2009)
Hans-Joachim Backe, Stukturen und Funktionen des Erzählens im Computerspiel: Eine typologische Einführung (Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2008)
2007: Line Henriksen, Ambition and Anxiety: Ezra Pound’s Cantos and Derek Walcott’s Omeros as Twentieth-Century Epics (New York: Rodopi, 2006)