Pro Helvetia's Role
Erica Benz-Steffen walks the tightrope between the arts and feasibility
'In Switzerland, writing is only possible as an export business', said Friedrich Dürrenmatt, who counted among the few internationally known Swiss authors. And indeed, very few Swiss writers manage to break into the world market, and only a very small proportion can live on their writing. One reason among many is that Switzerland is a small, federalistic country with a number of different linguistic regions; Swiss-German is only one of them. Switzerland has neither a common body of literature nor a single overall market for books. With its four literatures (Swiss-German, French, Italian and Romansh) co-existing side by side (and numerous authors from other cultures now writing in their own native languages and, for instance, Swiss-German authors writing in a language which is drastically different from what they speak), the sales potential for the various sectors is correspondingly small. To exacerbate matters, Swiss literature still enjoys little commercial success in neighbouring countries with a shared linguistic heritage (Germany, Austria, France, Italy).
These specifically Swiss problems are joined by the general difficulties besetting the book trade: the increasing power of the conglommerates, which has already led to the painful decline in the number of independent Swiss presses; mounting competition from other media; changes in reading behaviour; and the threatened abolition of the fixed book-price system. This makes the literary scene in Switzerland - as in most other countries, even where conditions are more favourable - dependent on subsidies. Much of the promotion of literature is publicly funded. Unfortunately, private foundations and sponsors are less generous in their support of this comparatively low-profile field than in underwriting big opera productions or exhibitions.
It is the task of the federal government to pursue a more comprehensive, long-term policy which does justice to the needs of Switzerland as a whole. Pro Helvetia, the 'Arts Council' of Switzerland, is the sole institution capable of fostering authors on a truly national basis. Founded in 1939 its aim was then to protect Swiss culture and arts from outside Faschist movements. While the strengthening of Swiss culture and arts is still Pro Helvetia's foremost objective, today we believe in the communication, export and exposure of arts to other nations, cultures and languages. Therefore, the mission of Pro Helvetia is to support the presentation of culture and art and to facilitate cultural dialogue within as much as outside Switzerland. Pro Helvetia promotes exhibitions, book presentations, dance and theatre performances as well as concerts. As the head of the Literature and Humanities department of Pro Helvetia, I direct a grants scheme to support Swiss writers, translators and publishers. Each year a committee awards grants to a number of writers, enabling them to devote their full attention to a specific book project unencumbered by financial worries. Authors tend to regard these rare but comparatively high work grants as a meaningful form of support. 'This does more for literature than the disbursement of small sums to a large number or even than the awarding of prizes which are, in any case, generally won by writers who no longer need them,' observes the Secretary of the Gruppe Olten, one of Switzerland's two writers' unions.
Pro Helvetia also gives work grants to translators, whose professional contribution to advancing the cause of literature across linguistic frontiers continues to be underestimated and, above all, poorly paid. Though the only institution with a systematic, on-going commitment to the advancement of translation, it has however, only an exceedingly small budget for this purpose, and the major amount of this sum stays in the country, since far from every Swiss has mastered a second national language, let alone several of them. Across-the-board support for literary journals, whose number has swelled dramatically in recent years, has never been a feature of the Pro Helvetia's promotional policies in the literary field and would be neither financially feasible nor meaningful. We do support, however, the minority languages in Switzerland.
Pro Helvetia also supports some of the literary presses. In conjunction with a private sponsor gained as a partner for the undertaking, Pro Helvetia presents individual endowments to publishing houses. We hope that these awards will allow publishers to invest more heavily in distribution and advertising, which are, for budgetary reasons, often neglected. In this way the grants will also be instrumental in bringing literature to wider audiences.
Although Pro Helvetia currently lacks the financial means to expand its activities further, I hope our work will encourage young authors like for instance Zoë Jenny and Peter Stamm, as well as translators and publishers, to pursue the practice of literature in all its aspects with less discouragement than before.
For more information: www.pro-helvetia.ch
Erica Benz-Steffen worked for several years as a fiction, non-fiction and children's book editor. She is now head of the Literature and Humanities department of Pro Helvetia. She is responsible for promoting writers, fostering translation, building wider audiences for literature and supporting publishers.
