07:25
Who is Abdulrajaq Gurnah?
The Tanzanian novelist was born in Zanzibar in 1948, and has since lived in the UK and Nigeria
He writes in English, and his best-known novel is Paradise, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1994.
Gurnaah currently resides in the UK and teaches English Literature at the University of Kanto
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07:13
NS Nobel Prize in Literature Novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah has been awarded “for his uncompromising and compassionate entry into the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents”.
Gurna, who grew up on the island of Zanzibar but arrived in England as a refugee in the 1960s, has published ten novels as well as several short stories. The Nobel Committee stated that “the theme of refugee’s disruption runs throughout his work”.
Read the whole story here:
06:43
A closer study of the odds shows that Richard OsmanFresh from topping the book charts in the UK with his latest slice of casual crime, winning this year’s Nobel Prize for Literature is on 43/1, while Stephen King And JK Rowling Both are on 41/1. Patti Smith And Joni Mitchell, possibly riding Bob DylanKotel, the winner of the K, is on 35/1. Personally, I’d love to see what happens if it turns out to be mysterious elena ferrante, which is at 25/1.
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06:43
Naturally, we can’t blog the Nobel Prize live without sharing this video of 2007 winner Doris Lessing. It never fails to make us laugh.
06:40
let’s take a moment To note Olsson’s response to Shepherd’s questions about Peter Handke’s controversial win. This option was widely criticized over Handke’s support of the genocidal Serbian regime of Slobodan Milosevic; Olsson found the criticism “a bit shocking as it was unrelated to his literary merit as a writer”, but was reminiscent of “proud” of a choice he called “certainly … our best choices in the history of the award.” I’m not sure about that, but I’m happy with Handke’s description of him as a “political nerd.”
Here’s the context: “What was particularly shocking to us was that we did not receive any criticism for the award to Pinter, for example. Harold Pinter was a man who was far more outspoken and radical in a political sense than Handke Handke is a political idiot, you might say. His stance on politics is not as radical or conscious as that of Pinter.”
06:39
Shepherd also has an interview with the chairman of the Nobel Prize committee, Anders Olsson, who tells him that “we feel we no longer have a crisis” and “we have found stability in our work at the Academy”. it is like this 2018 award cancellation after allegations of sexual misconduct, financial misconduct and repeated leaks. Allegations of sexual assault were leveled against Jean-Claude Arnault, the husband of Academy member Katarina Frostenson; Arnault was later guilty of rape, and Frostensen left the 18-strong Swedish Academy along with a few other members.
Are there any clues to be gained from Olson’s answers? I am curious by his remarks that “it is very important for us right now to expand and expand our horizons”, and that while “literary merit” is the “absolute and only criterion” for us within the Academy, he feels that “we What can be done is to broaden one’s orientation to literature”.
Asked about the prestige of the prize for Eurocentrism and the lack of female winners – only 16 of the 117 winners have won the Nobel – Olsson acknowledged that it was “very Eurocentric in the first half of the 20th century, and very Fewer women won”. But he pointed to “considerable changes” in recent years, and revealed that from January, international experts “will give us reports from the areas of language. [where] We don’t have the capability deep within the academy – Asian and African, languages we don’t control but want”.
“It will be a very interesting change, and it will expand our knowledge and our orientation in world literature,” he said. I feel like this is something the Academy should have already done – but let’s see what changes it brings.
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