Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Nobel Prize in Literature

Don't worry, there is nothing yet I know that you don't. I mean, the names are not yet announced, but will be, and soon - the beginning of October.
But, as I read through the names of previous Winners, some thoughts struck me immediately. For instance, the first ever Nobel Prize in Literature was given to a French in 1901, Sully Prudhomme; the Norwegians have received three prizes and the Swedish - seven (the last Swede to be awarded was last year's Tomas Transtromer). Of course, it doesn't have anything to do with nationality. The Polish have received the Prize five times altogether, if one counts the Prizes for Isaac Beshevis Singer in 1978 (he was already since 1943 a US citizen) and Czeslaw Milosz in 1980 (since 1970 he was a US citizen). For several years now the Prize has raised controversies, because the winners were never the ones that everyone betted on. Perhaps except for Mario Vargas Llosa in 2010, an extremely popular author. Judging by nationalities again it seems that the possible winners this year are American (they haven't won since 1993 - Toni Morrison) or maybe Polish? We'll see. Philip Roth? Joyce Carol Oates? Amos Oz? Margaret Atwood? Or perhaps Haruki Murakami or Adam Zagajewski?






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