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Kenya’s hope to have one of its sons named as this year’s Nobel Prize winner has been dimmed by the grand announcement a few minutes ago.
According to Al-Jazeera, this year’s Nobel literature prizes have been won by Olga Tokarczuk and Handke Peter.
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The Polish author Olga Tokarczuk and the Australian writer Peter Handke could not hold back their joy after they were announced as this year’s winners.
Olga Tokarczuk was announced winner of last year’s award while the 2019 award was awarded to Handke.
The winners were announced today by Mats Malm, the Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy, at a news conference in Stockholm.
Tokarczuk is 57 years old while Handke is 76.
Each will receive nine million kroner ($ 908, 000) and a gold medal on 10th September 2019.
The crowning ceremony will be held in Stockholm and the winners are expected to avail themselves.
GREAT IMAGINATION
The Swedish Academy hailed Tokarczuk for her “narrative imagination and encyclopedic passion that represents the crossing of boundaries as a form of life.”
Tokarczuk was born in Sulechow in Western Poland. Many consider her a literary guru in the world of international literature.
she won the Man Booker International Prize in 2018.
Her award-winning novel “Flights” brought honour to the Polish for she was the first to win the award.
According to the Academy, Tokarczuk is a gifted author who creates her novels in such a way that they depict the tension between cultural opposites, reason versus madness, home versus alienation etc.
Her novel entitled “The Books of Jacob” has received the accolade. Critics have recognized it as a masterpiece.
The novel is a historical tale based on a controversial polish author and a religious leader, Jacob Frank.
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It is currently being translated into English and other languages.
CONTROVERSIAL
Handke, on the other hand, has been hailed for his ingenuity in exploring the overlooked and less important aspects of human life.
His debut play greatly offended the audience in the year 1966.
The four characters involved in the play discussed the nature of drama for an hour while praising and abusing the audience.
Handke in his novels focuses on characters in their various extreme states of mind.
His best novel is “The Goalie’s Anxiety at the Penalty Kick.”
The novel recounts the story of a former footballer who anxiously waits for his arrest after he commits murder.
Being a controversial figure, Handke’s politics threatened to render his efforts futile in the year 2006 after he publicly declared his ardent support for the former Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic.
President Slobodan Milosevic died in 2006 while being tried for genocide and war crimes.
Handke declared his support during the President’s funeral and turned down the prestigious 2006 Heinrick Hein Prize that had been awarded to him.
He was born to a Slovene mother in Soviet-occupied Berlin.
LOST GLORY
At least one woman was expected to win the Nobel Prize this year if the Swedish Academy is to regain its lost glory.
This is because of the chaos that erupted within the Academy in November 2017 after allegations of sexual assault were levelled against Katarina Frosten’s husband by 18 women.
This scandal painted the 233-year-old Academy in bad light.
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