Austrian Handke, Polish Tokarczuk win first Nobel literature prizes after assault scandal – Newspaper

STOCKHOLM: Austrian writer Peter Handke won the 2019 Nobel Prize for Literature on Thursday and Polish author Olga Tokarczuk was named as the winner of 2018 after a sexual assault scandal caused last year's prize postponement.

The Swedish Academy that chooses the winner of literature said that it had recognized Handke, 76, for a work that includes novels, essays and drama "that with linguistic ingenuity has explored the periphery and specificity of the human experience."

Tokarczuk, 57, won by "a narrative imagination that with encyclopedic passion represents the crossing of borders as a way of life," he said.

Both have caused controversy: Handke for his interpretation of Serbia as a victim during the Balkan wars and for attending the funeral of his leader, and Tokarczuk for touching dark areas of Poland's past that contrast with the version of the history promoted by the party ruling nationalist of the country.

Two prizes were awarded this year after last year's prize was postponed because of a scandal that led the husband of an Academy member to be convicted of rape.

Since then, the organization has appointed new members and has reformed some of its most arcane rules after a rare intervention by its royal patron, the king of Sweden.

Academy member Anders Olsson said both Handke and Tokarczuk had accepted their awards. “I only talked to Peter Handke myself. I was very, very moved. At first he didn't say a word, ”said Olsson. He added: "It is not a political prize, it is a literary prize."

Controversies

Handke, a native of the Austrian province of Carinthia, which borders Slovenia, established himself as one of the most influential writers in Europe after World War II, the Academy said. He also co-wrote the screenplay for the acclaimed 1987 film Wings of Desire.

Author of books such as The Goalie’s Anxiety at the Penalty Kick and Slow Homecoming, attracted widespread criticism of the funeral of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic in 2006.

A perennial candidate for the most important literary prize in the world, Handke seemed to have given up the idea of ​​winning, telling the New York Times in 2006 that he no longer cared. "Now I think it's over for me after my expressions about Yugoslavia," he said in an interview with the newspaper.

Crossing borders

Tokarczuk was trained as a psychologist before publishing his first novel in 1993. Since then, he has produced a constant and varied workflow and his novel Flights won him the Man Booker International High-profile Award last year. She was the first Polish author to do so.

She wrote on Facebook: “Nobel Prize for Literature! Joy and emotion took away my speech. Thank you very much for all your congratulations! " He later told Polish TVN that he was proud that his books covering small cities in Poland can be read universally and be important to people in other parts of the world.

“I believe in the novel. I think the novel is something incredible. This is a deep form of communication, over borders, over languages, cultures. It refers to the deep similarity between people, it teaches us empathy, ”he said.

Although some episodes he has written about do not reflect the version of the story promoted by the Law and Justice of Poland, his agent said the prize should not be seen in the context of a parliamentary election that Poland will hold on Sunday.

Winning a Polish literary prize in 2015 for The Book of Jacob, which deals with Poland's relations with its Jewish minority and neighboring Ukraine, outraged the nationalists with their comments and received death threats.

Posted on Dawn, October 11, 2019