- Nobel Prize for Literature might be the worlds most prestigious literary award, but it certainly is the most subjective, politically motivated and Eurocentric one. Over the course of time, the Nobel Academy has snubbed literary giants in favor of relatively unknown writers whove had the fortune of either being European or on the right side of the political spectrum. It is evident when writers like James Joyce, Phillip Roth, Emile Zola and Thomas Pynchon are ignored in favor of people like Winston Churchill, JMG Le Clezio and Herta Muller. It is evident when a literary genius like Jorge Luis Borges is denied the prize because of his political views but Boris Pasternak is awarded one, mainly because he was a Soviet dissident. One should ask this question; would Imre Kertesz have won the prize if he wasnt a Holocaust survivor? If Tomas Transtromer was a Pakistani and Faiz Ahmed Faiz a Swede, would Faiz have been the one to achieve Nobel fame (instead of Transtromer)? I havent read Modiano, and he might be a terrific writer, but objectively, if he was to look in a mirror today; would he be able to say with absolute conviction that he deserved the Nobel Prize more than Phillip Roth or Ismail Kadare? I guess not.
Posted on: Thu, 09 Oct 2014 17:15:08 +0000
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