സാഹിത്യ നൊബേല് പാട്രിക്
മൊദിയാനോയ്ക്ക്
The
Nobel Prize in Literature for 2014 is awarded to the French author Patrick
Modiano
Prior
to the announcement, speculation as to the next Nobel laureate in literature
was rampant. Bettors at U.K. bookmakers Ladbrokes favored Kenyan
poet Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o and Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami, who had surged to
the front of the pack in recent days. Murakami had frequently been fingered as
a possible Nobel laureate in previous years, including in 2013, when he led the odds, only to lose out to Alice Munro.
Other favorites familiar to U.S. readers included Philip Roth,
Joyce Carol Oates and Thomas Pynchon -- novelists celebrated by the American
literary establishment but thus far without Nobel Prizes -- as well as
singer-songwriter Bob Dylan.
Oddsmakers
also favored writers
less familiar to the general U.S. audience, including Svetlana Alexievich of
Belarus, Austrian novelist Peter Handke, and Syrian poet Adonis.
Though betting was hot and heavy at Ladbrokes, there’s little
data behind Nobel odds. There’s no Nobel longlist or shortlist announced. Even
the nominees are kept secret by the Nobel organization.
The
Nobel Prize in Literature has been the subject of considerable controversy over
the years. The prize has been criticized for skipping over seminal authors such as Vladimir Nabokov, James Joyce,
Virginia Woolf and Leo Tolstoy, while being bestowed upon other authors who
have since languished in apparent obscurity.
Some, such as Philip Roth, have suggested that the Academy
relies too heavily on non-literary criteria, such as the perceived social
justice value of the author’s work. In 2011, Per Wästberg, the chairman of the
committee for literature, responded to this charge: “We do not have a human
rights criterion," he insisted. "We award, for example, Orhan Pamuk
for his outstanding novels and essays; then the award becomes politically
interpreted.”
The sheer scope of the Nobel Prize presents an obvious
challenge; with literature from across the globe open for consideration, it
would be difficult for the Academy to recognize each highly acclaimed author
from each literary tradition around the world. This breadth of consideration,
as well as the relative opacity of the process, keeps critics and oddsmakers
guessing each year as to what direction the Academy might take.
Prof. John Kurakar
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