2005 NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE TODAY BEFORE 1100 GMT
EiTB, Spain
Oct 13 2005
Still, Swedish media was buzzing with names like Adonis, whose real
name is Ali Ahmad Said, who fled Lebanon in the 1980s and now lives
in Paris.
A row over last year’s winner has done nothing to stifle rampant
speculation about who may win the 2005 Nobel Prize in literature with
late buzz leaning toward Syrian poet Adonis or controversial Turkish
writer Orhan Pamuk.
But trying to divine who the winner may be is a futile undertaking.
The Swedish Academy will not even say who it has considered, much
less who was nominated.
Contenders
Still, Swedish media was buzzing with names like Adonis, whose real
name is Ali Ahmad Said, who fled Lebanon in the 1980s and now lives
in Paris. Betting Web site Ladbrokes even gave him the best odds,
7-4, just ahead of Americans Joyce Carol Oates (7-1) and Philip Roth,
and Swedish poet Thomas Transtromer (both 9-1).
Pamuk, who faces prison after he was charged with insulting Turkish
identity for supporting Armenian claims that they were the victims
of genocide under the Ottoman Turks in 1915, could be tapped, too,
pundits and papers said, citing only their own speculation and
educated guesses.
Other contenders include South Korean poet Ko Un, Canadian author
Margaret Atwood, the Czech Republic’s Milan Kundera, Belgian poet Hugo
Claus, Italian poet Claudio Magris and Indonesian novelist Pramoedya
Ananta Toer.
Others, however, said the academy could look inward, citing Transtromer
and Danish poet Inger Christiansen.
Margaretha Fahlgren, a literary professor at Uppsala University,
said Transtromer, a perennial favourite, would bring the prize back
home to Sweden.
Imaginative literature of fiction
The last time Swedes won was in 1974 when Eyvind Johnson and Harry
Martinson shared the prize. But she was sure the academy would not
look to non-fiction as a possible winner, as some pundits have claimed.
“I believe the prize will be for work of imaginative literature, of
fiction,” Fahlgren told The Associated Press. Whatever the academy
decides, it will likely have two immediate consequences: increased
book sales and controversy.
Last year’s winner, Austrian feminist Elfriede Jelinek, drew such
ire that a member of the academy publicly blasted his colleagues for
picking her.
Knut Ahnlund, 82, who has not played an active role in the academy
since 1996, resigned Tuesday after he wrote in a signed newspaper
article that picking Jelinek had caused “irreparable damage” to the
award’s reputation.
The academy, founded in 1786 by King Gustav III to advance the Swedish
language and its literature, has handed out the literature prize since
1901. Its current members, who serve for life, include several writers
as well as linguists, literary scholars, historians and a lawyer.
If a candidate receives more than half of the votes, the winner is
picked and announced on a Thursday in October.