Nobel Prize

Naguib Mahfouz – The Son of Two Civilizations by Anders Hallengren This article was published on 16 October 2003. “I am the son of two civilizations that at a certain age in history have formed a happy marriage. The first of these, seven thousand years old, is the Pharaonic civilization; the second, one thousand four…

Harry Martinson: Catching the dewdrop, reflecting the cosmos by Ulf Larsson Introduction In October 1974 it was announced that the Nobel Prize in Literature for that year had been awarded to and . In the pages of several Swedish newspapers, the announcement provoked indignant reactions. The Swedish Academy had awarded the Prize to two of…

Nadine Gordimer and the South African Experience by Per Wästberg This article was published on 26 April 2001. Warrior of the Imagination Nadine Gordimer, born in 1923 and, in ‘s words, one of “the guerrillas of the imagination,” became the first South African and the seventh woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature…

A domestication of death: The poetic universe of Wisława Szymborska by Malgorzata Anna Packalén This article was published on 26 February 2004. Strong relativism and openness are well known to be important dimensions in the temporal sphere at the basis of ‘s poetry. The way in which she links the past with the present, the…

Patrick White – Existential explorer by Karin Hansson This article was published on 29 August 2001. Nobel Prize When Patrick White was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1973, the Swedish Academy’s commendation referred to the author’s epic and psychological narrative art as having introduced a new continent into literature. This standpoint may seem…

A single, homeless, circling satellite: Derek Walcott, 1992 Nobel Prize laureate in literature by Jöran Mjöberg This article was published on 26 June 2001. Background and youth Black and white ancestry Derek Walcott was born in 1930 on St. Lucia, an island then belonging to the British Empire, but which became independent in 1979. St.…