The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

The Nobel Prize for literature to Peter Handke arouses outrage; they call him a "denier of genocide"

2019-10-11T13:02:27.835Z


The decision to give the Austrian writer Peter Handke a Nobel Prize for Literature has caused widespread outrage, and critics described it as "shameful" that the prem ...


  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in a new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in a new window)
  • Click here to share on LinkedIn (Opens in a new window)
  • Click to email a friend (Opens in a new window)

(CNN) - The decision to grant Austrian writer Peter Handke a Nobel Prize for Literature has caused widespread outrage, and critics described it as "shameful" that the prize has been awarded to a "denier of genocide."

Handke, who was born in 1942, has long been a controversial figure, drawing criticism for his open positions in the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s and for his close ties to former Serbian leader Slobodan Milošević, who was charged with crimes of War associated with the conflict. He delivered a speech at Milošević's funeral in 2006.

LOOK: Abiy Ahmed, from Ethiopia, is the Nobel Peace Prize this year. And these are the reasons

Handke won the Nobel Prize "for an influential work that with linguistic ingenuity that has explored the periphery and specificity of the human experience", according to the Swedish Academy, the cultural institution responsible for granting it.

Kosovo's ambassador to the United States, Vlora Çitaku, tweeted that the award was a "scandalous decision," adding that "the genocide deniers and Milošević apologists should not be celebrated."

“Have we become so insensitive to racism, so emotionally insensitive to violence, so comfortable with appeasement that we can ignore the affiliation and service to the twisted agenda of a genocidal maniac?” He added. "We should not support or normalize those who throw hate."

Meanwhile, Albania's acting Foreign Minister Gent Cakaj said the decision was an "ignorable and shameful act."

"As a passionate believer in the eternal beauty and power of literature to enrich the human experience and as a victim of ethnic cleansing and genocide, I am horrified by the decision," Cakaj tweeted.

MIRA: The 2018 and 2019 Nobel Prize winners are Olga Tokarczuk and Peter Handke

In a statement published by PEN America, the organization that promotes freedom of literary expression said it was "stunned" by the decision to honor a writer "who has used his public voice to undermine historical truth and offer public help to the perpetrators of genocide. "

“In a time of growing nationalism, autocratic leadership and widespread misinformation throughout the world, the literary community deserves better than this. We deeply regret the election of the Nobel Literature Committee. ”

CNN has contacted the Swedish Academy to comment. The Nobel Foundation told CNN that "it never comments on the independent elections of the institutions that award the prize."

Speaking after learning of his victory, Handke said he was "amazed."

"It was very brave on the part of the Swedish Academy, this kind of decision," he told reporters, according to Reuters. "I feel a strange kind of freedom, I don't know, a freedom, which is not the truth, as if I were innocent."

The Austrian writer received the literary prize at the same time that the Polish author Olga Tokarczuk was recognized for the 2018 prize, which was postponed last year following a sexual and financial scandal that enveloped the academy.

Handke's debut novel "Die Hornissen" ("The Hornets") was published in 1966, and his 1970s "Die Angst des Tormanns beim Elfmeter" ("The Goalkeeper's Fear of Penalty") became a film by famous German director Wim Wenders.

Genocide Nobel of Literature

Source: cnnespanol

All news articles on 2019-10-11

You may like

Trends 24h

News/Politics 2024-03-27T16:45:54.081Z
News/Politics 2024-03-28T06:04:53.137Z

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.