Turkey\'s Orhan Pamuk wins Nobel literature prize
Posted 10/12/2006 7:32 AM ET E-mail | Save | Print | Subscribe to stories like this
STOCKHOLM (AP) — Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk, who has clashed with his country\'s government and was taken to court for "insulting Turkishness," won the Nobel literature prize on Thursday for his multitude of works that deal with the symbols of clashing cultures.
The decision, which surprised few, drew a brief but intense round of applause when Horace Engdahl, head of the Swedish Academy, announced the name. Pamuk\'s novels include Snow and My Name Is Red.
The Swedish Academy said that the 54-year-old Istanbul-born Pamuk "in the quest for the melancholic soul of his native city has discovered new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures."
A Turkish court dropped charges against Pamuk in January, ending a high-profile trial that outraged Western observers and cast doubt on Turkey\'s commitment to free speech.
Pamuk went on trial for telling a Swiss newspaper in February 2005 that Turkey was unwilling to deal with two of the most painful episodes in recent Turkish history: the massacre of Armenians during World War I, which Turkey insists was not a planned genocide, and recent guerrilla fighting in Turkey\'s overwhelmingly Kurdish southeast.
"Thirty-thousand Kurds and 1 million Armenians were killed in these lands, and nobody but me dares to talk about it," he said in the interview.
The controversy came at a particularly sensitive time for the overwhelmingly Muslim country. Turkey had recently begun membership talks with the European Union, which has harshly criticized the trial, questioning Turkey\'s commitment to freedom of expression.
Pamuk has long been considered a contender for the Nobel prize and he figured high among pundits and bookmakers.
In its citation, the academy said that "Pamuk has said that growing up, he experienced a shift from a traditional Ottoman family environment to a more Western-oriented lifestyle. He wrote about this in his first published novel, a family chronicle ... which in the spirit of Thomas Mann follows the development of a family over three generations."
"Pamuk\'s international breakthrough came with his third novel, The White Castle. It is structured as an historical novel set in 17th-century Istanbul, but its content is primarily a story about how our ego builds on stories and fictions of different sorts. Personality is shown to be a variable construction," the academy said.
Engdahl said the The Black Book, was his personal favorite among Pamuk\'s works.
"He has a flowing imagination and impressive ingenuity," Engdahl told Swedish radio.
In winning the prize, Pamuk\'s already solid reputation will be boosted onto a global stage. He will also see out-of-print works returned into circulation and a sales boost. He will also receive a 10 million kronor (euro1.1 million; US$1.4 million) check, a gold medal and diploma, and an invitation to a lavish banquet in Stockholm on Dec. 10, the anniversary of the death of prize founder Alfred Nobel.
Last year\'s winner was British playwright Harold Pinter, a vociferous critic of U.S. foreign policy. That award triggered accusations that the Swedish Academy was anti-American, left-leaning and politically motivated.
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Posted 10/12/2006 7:32 AM ET
Orhan Pamuk wins 2006 Nobel prize for literature
Thu Oct 12, 2006 7:34 AM EDT
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By Sarah Edmonds and Niklas Pollard
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Orhan Pamuk, Turkey\'s best-known novelist and incendiary social commentator, won the 2006 Nobel prize for Literature on Thursday.
In its citation for the 10 million Swedish crown ($1.36 million) prize, the Swedish Academy said: "In the quest for the melancholic soul of his native city, (Pamuk) has discovered new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures."
Pamuk, who just months ago went on trial for insulting "Turkishness," was the first author in the Muslim world to condemn the fatwa against Salman Rushdie.
The Academy said his international breakthrough came with his third book, "Beyaz Kale" or "The White Castle," a historical novel about the relationship of a Venetian slave with the young scholar who buys him, and their gradual blurring of identities.
The Swedish Academy said Pamuk in his writing often plays with the notion of self and of doubles, themes that appeared again in a later work, "Kara Kitap" or "The Black Book," in which the main character searches Istanbul for his wife and her half-brother, with whom he later exchanges identities.
Pamuk, whose best-selling novels include "My Name is Red" and "Snow," focuses in his work on the clash between past and present, East and West, secularism and Islamism -- problems at the heart of Turkey\'s struggle to develop.
In January, a Turkish court dropped criminal charges against Pamuk who was charged under article 301 of a new penal code, which forbids insulting Turkish identity.
Pamuk upset nationalists by telling a Swiss newspaper last year nobody in Turkey dared mention the killing of a million Armenians during World War One or 30,000 Kurds in recent decades.
© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.
NewsTrack - Top News
Turkey\'s Pamuk wins Nobel literature prize
STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Oct. 12 (UPI) -- Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk, who writes of clashes between Islamic and Western cultures, has been selected to receive the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature.
The Swedish Academy Thursday said it selected Pamuk, 54, because "in the quest for the melancholic soul of his native city has discovered new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures."
Pamuk\'s latest book, "Snow," looks at the cultural clash of Islam and Western lifestyles in Turkey. His work has often explored the loss of identity due to cultural conflicts.
Pamuk will formally receive his Nobel Prize, including an award of about $1.4 million, in ceremonies Dec. 10 in Stockholm.
The recipient of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize is scheduled to be announced Friday in Oslo, Norway. U.S. scientists and researchers won this year\'s prizes for medicine, physics, chemistry and economics.
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发表于 2006-10-13 16:48
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