介绍:
Since 1901, the Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded annually to an author from any country who has, in the words of the will of Alfred Nobel, produced "in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction" Though individual works are sometimes cited as being particularly noteworthy, here "work" refers to an author's work as a whole. The Swedish Academy decides who, if anyone, will receive the prize in any given year. The academy announces the name of the chosen laureate in early October.It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895.Here comes some brief introductions of several prize owners.(张源)
Firstly,the newly announced prize owner for this year
Svetlana Alexievich ,born 31 May 1948,is a Belarusian investigative journalist and non-fiction prose writer, writing in Russian. She was awarded the 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature "for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time".She is the first writer from Belarus to receive the award.She has also been described as the first journalist to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Born in the west Ukrainian town of Stanislaviv ,Alexievich grew up in Belarus. After finishing school she worked as a reporter in several local newspapers before graduating from Belarusian State University (1972) and becoming a correspondent for the literary magazine Neman in Minsk (1976).
She went on to a career in journalism and writing narratives from interviews with witnesses to the most dramatic events in the country, such as World War II, the Soviet–Afghan War, the fall of the Soviet Union, and the Chernobyl disaster. After political persecution by the Lukashenko administration,she left Belarus in 2000.The International Cities of Refuge Network offered her sanctuary and during the following decade she lived in Paris, Gothenburg and Berlin. In 2011, Alexievich moved back to Minsk.(耀华)
Her books are described as a literary chronicle of the emotional history of the Soviet and post-Soviet individual, as told by means of a carefully constructed collage of interviews.According to a Russian writer and critic,her books owe much to the ideas of Belarusian writer Ales Adamovich, who felt that the best way to describe the horrors of the 20th century was not by creating fiction but through recording the testimonies of witnesses.Alexievich admitted the influence of Adamovich and added, among others, Belarusian writer Vasil Bykaŭ as another source of impact on her.Her most notable works in English translation ,like War's Unwomanly Face,include a collection of first-hand accounts from the war in Afghanistan and a highly praised oral history of the Chernobyl disaster .Alexievich describes the theme of her works this way:
If you look back at the whole of our history, both Soviet and post-Soviet, it is a huge common grave and a blood bath. An eternal dialog of the executioners and the victims. The accursed Russian questions: what is to be done and who is to blame. The revolution, the gulags, the Second World War, the Soviet–Afghan war hidden from the people, the downfall of the great empire, the downfall of the giant socialist land, the land-utopia, and now a challenge of cosmic dimensions – Chernobyl. This is a challenge for all the living things on earth. Such is our history. And this is the theme of my books, this is my path, my circles of hell, from man to man.(欣艺)
Here comes the first Chinese Nobel prize owner in history.
Guan Moye ,better known by the pen name Mo Yan is a Chinese novelist and short story writer.In 2012, Mo was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for his work as a writer "who with hallucinatory realism merges folk tales, history and the contemporary".
Mo Yan was born in 1955, in Gaomi County in Shandong province to a family of farmers.During his early years,which coincided with a succession of political campaigns from the Great Leap Forward to the Cultural Revolution, his access to literature was largely limited to novels in the socialist realist style,which centered largely on the themes of class struggle and conflict.
At the close of the Cultural Revolution in 1976, Mo enlisted in the People's Liberation Armyand began writing while he was still a soldier. In 1984, he received a literary award from the PLA Magazine, and the same year began attending the People's Liberation Army Arts College, where he first adopted the pen name of Mo Yan.He published his first novella, A Transparent Radish, in 1984, and released Red Sorghum in 1986, launching his career as a nationally recognized novelist.In 1991, he obtained a master's degree in Literature from Beijing Normal University.
Mo Yan's works are epic historical novels characterized by hallucinatory realism and containing elements of black humor.A major theme in Mo Yan's works is the constancy of human greed and corruption, despite the influence of ideology.His writing is characterised by the blurring of distinctions between "past and present, dead and living, as well as good and bad".His works are predominantly social commentary, and he is strongly influenced by the social realism of Lu Xun and the magical realism of García Márquez.
Mo Yan, who himself reads foreign authors in translation, strongly advocates the reading of world literature，stating that "literature can overcome the barriers that separate countries and nations".(王蓝)
The next one has always been described as the least controversial prize-winning author.
Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez (/ɡɑrˈsiːə ˈmɑrkɛs/)6 March 1927 – 17 April 2014) was a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist.Considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th century and one of the best in Spanish language, he was awarded the 1982 Nobel Prize in Literature.He pursued a self-directed education that resulted in his leaving law school for a career in journalism. From early on, he showed no inhibitions in his criticism of Colombian and foreign politics.
García Márquez started as a journalist, and wrote many acclaimed non-fiction works and short stories, but is best known for his novels, such as One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967), The Autumn of the Patriarch (1975), and Love in the Time of Cholera (1985). His works have achieved significant critical acclaim and widespread commercial success, most notably for popularizing a literary style labeled as magic realism, which uses magical elements and events in otherwise ordinary and realistic situations. Some of his works are set in a fictional village called Macondo (the town mainly inspired by his birthplace Aracataca), and most of them explore the theme of solitude.
On his death in April 2014, Juan Manuel Santos, the President of Colombia, described him as "the greatest Colombian who ever lived."(张源)
This author actually hasn't been a prize winner so far,but maybe he is the one that is closest to the Noble Prize.
Haruki Murakami (born January 12, 1949) is a contemporary Japanese writer. His books and stories have been bestsellers in Japan as well as internationally, with his work being translated into 50 languagesand selling millions of copies outside his native country.
Murakami's fiction, still criticized by Japan's literary establishment as un-Japanese, was influenced by Western writers from Chandler to Vonnegut by way of Brautigan. It is frequently surrealistic and melancholic or fatalistic, marked by a Kafkaesque rendition of the "recurrent themes of alienation and loneliness"he weaves into his narratives. He is also considered an important figure in postmodern literature. Steven Poole of The Guardianpraised Murakami as "among the world's greatest living novelists" for his works and achievements.His well known works include Norwegian Wood,Dance Dance Dance,1Q84 and so on.
In recent years, Haruki Murakami has often been mentioned as a possible recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature.Nonetheless, since all nomination records are sealed for 50 years from the awarding of the prize, it is pure speculation.When asked about the possibility of being awarded the Nobel Prize, Murakami responded with a laugh saying "No, I don't want prizes. That means you're finished."(梦玲)
