Nobel literature prize judge: American authors 'insular and ignorant' American authors are too "insular and ignorant" to compete with their European counterparts, according to a member of the Nobel judging panel.
By Aislinn Simpson Last Updated: 8:16AM BST 02 Oct 2008 [image: American author Philip Roth] American author Philip Roth, whose chances of winning the Nobel literature prize are now thought to be slim Photo: AP As the Swedish Academy enters final deliberations for this year's literature award, permanent secretary Horace Engdahl said that writers from the country that produced Philip Roth, John Updike, Ernest Hemingway and F Scott Fitzgerald were "too sensitive to trends in their own mass culture," dragging down the quality of their work. "Of course there is powerful literature in all big cultures, but you can't get away from the fact that Europe still is the centre of the literary world, not the United States," he said. "The US is too isolated, too insular. They don't translate enough and don't really participate in the big dialogue of literature. That ignorance is restraining." Although Mr Engdahl insisted later he had been misunderstood by the Associated Press, with whom he conducted the interview, the chances of the two American authors, Philip Roth and Joyce Carol Oates, thought to be on this year's secret five-person shortlist now look slim. His comments were met with outrage among figures in the US industry that published more than 50,000 works of fiction last year. Harold Augenbraum, executive director of US National Book Foundation said: "Put him in touch with me, and I'll send him a reading list. "Such a comment makes me think that Mr Engdahl has read little of American literature outside the mainstream and has a very narrow view of what constitutes literature in this age." But David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker magazine, said they came as little surprise since the 16-member Nobel award jury had historically overlooked some of the world's best authors. "You would think that the permanent secretary of an academy that pretends to wisdom but has historically overlooked Proust, Joyce, and Nabokov, to name just a few non-Nobelists, would spare us the categorical lectures," he said. "And if he looked harder at the American scene that he dwells on, he would see the vitality in the generation of Roth, Updike, and DeLillo, as well as in many younger writers, some of them sons and daughters of immigrants writing in their adopted English. None of these poor souls, old or young, seem ravaged by the horrors of Coca-Cola." However, his criticism was given some backing by a French publishing magnate, who declined to be named. "It is true that American publishers rarely buy books in translation from foreign languages. That is to America's shame and also its loss," he said. "But that does not mean all American contemporary literature is parochial or ignorant. "Yes, it sometimes seems that the typical American novel is about a writer who has six friends who also happen to be writers. But there are also excellent modern American authors." The last American to win the Nobel prize was Toni Morrison, the author of The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon, and Beloved, in 1993 before Mr Engdahl took charge. As permanent secretary, he is a voting member of and spokesman for the secretive panel that selects the winners of what many consider the most prestigious award in literature. The academy often picks obscure writers and hardly ever selects best-selling authors. It regularly faces accusations of snobbery, political bias and even poor taste. Since Japanese writer Kenzaburo Oe won the award in 1994, the selections have had a distinctly European flavour. Nine of the subsequent laureates were Europeans, including last year's winner, Briton Doris Lessing, who wrote The Grass is Singing and The Golden Notebook. Of the other four, one was from Turkey and the others from South Africa, China and Trinidad. All had strong ties to Europe. Mr Engdahl said Europe draws literary exiles because it "respects the independence of literature" and can serve as a safe haven. "Very many authors who have their roots in other countries work in Europe, because it is only here where you can be left alone and write, without being beaten to death," he said. "It is dangerous to be an author in big parts of Asia and Africa." But he insisted that his views on national prose had no bearing on the panel's decision, which is expected to be announced in the coming weeks. "The Nobel prize is not a contest between nations but an award to individual authors," he said. The eventual winner of the prize will receive a one million euro purse, a gold medal and a diploma. The awards are handed out December 10, the anniversary of prize founder Alfred Nobel's death in 1896. -- My new videos on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2TwYYCgUb8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONxCgc0tXQU --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "English Learner's Cafe" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/english_learners?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
