\u201cI\u2019m very happy, I\u2019m calm and very nervous altogether,\u201d says Hungarian author
\n STOCKHOLM
\nThe Nobel Prize in Literature was on Thursday awarded to Laszlo Krasznahorkai, considered by many as Hungary\u2019s most important living author whose works explore themes of postmodern dystopia and melancholy.
\nThe Swedish Academy honoured him \u201cfor his compelling and visionary oeuvre that, in the midst of apocalyptic terror, reaffirms the power of art.\u201d
\n\u201cI\u2019m very happy, I\u2019m calm and very nervous altogether,\u201d the author told Swedish broadcaster Sveriges Radio. \u201cIt is my first day as a Nobel prize winner,\u201d he said.
\nThe Academy highlighted Krasznahorkai\u2019s first novel published in 1985, \u201cSatantango\u201d, which brought him to prominence in Hungary and remains his best-known work. The Academy called it \u201ca literary sensation\u201d.
\nKrasznahorkai is \u201ca great epic writer in the Central European tradition that extends through Kafka to Thomas Bernhard, and is characterised by absurdism and grotesque excess,\u201d the Academy said.
\n\u201cBut there are more strings to his bow, and he also looks to the East in adopting a more contemplative, finely calibrated tone.\u201d
\n\u201cThe result is a string of works inspired by the deep-seated impressions left by his journeys to China and Japan,\u201d it said.
\nKrasznahorkai was among those mentioned as a possible winner in the run-up to the prize.
\nThe permanent secretary of the Academy, Mats Malm, said he had managed to contact the newest laureate to inform him.
\n\u201cI just reached Laszlo Krasznahorkai on the telephone on a visit in Frankfurt, where he was,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cWe have started to discuss things, about arrangements in December (for the prize ceremony in Stockholm), but not come so far yet.\u201d
\nKrasznahorkai, now 71, grew up in a middle-class Jewish family.
\nHe has drawn inspiration from his experiences under communism, and the extensive travels he undertook after first moving abroad in 1987 to West Berlin for a fellowship.
\nHis novels, short stories and essays are best known in Germany \u2014 where he lived for long periods\u2013and his native Hungary.
\nCritically difficult and demanding, his style was described once by Krasznahorkai himself as \u201creality examined to the point of madness\u201d.
\n\u2018Literary sensation\u2019
\n\u201cIt is Laszlo Krasznahorkai\u2019s artistic gaze, which is entirely free of illusion and which sees through the fragility of the social order, combined with his unwavering belief in the power of art that has motivated the Academy to award him this prize,\u201d Academy member Steve Sem-Sandberg said.
\nHe is the second Hungarian to win the prize, after the late Imre Kertesz won it in 2002.
\nLast year, the award went to South Korean author Han Kang, the first Asian woman to win the Nobel.
\nThe Academy has long been criticised for the overrepresentation of Western white men among its picks.
\nWomen are vastly under-represented among its laureates\u2013just 18 out of 122 since it was first awarded in 1901.
\nThe Swedish Academy has undergone major reforms since a devastating #MeToo scandal in 2018, vowing a more global and gender-equal literature prize.
\nThe Nobel Prize comes with a diploma, a gold medal and a $1.2 million prize sum.
\nKrasznahorkai will receive the award from King Carl XVI Gustaf in Stockholm on December 10, the anniversary of the 1896 death of scientist and prize creator Alfred Nobel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cI\u2019m very happy, I\u2019m calm and very nervous altogether,\u201d says Hungarian author STOCKHOLM The Nobel Prize in Literature was on Thursday awarded to Laszlo Krasznahorkai, considered by many as Hungary\u2019s most important living author whose works explore themes of postmodern dystopia and melancholy. The Swedish Academy honoured him \u201cfor his compelling and visionary oeuvre that, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":507759,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-507734","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n