Originally posted by the Voice of America.
Voice of America content is produced by the Voice of America,
a United States federal government-sponsored entity, and is in
the public domain.


Nobel in Literature to Austrian Author Stirs Controversy

Keida Kostreci

   VOA's Dzeilana Pecanin andIvana Kostantinovic contributed to this
   report.

   Almost immediately after Polish author Olga Tokarczuk and Austria's
   Peter Handke were awarded the Nobel Literature Prize, reactions started
   to pour in, lamenting Handke's positions about war crimes in the
   Balkans.

   Handke won the 2019 prize for "an influential work that with linguistic
   ingenuity has explored the periphery and the specificity of human
   experience" while Tokarczuk won the 2018 prize "for a narrative
   imagination that with encyclopedic passion represents the crossing of
   boundaries as a form of life."

   Praise from academy

   In its motivation for Handke, the Swedish Academy says that with his
   debut novel "Die Hornissen" published in 1966 and the play
   "Publikumsbeschimpfung" ("Offending the Audience," 1969), Handke set
   his mark on the literary scene.

   "More than 50 years later, having produced a great number of works in
   different genres, 2019 Literature Laureate Peter Handke has established
   himself as one of the most influential writers in Europe after the
   Second World War," the Academy said.

   The body praised his drama, "Walk About the Villages," and the novel,
   "Repetition," saying that his writing "shows and unending quest for
   existential meaning."

   The Academy also singled out "A Sorrow Beyond Dreams," in which he
   wrote about his mother's suicide, calling it "short and harsh, but
   deeply affectionate book."

   Handke told reporters outside his home near Paris that he never thought
   they would choose him.

   "It was very courageous by the Swedish Academy, this kind of decision,"
   he added. "These are good people." The Swedish Academy is the body that
   chooses the winners for the Nobel Prize in Literature.

.