1933, Ivan Alekseevich Bunin
Bunin was the first Russian writer to receive such a high award - the Nobel Prize for Literature. This happened in 1933, when Bunin had been living in exile in Paris for several years. The prize was awarded to Ivan Bunin "for the strict skill with which he develops the traditions of Russian classical prose." It was about the largest work of the writer - the novel "Life of Arseniev".
Accepting the award, Ivan Alekseevich said that he was the first exile to be awarded the Nobel Prize. Together with the diploma, Bunin received a check for 715 thousand French francs. With Nobel money, he could live comfortably until the end of his days. But they quickly ended. Bunin spent them very lightly, generously distributing them to his fellow immigrants in need. He invested a part in the business, which, as the "well-wishers" promised him, was a win-win, and went bankrupt.
It was after receiving the Nobel Prize that Bunin's all-Russian fame grew into worldwide fame. Every Russian in Paris, even those who have not yet read a single line of this writer, took it as a personal holiday.
1958, Boris Leonidovich Pasternak
For Pasternak, this high award and recognition turned into a real persecution in his homeland.
Boris Pasternak was nominated for the Nobel Prize more than once - from 1946 to 1950. And in October 1958 he was awarded this award. This happened just after the publication of his novel Doctor Zhivago. The prize was awarded to Pasternak "for significant achievements in contemporary lyric poetry, as well as for the continuation of the traditions of the great Russian epic novel."
Immediately after receiving the telegram from the Swedish Academy, Pasternak replied "extremely grateful, touched and proud, amazed and confused." But after it became known that he had been awarded the prize, the newspapers Pravda and Literaturnaya Gazeta attacked the poet with indignant articles, awarding him with the epithets “traitor”, “slanderer”, “Judas”. Pasternak was expelled from the Writers' Union and forced to refuse the award. And in his second letter to Stockholm, he wrote: “Due to the importance that the award given to me received in the society to which I belong, I must refuse it. Do not consider my voluntary refusal to be an insult. "
Boris Pasternak's Nobel Prize was awarded to his son 31 years later. In 1989, the permanent secretary of the academy, Professor Store Allen, read both telegrams sent by Pasternak on October 23 and 29, 1958, and said that the Swedish Academy had recognized Pasternak's refusal from the prize as forced and, after thirty-one years, was presenting his medal to his son, regretting that the laureate is no longer alive.
1965, Mikhail Alexandrovich Sholokhov
Mikhail Sholokhov was the only Soviet writer to receive the Nobel Prize with the consent of the USSR leadership. Back in 1958, when a delegation from the USSR Writers' Union visited Sweden and learned that the names of Pasternak and Shokholov were named among those nominated for the prize, a telegram sent to the Soviet ambassador in Sweden said: “It would be desirable through cultural workers close to us to give understand to the Swedish public that the Soviet Union would have highly appreciated the award of the Nobel Prize to Sholokhov. " But then the award was given to Boris Pasternak. Sholokhov received it in 1965 - "for the artistic power and integrity of the epic about the Don Cossacks at a crucial time for Russia." By this time, his famous "Quiet Don" had already been released.
1970, Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn
Alexander Solzhenitsyn became the fourth Russian writer to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature - in 1970 "for the moral strength with which he followed the immutable traditions of Russian literature." By this time, such outstanding works of Solzhenitsyn as "Cancer Ward" and "In the First Circle" had already been written. Upon learning of the award, the writer said that he intends to receive the award "in person, on the set date." But after the announcement of the award, the persecution of the writer in his homeland gained full force. The Soviet government considered the decision of the Nobel Committee "politically hostile". Therefore, the writer was afraid to go to Sweden to receive the award. He accepted it with gratitude, but did not participate in the award ceremony. Solzhenitsyn received his diploma only four years later - in 1974, when he was exiled from the USSR to the Federal Republic of Germany.
The wife of the writer Natalya Solzhenitsyn is still confident that the Nobel Prize saved her husband's life and made it possible to write. She noted that if he had published The Gulag Archipelago, without being a Nobel Prize winner, he would have been killed. Incidentally, Solzhenitsyn was the only winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature who had only eight years from the first publication to the award.
1987, Joseph Alexandrovich Brodsky
Joseph Brodsky became the fifth Russian writer to receive the Nobel Prize. It happened in 1987, at the same time his large book of poems, Urania, was published. But Brodsky received the award not as a Soviet, but as an American citizen who had lived in the United States for a long time. The Nobel Prize was awarded to him "for an all-encompassing creativity, imbued with clarity of thought and poetic intensity." Receiving the award in his speech, Joseph Brodsky said: “For a private person and this particular person, he has preferred any public role all his life, for a person who has gone rather far in this preference - and in particular from his homeland, for it is better to be the last loser in democracy than a martyr or a ruler of thoughts in despotism - to suddenly appear on this platform is a great awkwardness and a test. "
Note that after Brodsky was awarded the Nobel Prize, and this event just happened during the beginning of perestroika in the USSR, his poems and essays began to be actively published in his homeland.
What is a Nobel Prize?
Since 1901, the Nobel Prize in Literature (Swedish: Nobelpriset i litteratur) has been awarded annually to an author from any country who, according to the testament of Alfred Nobel, has created "the most outstanding literary work of idealistic orientation" (Swedish source: den som inom litteraturen harrat produce det mest framstående verket i en idealisk riktning). While individual works are sometimes noted as particularly noteworthy, “work” here refers to the author's entire legacy. The Swedish Academy decides every year who will receive the prize, if any at all. The Academy announces the name of the selected laureate in early October. The Nobel Prize for Literature is one of five established by Alfred Nobel in his will in 1895. Other prizes: Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Nobel Prize in Physics, Nobel Peace Prize, and Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Despite the fact that the Nobel Prize in Literature has become the most prestigious literary prize in the world, the Swedish Academy has received significant criticism for the award's order. Many of the award-winning authors have retired from writing, while others who have been denied awards by the jury remain widely studied and read. The prize "came to be widely regarded as a political prize - a peace prize in literary guise." The judges are biased towards authors with political views that differ from their own. Tim Parks remarked skeptically that "Swedish professors ... allow themselves to compare a poet from Indonesia, possibly translated into English, to a novelist from Cameroon, whose work is probably only available in French, and another who writes in Afrikaans. but published in German and Dutch ... ". As of 2016, 16 of the 113 laureates were of Scandinavian descent. The Academy has often been accused of preferring European, and in particular Swedish, authors. Some notable personalities, such as the Indian academician Sabari Mitra, have noted that while the Nobel Prize for Literature is significant and tends to overshadow other awards, it "is not the only benchmark for literary excellence."
The "vague" wording that Nobel gave to the criteria for evaluating the award, leads to ongoing controversy. The original Swedish word for idealisk is translated as either "idealistic" or "ideal". The interpretation of the Nobel Committee has changed over the years. IN last years I mean a kind of idealism in advocating for human rights on a large scale.
History of the Nobel Prize
Alfred Nobel stipulated in his will that his money should be used to establish a number of awards for those who bring "the greatest benefit to humanity" in the fields of physics, chemistry, peace, physiology or medicine, and literature. Although Nobel wrote several wills during of his life, the latter was written a little more than a year before his death, and signed at the Swedish-Norwegian Club in Paris on November 27, 1895. Nobel bequeathed 94% of his total assets, that is, 31 million SEK (198 million US dollars, or 176 million euros as of 2016), for the establishment and presentation of five Nobel Prizes.Due to the high level of skepticism surrounding his will, it was not enacted until April 26, 1897, when the Storting (Norwegian parliament) approved it. his wills were Ragnar Sulman and Rudolf Liljekvist, who established the Nobel Foundation to take care of the Nobel state and organize prizes.
The members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, who were to award the Peace Prize, were appointed shortly after the will was approved. They were followed by the awarding organizations: the Karolinska Institute on June 7, the Swedish Academy on June 9, and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences on June 11. Then the Nobel Foundation agreed on the basic principles according to which the Nobel Prize should be awarded. In 1900, King Oscar II promulgated the newly established statutes of the Nobel Foundation. According to Nobel's will, the Royal Swedish Academy was to award the prize in the field of literature.
Candidates for the Nobel Prize in Literature
Every year, the Swedish Academy sends out requests for nominations for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Members of the Academy, members of literary academies and communities, professors of literature and language, former Nobel laureates in literature, and presidents of writers' organizations all have the right to nominate a candidate. You are not allowed to nominate yourself.
Thousands of requests are sent each year, and as of 2011, about 220 offers have been rejected. These proposals must be received at the Academy by February 1, after which they are considered by the Nobel Committee. Until April, the Academy is reducing the number of candidates to about twenty. By May, the Committee approves the final list of five names. The next four months are spent reading and reviewing the work of these five candidates. In October, the members of the Academy vote and the candidate with more than half of the votes is declared the Nobel Prize Laureate in Literature. No one can receive an award without being on the list for at least twice, thus many of the authors are reviewed repeatedly over the course of several years. The academy is fluent in thirteen languages, however, if a shortlisted candidate is working in an unfamiliar language, they hire sworn translators and experts to provide samples of that writer’s work. The rest of the process is the same as for other Nobel Prizes.
The size of the Nobel Prize
The laureate of the Nobel Prize in Literature receives a gold medal, a diploma with a quote, and a sum of money. The amount of the prize awarded depends on the income of the Nobel Foundation this year. If the prize is awarded to more than one laureate, the money is either divided in half between them, or, if there are three laureates, it is divided in half, and the other half by two quarters of the amount. If the prize is awarded jointly to two or more laureates, the money is split between them.
The Nobel Prize prize fund has fluctuated since its inception, but as of 2012 it stood at 8,000,000 kroons (about 1,100,000 US dollars), up from 10,000,000 kronor earlier. This was not the first time the prize money was reduced. Starting with a par value of 150,782 kronor in 1901 (equivalent to 8,123,951 SEK in 2011), the par value was only 121,333 kronor (equivalent to 2,370,660 kronor in 2011) in 1945. But since then, the amount has grown or has been stable, peaking at SEK 11,659,016 in 2001.
Nobel Prize Medals
The Nobel Prize medals, minted by the mints of Sweden and Norway since 1902, are registered trademarks of the Nobel Foundation. The obverse (obverse) of each medal shows the left profile of Alfred Nobel. The Nobel Prize medals in physics, chemistry, physiology and medicine, literature have the same obverse with the image of Alfred Nobel and the years of his birth and death (1833-1896). The Nobel portrait is also depicted on the obverse of the Nobel Peace Prize medal and the Prize in Economics medal, but the design is slightly different. The image on the reverse of the medal varies depending on the awarding institution. The reverse sides of the Nobel Prize medals in chemistry and physics have the same design. The design of the Nobel Prize in Literature Medal was developed by Eric Lindberg.
Nobel Prize Diplomas
Nobel laureates receive their diplomas directly from the hands of the King of Sweden. Each diploma is specially designed by the institution that awards the prize to the laureate. The diploma contains an image and text, which indicates the name of the laureate, and as a rule it is cited for which he received the award.
Nobel Prize Winners in Literature
Selection of candidates for the Nobel Prize
Potential recipients of the Nobel Prize in Literature are difficult to predict, since the candidacies are kept secret for fifty years, until the database of the nominees for the Nobel Prize in Literature is freely available. Currently, only nominations submitted between 1901 and 1965 are available for public viewing. Such secrecy leads to speculation about the next Nobel laureate.
What about rumors circulating around the world about certain people allegedly nominated for the Nobel Prize this year? - Well, either these are just rumors, or one of the invited persons, proposing nominees, leaked information. Since the nominations have been kept secret for 50 years, you will have to wait until you know for sure.
According to Professor Göran Malmqvist of the Swedish Academy, the Chinese writer Shen Tsongwen should have been awarded the 1988 Nobel Prize in Literature if he hadn't died suddenly that year.
Criticism of the Nobel Prize
Controversy over the selection of Nobel laureates
From 1901 to 1912, a committee headed by the conservative Karl David af Wiersen judged the literary value of the work in comparison to its contribution to humanity's pursuit of "the ideal." Tolstoy, Ibsen, Zola and Mark Twain were rejected in favor of authors that few people read today. In addition, many believe that Sweden's historical antipathy towards Russia is the reason why neither Tolstoy nor Chekhov were awarded the prize. During and immediately after World War I, the Committee adopted a policy of neutrality, favoring authors from non-belligerent countries. The committee has repeatedly bypassed August Strindberg. However, he received a special honor in the form of the Antinobel Prize, which was awarded to him in the wake of stormy national recognition in 1912 by future Prime Minister Karl Hjalmar Branting. James Joyce wrote books that took 1 and 3 places in the list of the 100 best novels of our time - "Ulysses" and "Portrait of an artist in his youth", but Joyce was never awarded the Nobel Prize. As his biographer Gordon Bowker wrote, "This award was simply beyond Joyce's reach."
The academy found the novel War with the Salamanders by the Czech writer Karel Czapek too offensive for the German government. In addition, he refused to provide any non-controversial publication of his that could be referred to when evaluating his work, saying: "Thank you for your favor, but I have already written my doctoral dissertation." Thus, he was left without a prize.
The first woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature only in 1909 was Selma Lagerlöf (Sweden 1858-1940) for "the high idealism, vivid imagination and spiritual insight that distinguish all her works."
French novelist and intellectual André Malraux was seriously considered a candidate for the prize in the 1950s, according to the archives of the Swedish Academy studied by Le Monde since its opening in 2008. Malraux competed with Camus, but was turned down several times, notably in 1954 and 1955, "until he returned to the novel." Thus, Camus was awarded the prize in 1957.
Some believe that W.H. Auden was not awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature due to errors in his 1961 translation of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dag Hammarskjold's book Vägmärken / Markings, and the statements Oden made during his a lecture tour of Scandinavia, suggesting that Hammarskjold, like Auden himself, was homosexual.
In 1962, John Steinbeck received the Nobel Prize in Literature. The choice was heavily criticized and was called "one of the Academy's biggest mistakes" in a Swedish newspaper. The New York Times wondered why the Nobel Committee had given the prize to an author whose "limited talent even in his best books is diluted with the most shoddy philosophies," adding: "We find it curious that a writer has not been honored ... whose value, influence and a perfect literary legacy have already had a deeper impact on the literature of our time. " Steinbeck himself, when asked on the day the results were announced whether he deserved the Nobel Prize, replied: "Honestly, no." In 2012 (50 years later), the Nobel Committee opened its archives, and it was revealed that Steinbeck was a "compromise option" among the nominees on the final list, such as Steinbeck himself, British authors Robert Graves and Laurence Darrell, French playwright Jean Anouil, and also Danish writer Karen Blixen. Declassified documents indicate that he was chosen as the lesser of evils. "There are no clear candidates for the Nobel Prize, and the award committee is in an unenviable position," writes committee member Henry Olson.
In 1964, Jean-Paul Sartre was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, but declined it, stating that “There is a difference between the signature“ Jean-Paul Sartre, ”or“ Jean-Paul Sartre, Nobel Prize winner. ”A writer must not allow to transform oneself into an institution, even if it takes the most honorable forms. "
Soviet dissident writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn, laureate of 1970, did not attend the Nobel Prize ceremony in Stockholm for fear that the USSR would prevent his return after the trip (his work there was distributed through samizdat - an underground form of printing). After the Swedish government refused to honor Solzhenitsyn with an award ceremony and a lecture at the Swedish embassy in Moscow, Solzhenitsyn refused the award altogether, noting that the conditions set by the Swedes (who preferred a private ceremony) were "an insult to the Nobel Prize itself." Solzhenitsyn accepted the award and cash prize only on December 10, 1974, when he was deported from Soviet Union.
In 1974, Graham Greene, Vladimir Nabokov, and Saul Bellow were considered candidates for the prize, but were rejected in favor of a joint prize awarded to Swedish authors Eyvind Yunson and Harry Martinson, members of the Swedish Academy at the time, unknown outside their home country. Bellow received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1976. Neither Green nor Nabokov were awarded the prize.
Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges has been nominated for the award several times, but according to Edwin Williamson, Borges's biographer, the Academy did not present him with the award, most likely due to his support for some Argentine and Chilean right-wing military dictators, including Augusto Pinochet. whose social and personal connections were highly convoluted, according to Colm Toybin's review of Williamson's Borges in Life. Borges's denial of the Nobel Prize for supporting these right-wing dictators contrasts with the Committee's recognition of writers who openly supported controversial left-wing dictatorships, including Joseph Stalin in the cases of Sartre and Pablo Neruda. In addition, the moment with the support of Gabriel García Márquez of the Cuban revolutionary and President Fidel Castro was controversial.
The awarding of Italian playwright Dario Fo in 1997 was initially considered "rather superficial" by some critics, as he was primarily viewed as a performer, and Catholic organizations considered Fo's award controversial, as he had previously been condemned by the Roman Catholic Church. The Vatican newspaper L "Osservatore Romano" expressed surprise at Fo's choice, noting that "Giving an award to someone who is also the author of questionable works is unthinkable." Salman Rushdie and Arthur Miller were clear candidates for the prize, but the Nobel organizers, as later was quoted as saying they would be "too predictable, too popular."
Camilo José Cela willingly offered his services as an informant for the Franco regime and volunteered from Madrid to Galicia during the Spanish Civil War to join the rebel forces there. Miguel Вngel Vilhena's article Between Fear and Impunity, which collected comments from Spanish novelists about the remarkable silence of the older generation of Spanish novelists about the past of public intellectuals during the Franco dictatorship, appeared under a photograph of Cela during his Nobel Prize ceremony in Stockholm in 1989 ...
The choice of the 2004 laureate, Elfrida Jelinek, was contested by a member of the Swedish Academy, Knut Anlund, who had not been an active member of the Academy since 1996. Anlund resigned, arguing that Jelinek's choice caused "irreparable damage" to the prize's reputation.
The announcement of Harold Pinter as a 2005 winner was delayed by several days, apparently due to the resignation of Anlund, and this led to renewed speculation that there was a "political element" in the presentation of the Prize by the Swedish Academy. Although Pinter was unable to deliver his controversial Nobel Lecture in person due to ill health, he broadcast it from a television studio and it was video-streamed in front of an audience at the Swedish Academy in Stockholm. His comments have become the source of a great deal of interpretation and discussion. The question of their "political stance" was also raised in response to the Nobel Prize in Literature awarded to Orhan Pamuk and Doris Lessing in 2006 and 2007, respectively.
The choice of 2016 fell on Bob Dylan, and it was the first time in history that a musician and songwriter received the Nobel Prize for Literature. The award sparked some controversy, particularly among writers, who argued that Dylan's literary merit was not equal to that of some of his colleagues. Lebanese novelist Rabih Alameddin tweeted that "Bob Dylan, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature, is the same as if Mrs. Fields' cookies received 3 Michelin stars." French-Moroccan writer Pierre Assulin called this decision "contempt for writers." During a live web chat hosted by The Guardian, Norwegian writer Karl Uwe Knausgaard said, “I am very discouraged. fine. But knowing that Dylan is from the same generation as Thomas Pynchon, Philip Roth, Cormac McCarthy, I find it very difficult to accept. " Scottish writer Irwin Welch said: "I'm a Dylan fan, but this award is just a poorly balanced nostalgia, spewed out by the old rotten prostates of mumbling hippies." Dylan's songwriter and friend Leonard Cohen said no awards were needed to recognize the greatness of the man who transformed pop music with records such as Highway 61 Revisited. "For me," Cohen said, "[being awarded the Nobel Prize] is like hanging a medal on Mount Everest for being the highest mountain." Writer and columnist Will Self wrote that the award "devalued" Dylan, while he hoped the laureate would "follow Sartre's lead and reject the award."
Controversial Nobel Prize awards
The award's orientation towards Europeans, and Swedes in particular, has been the subject of criticism, even in Swedish newspapers. Most of the laureates were Europeans, and Sweden received more awards than all of Asia together with Latin America. In 2009, Horace Engdahl, later permanent secretary of the Academy, stated that “Europe is still the center of the literary world,” and that “the US is too isolated, too closed. They don’t translate enough works, and they don’t participate very actively in the big literary dialogue. "
In 2009, Peter Englund, who replaced Engdahl, rejected this opinion (“In most language fields ... there are authors who really deserve and could receive the Nobel Prize, and this applies to both the United States and the Americas in overall ") and acknowledged the Eurocentric nature of the award, stating:" I think this is a problem. We tend to be more responsive to literature written in Europe and in the European tradition. " American critics have been known to object that their compatriots such as Philip Roth, Thomas Pynchon and Cormac McCarthy have been overlooked, as have Latinos such as Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortazar, and Carlos Fuentes, while the Europeans, lesser known on this continent, were victorious. The 2009 award, retired by Gerte Müller, formerly little known outside Germany, but many times named the favorite of the Nobel Prize, has renewed the view that the Swedish Academy was biased and Eurocentric.
However, the 2010 prize went to Mario Vargas Llosa, who was originally from Peru in South America. When the prize was awarded to the distinguished Swedish poet Tumas Tranströmer in 2011, the permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy Peter Englund said the prize was not awarded on a political basis, describing the concept of "literature for dummies." The next two awards were presented by the Swedish Academy to non-Europeans, the Chinese author Mo Yan, and the Canadian writer Alice Munro. The victory of French writer Modiano in 2014 revived the issue of Eurocentrism. Asked by The Wall Street Journal, "So, again without Americans this year? Why?", Englund reminded Americans of the Canadian origin of last year's winner, the Academy's commitment to literary quality, and the impossibility of rewarding all who deserve an award.
Undeservedly received Nobel Prizes
Many literary achievements have been overlooked in the history of the Nobel Prize in Literature. Literary historian Kjell Espmark admitted that “when it comes to early awards, bad choices and egregious omissions are often justified. For example, instead of Sully Prudhomme, Aiken, and Heise, it was worth rewarding Tolstoy, Ibsea, and Henry James. ”There are omissions that are beyond the control of the Nobel Committee, for example, due to the untimely death of the author, as was the case with Marcel Proust, Italo Calvino, and Roberto Bolagno. According to Kjell Espmark "the main works of Kafka, Cavafy and Pessoa were published only after their death, and the world learned about the true greatness of Mandelstam's poetry primarily from unpublished poems that his wife saved from oblivion long after his death in Siberian exile." British novelist Tim Parks attributed the endless controversy surrounding the decisions of the Nobel Committee to "the principled frivolity of the prize and our own stupidity in taking it seriously", and also noted that "eighteen (or sixteen) Swedish citizens will have some authority when evaluating Swedish literature. but which group could ever truly embrace their m mind endlessly varied work of dozens of different traditions? And why should we ask them to do this? "
Equivalents to the Nobel Prize in Literature
The Nobel Prize in Literature is not the only literary prize that authors of all nationalities are eligible to claim. Other notable international literary awards include the Neustadt Literary Prize, the Franz Kafka Prize, and the International Booker Prize. Unlike the Nobel Prize in Literature, the Franz Kafka Prize, the International Booker Prize, and the Neustadt Prize for Literature are awarded every two years. Journalist Hepzibah Anderson noted that the International Booker Prize "is rapidly becoming a more significant award, serving as an increasingly competent alternative to the Nobel." The Booker International Prize "focuses on the overall contribution of a single writer to fiction on the world stage" and "focuses only on literary excellence." Since it was only established in 2005, it is not yet possible to analyze the importance of its impact on potential future Nobel Prize winners in literature. Only Alice Munroe (2009) has been honored with both. However, some International Booker Prize winners such as Ismail Kadare (2005) and Philip Roth (2011) are considered nominees for the Nobel Prize in Literature. The Neustadt Literary Prize is considered one of the most prestigious international literary awards, and is often referred to as the American equivalent of the Nobel Prize. Like the Nobel or Booker Prize, it is awarded not for any work, but for the entire work of the author. The prize is often seen as an indicator that a particular author may be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Gabriel García Márquez (1972 - Neustadt, 1982 - Nobel), Czeslaw Milos (1978 - Neustadt, 1980 - Nobel), Octavio Paz (1982 - Neustadt, 1990 - Nobel), Tranströmer (1990 - Neustadt, 2011 - Nobel) were initially awarded Neustadt International Literary Prize before they were awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Another noteworthy award is the Princess of Asturias Prize (formerly the Prize of the Irinsky of Asturias) for literature. In its early years, it was almost exclusively awarded to writers who wrote in Spanish, but later the prize was also awarded to writers working in other languages. Among the writers who have received both the Princess of Asturias Prize for Literature and the Nobel Prize for Literature are Camilo José Cela, Gunther Grass, Doris Lessing, and Mario Vargas Llosa.
The American Prize for Literature, which does not provide a cash prize, is an alternative to the Nobel Prize for Literature. To date, Harold Pinter and José Saramago are the only writers to have received both literary awards.
There are also prizes that honor the lifetime achievement of writers in specific languages, such as the Miguel de Cervantes Prize (for authors writing in Spanish, established in 1976) and the Camões Prize (for Portuguese-speaking authors, established in 1989). Nobel laureates who were also awarded the Cervantes Prize: Octavio Paz (1981 - Cervantes, 1990 - Nobel), Mario Vargas Llosa (1994 - Cervantes, 2010 - Nobel), and Camilo José Cela (1995 - Cervantes, 1989 - Nobel). José Saramago is, to date, the only author to have received both the Camões Prize (1995) and the Nobel Prize (1998).
The Hans Christian Andersen Award is sometimes called the "Little Nobel". The award deserves its name because, like the Nobel Prize in Literature, it takes into account the lifetime achievements of writers, although the Andersen Prize focuses on one category of literary work (children's literature).
In the will of Alfred Nobel, the prize for the creation of the most outstanding literary work in a series of five awards was mentioned as the fourth. The will was announced in 1897, and the first laureate in this nomination in 1901 was the Frenchman Sully-Prudhomme. After 32 years, this honor was also awarded to a native of Russia. Let's leaf through the history of the presentation of the prestigious world award, and in our review there are Russian writers who are laureates of the Nobel Prize in literature. So who are they, Russians nobel laureates on literature.
Ivan Alekseevich Bunin
The aesthetically delicate and talented Russian writer, a native of the city of Voronezh, began his literary career with poetry. In 1887 he published his first poem, in 1902 he was awarded the Pushkin Prize for the book "Leaf Fall".
In 1909 he again became a laureate of the prestigious Russian prize. He did not accept the changes that took place in Russia after October 1917, and emigrated to France. He was very upset about the separation from his homeland, and the first years of his life in Paris practically did not write.
In 1923, Romain Rolland proposed to the Nobel Committee a candidacy of an emigrant from Russia for the Nobel Prize, but the award went to the Scottish poet. But 10 years later, in 1933, the Russian émigré writer entered the list of literary figures, becoming the first Russian writer to receive the Nobel Prize.
The boy was brought up in an intelligent, creative family... Boris's father was a talented artist, for which he was awarded the title of Academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, and the poet's mother was a pianist.
At 23, the gifted young man had already published his first poems, and in 1916 the first collection of his works was published. After the revolution, the poet's family left for Berlin, and he stayed to live and work in the USSR. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, he was called the best poet of the Soviet state, and he takes an active part in the literary life of the country.
In 1955, one of the the best works Pasternak "Doctor Zhivago". In 1958, the Nobel Committee awarded him the Nobel Prize, but under pressure from the Soviet leadership, Leonid Pasternak refused it. A real persecution began, and in 1960, with a serious illness, Leonid Pasternak died in Peredelkino near Moscow.
By the way, the site has an article about the world. We highly recommend looking.
Mikhail Alexandrovich Sholokhov
The village of Veshenskaya is famous for the fact that the legendary Cossack writer Mikhail Sholokhov was born here in 1905, who glorified her all over the world.
As a boy, he learned to read and write, but the war and revolutionary events interrupted the young man's education. In 1922, he was nearly shot by a revolutionary tribunal for abuse of power. But the father bought his son out and sent him to Moscow. In 1923 he began to print his first works, and in 1940 his most famous and readable work "Quiet Don".
In 1964, Jean-Paul Sartre made a lofty gesture and refused the prize, stating that it was awarded only to Western writers, ignoring the great masters of speech from Soviet Russia. The following year, members of the Royal Committee voted unanimously for Mikhail Sholokhov.
A native of Kislovodsk became famous not only literary works, but also with sharp publicistic articles on the history of Russia.
Already at school, a rebellious character manifested itself, when Alexander, despite the ridicule of his peers, wore a cross and did not want to join the pioneers. Under pressure from the Soviet school, he adopted the Marxist-Leninist ideology, became a member of the Komsomol and was active in public work.
Even before the war, he was carried away by history, and began his literary career. He fought heroically and was awarded the highest orders and military medals. After the war, he began to criticize the Soviet system, and in 1970 he became a Nobel Prize winner. After the publication of the resonant work "The Gulag Archipelago", Solzhenitsyn in 1974 was deprived of his citizenship and forcibly expelled from the USSR. Only in 1990 will the writer be able to regain his citizenship.
Joseph Alexandrovich Brodsky
The Russian prose writer and poet received the Nobel Prize in 1987 as a citizen of the United States of America, because he was expelled from the USSR with the wording “for parasitism”.
Joseph was born in Leningrad, and childhood fell on the war years. Together with their mother, they survived the blockade winter of 1941-1942, and then were evacuated to Cherepovets. He dreamed of becoming a submariner, a doctor, worked on geological expeditions, and in the early 60s became famous as a poet.
The aspiring poet did not work anywhere, and cases were repeatedly brought up against him for parasitism. Working as a translator, he managed to subdue the agility of the authorities for a while, but in the end, in 1972, Brodsky left the USSR. The prize was presented to him in November 1987 as a Russian writer with a US passport.
Ivan Bunin received 170,331 Swedish kronor, and on his return from Sweden to Paris, he began to arrange dinner parties, distributed money to Russian emigrants without an account, donated to various emigrant organizations and unions. Then he got involved in a financial scam, having lost the remaining money.
Leonid Pasternak refused the award, sending a telegram to the Royal Committee with a refusal, and so that they would not consider it an insult. In 1989, the medal and the laureate's diploma were solemnly presented to the writer's son Eugene. In the same year, the works of Pasternak appeared in the school curriculum of Soviet schools.
Mikhail Sholokhov donated two Soviet prizes to the state. The highest in the USSR, the Stalin Prize in 1941, he transferred to the defense fund, and he donated the Lenin Prize to the restoration of his native school. At the expense of the highest literary award in the world, the writer showed his children the world. By car, they traveled all over Europe, and then visited Japan with their children. By the way, we have a useful article about the most popular ones on our site.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn received the award only after he was expelled from the USSR. With this money, he bought a house in the US state of Vermont. There were even two houses, one of which the writer used only for work.
For the prize he received, Joseph Brodsky opened a restaurant with the poetic name “Russian Samovar” in the Manhattan area, which has become a kind of center of Russian culture. There is a restaurant in New York to this day.
Curiosities
Mikhail Sholokhov, receiving a diploma and a medal, defiantly did not bow to the Swedish monarch Gustav Adolf VI. Some media outlets indicated that he did it with the words "I will bow to the people, but we Cossacks have never bowed our heads before kings."
Alexander Solzhenitsyn wanted to go on stage to receive a medal and a diploma not in a tailcoat, but in his prison uniform. The Soviet authorities did not release the writer from the country, and he was not at the ceremony. For obvious reasons, Boris Pasternak was not at the ceremony either.
Lev Tolstoy could have become the first Russian writer to receive the prestigious award. In 1901, the Committee sent an apology to the writer that they had not chosen him, to which the writer thanked them, that they saved him from the difficulties of spending money, which undoubtedly constitutes evil. In 1906, upon learning that he was on the lists of candidates, Tolstoy wrote to his friend, a writer from Finland, not to vote for him. Everyone considered this to be another count's quirk of an outstanding writer, and more "a lump of Russian literature" was not nominated for candidates.
In a whirlwind of anti-Soviet propaganda, the Committee wanted to present the award to Igor Guzenko, a defector from the USSR, who was head of the encryption department at the Soviet embassy in Ottawa. In the West, he suddenly took up literature, and actively criticized the Soviet system. But his opuses fell short of literary masterpieces.
Candidates from the USSR and Russia for the Literary Prize
Only 5 Russian writers were awarded the high award, but other equally famous and talented figures of Russian and Soviet literature also had such an opportunity.
The Russian and Soviet literary and public figure was nominated five times as a candidate for the prestigious award. The first time this happened in 1918, and the last in 1933, but that year the author was awarded “ Garnet bracelet". Dmitry Merezhkovsky was also nominated with them. The "petrel" was not awarded a prize with the wording "cooperates with the Bolsheviks."
Anna Akhmatova
Together with Boris Pasternak, the names of the famous Russian poet Anna Akhmatova were on the lists of nominees for the Royal Prize. The committee, choosing between prose and poetry, chose prose.
In 1963, the infamous Vladimir Nabokov was nominated for the prize, whose "Lolita" is admired by the whole world. But the Committee found him too immoral. In 1974, at the suggestion of Solzhenitsyn, he was again on the lists, but the prize was given to two Swedes, whose names no one will ever remember. Outraged by this circumstance, one of the American critics wittily stated that it was not Nabokov who did not deserve the prize, but the prize did not deserve Nabokov.
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Summarize
Russian literature is distinguished by the aesthetic content of works, a moral core. And if European culture quickly reoriented to a mass, entertaining character, true Russian writers remained faithful to the established traditions that were laid down by recognized world classics, Russian poets and writers of the 19th century. Russian Nobel laureates in literature have made a significant contribution to the development of world culture. This concludes the article. TopCafe editors are waiting for your comments!
On December 10, 1933, King Gustav V of Sweden presented the Nobel Prize in Literature to the writer Ivan Bunin, who became the first Russian writer to receive this high award. In total, 21 people from Russia and the USSR received the prize, established by the inventor of dynamite Alfred Bernhard Nobel in 1833, five of them in the field of literature. True, historically it turned out that for Russian poets and writers the Nobel Prize was fraught with great problems.
Ivan Alekseevich Bunin handed out the Nobel Prize to friends
In December 1933, the Paris press wrote: “ Without a doubt, I.A. Bunin - in recent years - the most powerful figure in the Russian fiction and poetry», « the king of literature confidently and equally shook hands with the crowned monarch". The Russian emigration applauded. In Russia, however, the news that a Russian emigrant had received the Nobel Prize was reacted very caustically. After all, Bunin negatively perceived the events of 1917 and emigrated to France. Ivan Alekseevich himself was very upset by emigration, was actively interested in the fate of his abandoned homeland and during the Second World War categorically refused all contacts with the Nazis, having moved to the Alpes-Maritimes in 1939, returned from there to Paris only in 1945.
It is known that Nobel laureates have the right to decide for themselves how to spend the money they receive. Someone invests in the development of science, someone in charity, someone in their own business. Bunin, a creative person and devoid of "practical ingenuity," disposed of his prize, which amounted to 170,331 crowns, was completely irrational. Poet and literary critic Zinaida Shakhovskaya recalled: “ Returning to France, Ivan Alekseevich ... not counting money, began to arrange feasts, distribute "benefits" to emigrants, donate funds to support various societies. Finally, on the advice of well-wishers, he invested the remaining amount in some kind of "win-win business" and was left with nothing».
Ivan Bunin is the first emigrant writer to be published in Russia. True, the first publications of his stories appeared already in the 1950s, after the death of the writer. Some of his novels and poems were published in his homeland only in the 1990s.
Merciful God, what are you for
He gave us passions, thoughts and concerns,
Thirst for business, fame and joy?
Happy are cripples, idiots,
The leper is the happiest.
(I. Bunin. September, 1917)
Boris Pasternak refused the Nobel Prize
Boris Pasternak was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature "for significant achievements in modern lyric poetry, as well as for the continuation of the traditions of the great Russian epic novel" annually from 1946 to 1950. In 1958, he was again nominated by last year's Nobel laureate Albert Camus, and on October 23, Pasternak became the second Russian writer to be awarded this prize.The writers 'environment in the poet's homeland took this news extremely negatively and on October 27 Pasternak was unanimously expelled from the USSR Writers' Union, at the same time filing a petition to deprive Pasternak of Soviet citizenship. In the USSR, the receipt of the Pasternak Prize was associated only with his novel Doctor Zhivago. The literary newspaper wrote: “Pasternak received“ thirty pieces of silver ”, for which the Nobel Prize was used. He was awarded for agreeing to play the role of bait on the rusty hook of anti-Soviet propaganda ... An inglorious end awaits the resurrected Judas, Doctor Zhivago, and his author, whose lot will be popular contempt. ".
The massive campaign launched against Pasternak forced him to refuse the Nobel Prize. The poet sent a telegram to the Swedish Academy in which he wrote: “ Due to the significance that the award awarded to me has received in the society to which I belong, I must refuse it. Do not consider my voluntary refusal as an insult».
It is worth noting that in the USSR until 1989, even in the school curriculum for literature, there was no mention of Pasternak's work. The first director Eldar Ryazanov decided to introduce the Soviet people to the creative work of Pasternak. In his comedy "The Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath!" (1976) he included the poem "No one will be in the house", transforming it into an urban romance, performed by the bard Sergei Nikitin. Later Ryazanov included in his film "Office Romance" an excerpt from another poem by Pasternak - "To love others is a heavy cross ..." (1931). True, it sounded in a farcical context. But it is worth noting that at that time the very mention of Pasternak's poems was a very bold step.
It's easy to wake up and see
Shake the verbal dirt from the heart
And live without clogging up in the future,
All this is not a big trick.
(B. Pasternak, 1931)
Mikhail Sholokhov, receiving the Nobel Prize, did not bow to the monarch
Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1965 for his novel Quiet Flows the Don and went down in history as the only Soviet writer to receive this prize with the consent of the Soviet leadership. The laureate's diploma reads "in recognition of the artistic power and honesty that he showed in his Don epic about the historical phases of the life of the Russian people."
Gustav Adolph VI, who presented the prize to the Soviet writer, called him "one of the most outstanding writers of our time." Sholokhov did not bow to the king, as the rules of etiquette prescribed. Some sources claim that he did it on purpose with the words: “We, the Cossacks, do not bow to anyone. Here in front of the people - please, but before the king I will not ... "
Alexander Solzhenitsyn was deprived of Soviet citizenship because of the Nobel Prize
Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn, the commander of the sound reconnaissance battery, who rose to the rank of captain during the war years and was awarded two military orders, in 1945 was arrested by the front-line counterintelligence for anti-Sovietism. The verdict is 8 years in the camps and life in exile. He went through a camp in New Jerusalem near Moscow, the Marfinsky "sharashka" and the Special Ekibastuz camp in Kazakhstan. In 1956, Solzhenitsyn was rehabilitated, and in 1964 Alexander Solzhenitsyn devoted himself to literature. At the same time, he worked on 4 major works at once: "The Gulag Archipelago", "Cancer Ward", "The Red Wheel" and "In the First Circle". In the USSR in 1964 the story "One Day of Ivan Denisovich" was published, and in 1966 the story "Zakhar-Kalita" was published.
On October 8, 1970, Solzhenitsyn was awarded the Nobel Prize "for moral strength gleaned from the tradition of the great Russian literature." This became the reason for the persecution of Solzhenitsin in the USSR. In 1971, all the writer's manuscripts were confiscated, and in the next 2 years all his publications were destroyed. In 1974, the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR was issued, according to which, for the systematic commission of actions incompatible with belonging to the citizenship of the USSR and damaging the USSR ", Alexander Solzhenitsyn was deprived of Soviet citizenship and deported from the USSR.
They returned the citizenship to the writer only in 1990, and in 1994 he returned to Russia with his family and became actively involved in public life.
Nobel laureate Iosif Brodsky in Russia was convicted of parasitism
Joseph Alexandrovich Brodsky began to write poetry at the age of 16. Anna Akhmatova predicted a hard life for him and a glorious creative destiny. In 1964, in Leningrad, a criminal case was opened against the poet on charges of parasitism. He was arrested and sent into exile in the Arkhangelsk region, where he spent a year.
In 1972, Brodsky turned to Secretary General Brezhnev with a request to work in his homeland as an interpreter, but his request remained unanswered, and he was forced to emigrate. Brodsky first lived in Vienna, London, and then moved to the United States, where he became a professor at New York, Michigan and other universities in the country.
December 10, 1987 Joseph Brosky was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature "for an all-encompassing creativity, saturated with clarity of thought and passion of poetry." It is worth saying that Brodsky, after Vladimir Nabokov, is the second Russian writer who writes in english language as a native.
The sea was not visible. In the whitish haze
swaddled from all sides, absurd
thought the ship was heading for land -
if at all it was a ship,
and not a clot of fog, as if it poured
who whitened in milk.
(B. Brodsky, 1972)
Interesting fact
Such famous personalities as Mahatma Gandhi, Winston Churchill, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Benito Mussolini, Franklin Roosevelt, Nicholas Roerich and Leo Tolstoy were nominated for the Nobel Prize at different times, but they never received it.
Literature lovers will certainly be interested in - the book, which is written in disappearing ink.
During the entire period of the Nobel Prize awarding, Russian writers have been awarded 5 times. Five Russian writers and one Belarusian writer Svetlana Aleksievich, the author of the following works, became Nobel laureates: “ War does not female face
», « Zinc boys»And other works written in Russian. The wording for the award was as follows: “ For the polyphonic sounding of her prose and the perpetuation of suffering and courage»
2.1. Ivan Alekseevich Bunin (1870 - 1953) The prize was awarded in 1933 " for the true artistic talent with which he recreated the typical Russian character in the artistic rose, for the strict skill with which he develops the traditions of Russian classical prose» ... In his speech at the presentation of the prize, Bunin noted the courage of the Swedish Academy in honoring the emigrant writer (he emigrated to France in 1920).
2.2. Boris Pasternak- Laureate of the Nobel Prize in Literature 1958. Awarded the prize " for outstanding services in modern lyric poetry and in the field of great Russian prose» ... For Pasternak himself, the prize brought nothing but problems and a campaign under the slogan “ I have not read it, but I condemn it!". The writer was forced to refuse the award under the threat of expulsion from the country. The Swedish Academy recognized Pasternak's refusal from the prize as forced and in 1989 presented a diploma and a medal to his son.
Nobel Prize I was lost like a beast in a pen. Somewhere people, freedom, light, And behind me the noise of the chase, I do not go out. A dark forest and the shore of a pond, They ate a dumped log. The path is cut off from everywhere. Whatever happens, it doesn't matter. What have I done for the dirty trick, I am a murderer and a villain? I made the whole world cry Above the beauty of my land. But even so, almost at the grave, I believe, the time will come - the Force of meanness and malice Will overcome the spirit of good.
B. Pasternak
2.3. Mikhail Sholokhov... The Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded in 1965. The prize was awarded for the artistic power and integrity of the epic about the Don Cossacks at a crucial time for Russia». In his speech during the awards ceremony, Sholokhov said that his goal was “ to exalt the nation of workers, builders and heroes».
2.4. Alexander Solzhenitsyn - Laureate of the Nobel Prize in Literature 1970 « for moral strength, gleaned in the tradition of the great Russian literature». The government of the Soviet Union considered the decision of the Nobel Committee “ politically hostile”, And Solzhenitsyn, fearing that after his trip he would not be able to return to his homeland, accepted the award, but was not present at the award ceremony.
2.5. Joseph Brodsky - Laureate of the Nobel Prize in Literature 1987. Prize awarded « for multifaceted creativity, marked by the sharpness of thought and deep poetry». In 1972 he was forced to emigrate from the USSR and lived in the USA.
2.6. In 2015, the award was sensationally received by a Belarusian writer and journalist Svetlana Alexievich... She wrote such works as "War has no woman's face", "Zinc Boys", "Charmed by Death", "Chernobyl Prayer", "Second Hand Time" and others. A rather rare event in recent years when the prize was given to a person who writes in Russian.
3. Nominees for the Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prize for Literature is the most prestigious award that has been presented annually by the Nobel Foundation for achievements in the field of literature since 1901. The award-winning writer appears in the eyes of millions of people as an incomparable talent or genius who, with his work, managed to win the hearts of readers from all over the world.
However, there are a number of famous writers, whom the Nobel Prize for various reasons bypassed, but they were worthy of it no less than their fellow laureates, and sometimes even more. Who are they?
Half a century later, the Nobel Committee reveals its secrets, so today it is known not only who received awards in the first half of the 20th century, but also who did not receive them, remaining among the nominees.
The first hit in the number of nominees for the literary " Nobel”Of Russians refers to 1901 - then Leo Tolstoy was nominated for the award among other nominees, but he did not become the owner of the prestigious award for several years. Leo Tolstoy will be present in the nominations annually until 1906, and the only reason why the author “ War and Peace"Did not become the first Russian laureate" Nobel", Was his own decisive refusal of the award, as well as a request not to award it.
M. Gorky was nominated in 1918, 1923, 1928, 1930, 1933 (5 times)
Constantin Balmont was nominated in 1923,
Dmitry Merezhkovsky -1914, 1915, 1930, 1931 - 1937 (10 times)
Shmelev - 1928, 1932
Mark Aldanov - 1934, 1938, 1939, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951 - 1956,1957 (12 times)
Leonid Leonov -1949.1950.
Konstantin Paustovsky -1965, 1967
And how many geniuses of Russian literature were not even nominated for Bulgakov, Akhmatov, Tsvetaeva, Mandelstam, Yevgeny Yevtushenko ... Everyone can continue this brilliant row with the names of their favorite writers and poets.
Why did Russian writers and poets so rarely find themselves among the laureates?
It's no secret that the prize is often awarded for political reasons. - says Philip Nobel, a descendant of Alfred Nobel. “But there is one more important reason. In 1896, Alfred left in his will a condition: the capital of the Nobel Fund must be invested in shares of strong companies that give good profits. In the 20-30s of the last century, the fund's money was invested primarily in American corporations. Since then, the Nobel Committee and the United States have had very close ties. ”
Anna Akhmatova could have received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1966, but she. died on March 5, 1966, so her name was not later considered. According to the rules of the Swedish Academy, the Nobel Prize can only be awarded to living writers. The prize was awarded only to those writers who quarreled with the Soviet regime: Joseph Brodsky, Ivan Bunin, Boris Pasternak, Alexander Solzhenitsyn.
The Swedish Academy of Sciences did not favor Russian literature: at the beginning of the 20th century, it rejected L.N. Tolstoy and did not notice the genius A.P. Chekhov, passed by no less important writers and poets of the twentieth century: M. Gorky, V. Mayakovsky, M. Bulgakov, etc. It should also be noted that I. Bunin, as later other Nobel laureates (B. Pasternak, A. Solzhenitsyn , I. Brodsky) was in a state of acute conflict with the Soviet regime.
Be that as it may, great writers and poets, Nobel laureates, whose creative way was thorny, with their ingenious creations they built a pedestal for themselves. The personality of these great sons of Russia is enormous not only in Russian, but also in the world literary process. And in the memory of people they will remain as long as humanity will live and create.
« Exploded heart»… This is how we can characterize the state of mind of our compatriot writers who have become Nobel Prize winners. They are our pride! And our pain and shame for what we did to I.A. Bunin and B.L. Pasternak, A.I. Solzhenitsyn and I.A. Brodsky by the official authorities, for their forced loneliness and exile. In St. Petersburg there is a monument to the Nobel on the Petrovskaya embankment. True, this monument is a sculptural composition “ Blown up tree».
Fantasy about the Nobel. There is no need to dream of a Nobel, After all, it is handed over by chance, And someone, alien to the highest standards, Keeps joyless secrets. I have not been to distant Sweden, As in the dreams of snow-covered Nepal, And Brodsky wanders around Venice And silently looks into the canals. He was an outcast, who did not know love, He slept in a hurry and ate hard, But, having changed, plus or minus, He married an aristocrat.
Sitting in Venetian bars And talking with counts, He mixed cognac with resentment, Antiquity with the age of the Internet. Rhymes were born from the surf, They had the strength to write them down. But what about poetry? They are empty, Again Nobel came out of the grave. I asked: - Let the genius - Brodsky. Let him shine in a pair of tailcoats, But Paustovsky lived somewhere, Not Sholokhov in pairs of cognacs. Zabolotsky lived, fell into the abyss, And rose again, and became great. Simonov lived, gray-haired and sober, he counted ditches in Tashkent. Well, what about Tvardovsky? Nice sidekick, That's who sculpts lines perfectly! Where are you, Uncle Nobel, looking? Mendel.