British playwright wins Nobel
2005-10-13 13:36
Stockholm - British playwright and poet Harold Pinter has won the 2005 Nobel Prize in literature.
The Swedish Academy, awarding the prize, said he was an author "who in his plays uncovers the precipice under everyday prattle and forces entry into oppression's closed rooms."
In its citation, the academy said the 75-year-old playwright - whose works include The Room, The Birthday Party and The Dumb Waiter and his breakthrough work, The Caretaker - as one who restored the art form.
"Pinter restored theatre to its basic elements: an enclosed space and unpredictable dialogue where people are at the mercy of each other and pretense crumbles," the academy said.
The award will have two immediate consequences: increased book sales and controversy.
Last year's winner, Austrian feminist Elfriede Jelinek, drew such ire that a member of the academy publicly blasted his colleagues for picking her.
Knut Ahnlund, 82, who has not played an active role in the academy since 1996, resigned on Tuesday after he wrote in a signed newspaper article that picking Jelinek had caused "irreparable damage" to the award's reputation.
The academy, founded in 1786 by King Gustav III to advance the Swedish language and its literature, has handed out the literature prize since 1901.
To date 102 men and women have received the prize, including France's Jean-Paul Sartre, who declined the 1964 prize.
On the net:
www.svenskaakademien.se
www.nobelprize.org
- AP