On his deathbed, the Swedish chemist and inventor alfred nobel, As his last will, he asked that the annual prizes be instituted in recognition of the advances of humanity with his name. The international awards began to be given in 1901, six years after the death of the creator of dynamite, in six renowned shortlists: Physics, Medicine, Chemistry, Economics, Literature and Peace.
However, hard science awards do not arouse much interest in the public. Probably, thesis and research that require a level of professional and specialized reading harms the mass interest. Quite the opposite occurs with two short lists, in which each year, it is speculated who will be awarded the recognition. Undoubtedly, the awards for the promotion of Peace and the one in the field of Literature are the most outstanding.
Within the panorama of world literature, very few prizes grant so much prestige to the writer. In fact, most of the awards do not have an exuberant monetary reward similar to the Nobel Prize, which is around a million dollars. The Cervantes Prize, within the Spanish language, is the closest in recognition to the award offered by the Swedish Academy.
Next Thursday, October 6, the Swedish Academy will define who is the writer who will be recognized by the acclaimed award. In statistics, the Spanish language obtained only eleven medals throughout the history of the event. In more than a century and two decades, six prizes went to Ibero-American writers and five to Spanish authors. Among the most prominent are Gabriela Mistral (1945), Pablo Neruda (1971), Michael Asturias (1967), Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1982), Octavio Paz (1990) and Mario Vargas Llosa (2010).
The list of forgotten winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature is world famous. In this aspect, Argentina occupies a prominent place with figures of writing that arouse great admiration on the part of the public and specialized critics. Of course, Jorge Luis Borges is on the podium of the authors, with these characteristics, who did not access the benefit granted by the Swedish institution. Bioy Casares, Ernest Sabato either Julio Cortazar They are also some names that accompany the claim. A list that expands, on the international scene, with Marcel Proust, Vladimir Nabokov, Ruben Dario Y Franz Kafka.
Controversial situations have arisen throughout the 121 years that the award has been held. Waivers of the Russian distinction Boris Pasternak in 1958 and from the French Jean-Paul Sartre in 1964, are still latent in the memory of specialists. The case of the author of Doctor Zhivago due to government pressure in the Soviet Union, while Sartre due to disagreement with academic institutions that do not allow a direct cultural connection with the reader.
On the list of candidates for this year are Salman Rushdiethe Japanese Haruki Murakamithe French Annie Ernaux, the canadian Margaret Atwood and the norwegian Jon Fosse. ANDhe last year the Tanzanian writer Abdulrazak Gurnah was laureate. The Nobel Committee for Literature, with only 18 members, is responsible for evaluating the nominations and presenting its recommendations to the Swedish Academy. Added to this protocol is the mystery that 50 years must elapse before the failures that reveal the composition are declassified. from the final list evaluated by the jury. The institution, finally, chooses in a small jury who is the winner of the most coveted literary prize in the world.
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