Open bias dims the Lit Nobel Prize

By John Mwazemba

Nobel Prizes have sparked endless diatribe and angry denunciations. The Nobel Prize in Literature has been dogged by bitter controversy over the years — shrouding it in dark mystery and cliff-hanging surprises.

 Rudyard Kipling won it. The great Leo Tolstoy did not. Elfriede Jelinek, known for her writings on sexual perversity, was the 2004 laureate in Literature. The flamboyant Wole Soyinka clinched it. It has eluded Chinua Achebe for decades.

Frustrated critics have demeaned and dismissed it as being "voted on and handed out by a committee of five obscure Norwegians selected by the Norwegian parliament".

The 2009 Nobel Prize in Literature had started a global debate when a little known European Herta M¸ller won it. As critic Thom Geier wrote, "Once again, the Swedish Academy has selected a virtual unknown as its Nobel laureate in literature, Romanian-born German novelist/poet Herta M¸ller. ‘Herta who?’ You ask. You’re not alone. M¸ller is a writer who ranked far, far down the list at the bookmakers Ladbroke.

Unknown writers

Only a handful of her books have been translated into English, and most of those appear to be semi-autobiographical novels about erudite young women of German ancestry who grew up in, and struggled against, the now-fallen Communist regime in late 20th Century Romania."

Another bitter critic was more blunt, ". . . almost without fail, the Nobel laureate in Literature turns out to be an obscure writer, usually European, whose works are hardly known outside of a few German-speaking and Germano-centric countries."

Euro-centrism

Critics have worried that the Nobel Prize for Literature is becoming more ‘’Eurocentric’’. Permanent Secretary of the Nobel Foundation Peter Englund admitted in an interview with the Associated Press after the award was announced that "If you are European (it is) easier to relate to European literature. . . It’s the result of psychological bias that we really try to be aware of. It’s not the result of any programme.’’

To be fair to the judges, writers from all over the world (including Africans) have won Nobel prizes in Literature over the years. However, as correctly noted elsewhere, "European-based authors, whether natives or emigrants, have had a virtual monopoly in recent times — a trend the committee has defended, apologised for and perpetuated."

Last year’s Nobel laureate in literature was Jean-Marie Gustave le Clezio of France, also little known and with very little works in English.

One wonders whether the Nobel committee reads the literature of the world or just European literature — and thus their obvious bias in the selection of winners. Unless this trend is checked, the Nobel Prize in Literature will continue losing its lustre.