9 October 2005Alex Duval Smith
The secretive group of intellectuals who award the Nobel Prize for literature have delayed their decision for at least a week amid reports of a split over honouring the controversial Turkish author, Orhan Pamuk.
For the first time in at least 10 years, the literature prize was announced neither in the run-up to, nor in the same week as the four other main Nobel awards - medicine, physics, chemistry and peace. Each marks the pinnacle of achievement in its field and is worth 10 million Swedish kronor (£730,000).
The suspected row over Pamuk - which is officially denied - comes amid revelations about the secretive workings of the committee that, since 1901, has chosen Nobel winners. The literature award is now due to be announced on Thursday.
Pamuk's latest novel, Snow, has been widely acclaimed for addressing Turkey's internal clash of cultures. His earlier work, My Name is Red, established his literary prowess. But the author is controversial for an assertion he made in a newspaper interview earlier this year that the Turkish state was guilty of a 20th century genocide against Armenians and Kurds. He faces trial for the comments in his country on 16 December.
Observers of the Nobel process say that, given that the European Union has decided to engage talks on Turkey's entry without condemning the Pamuk trial, some members of the Swedish Academy, which chooses the literature laureate, feel politically exposed.
'If the Pamuk row is real, the academy's reluctance is not based on a fear of being political, or controversial,' said Svante Weyler of Nordstedts publishers, 'but on concern that literature must not be overshadowed by politics.'
Others believe a split in the academy over Pamuk could be based on a long-entrenched principle of avoiding fashions and fads. Pamuk is widely acclaimed but, at the age of 53, is considered on the young side. 'The Nobel Prize must never go to the book of the season. It exists to reward a life's work,' said poet and literary critic Eva Ström.
The suspected row over Pamuk bears the hallmarks of the 'Rushdie affair' - a conflict whose impact can still be felt in the Swedish Academy today.
In February 1989, author and academy member Kerstin Ekman called on her fellow elders to issue a statement condemning the fatwa against Salman Rushdie. They refused, prompting Ekman and author Lars Gyllensten to resign from the Nobel selection process.
The remaining 16 academy members are understood at this stage to have reduced their choice to two candidates. The winner will be chosen by majority vote.
Some observers have suggested the delay in announcing the 2005 prize might not be related to Pamuk, and that academy members may be grappling with a non-fiction candidate or an essayist.
Earlier this year, academy head and committee member Horace Engdahl suggested it was time to 'broaden' the literature prize stating that 'It is important that the prize develops as literature develops.'
His comments have been taken to mean that a journalist such as Poland's Ryszard Kapuscinski could be considered. In the same vein, philosopher Bertrand Russell won it in 1950 and Winston Churchill was given the literature prize three years later for his historical writings. The favourite to win in Stockholm literary circles is Syrian poet Ali Ahmad Said, also known as Adonis.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,5304908-102275,00.html
