Thursday, October 14, 2010

An Eurocentric Nobel Prize and African literature

Is it true that the Nobel Prize is Eurocentric? Djamel Belayachi, Heba Montaser believe that it is, and they have their reasons. Here is the layout of their argument:
"African literature is generally ignored by the Nobel committee. Since 1901, only four writers from the continent have been rewarded, two of whom are entirely of European descent. This year, Africa has again bitten the dust after many had tipped the Swedish Academy to give the award to one of four ingenious African authors: Chinua Achebe from Nigeria, Nuruddin Farah from Somalia, Ngugi wa Thiong’o from Kenya, and Assia Djebbar from Algeria. Nevertheless, the Swedish Academy has failed to live up to its Eurocentric reputation by choosing Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa as winner of the 2010 Nobel Prize in literature.
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Enjoy the rest of their argument, and share your opinion.

2 comments:

  1. What utter crap. Is Africa the only continent that matters? Is Vargas Llosa European?

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think you have a point here, Anonymous. The whole thing sound a bit whinny.

    ReplyDelete