{"id":1676,"date":"2017-10-05T04:02:12","date_gmt":"2017-10-05T04:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/people.utm.my\/wanfahminfaiz\/?p=1676"},"modified":"2017-10-05T05:03:29","modified_gmt":"2017-10-05T05:03:29","slug":"nobel-literature-prize-2017-will-handmaids-tale-earn-top-award-for-margaret-atwood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/wanfahminfaiz\/nobel-literature-prize-2017-will-handmaids-tale-earn-top-award-for-margaret-atwood\/","title":{"rendered":"Nobel Literature Prize 2017: Will Handmaid&#8217;s Tale earn top award for Margaret Atwood?"},"content":{"rendered":"<header>\n<div class=\"headline   component \"><\/div>\n<div class=\"hero-area-wrapper\"><\/div>\n<\/header>\n<footer class=\"footer-author\">\n<div class=\"byline component  \"><\/div>\n<\/footer>\n<article>\n<div class=\"articleBodyText version-2 section\">\n<div class=\"article-body-text component  version-2\">\n<div class=\"component-content\">\n<p><span class=\"m_first-letter m_first-letter--flagged\">T<\/span>he Swedish Academy stunned the world last year when it awarded the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/nobel-prize-for-literature\/\">Nobel Literature Prize<\/a>\u00a0to US counter-culture icon and rock star Bob Dylan. This year, experts say, the laureate will be more conventional.<\/p>\n<p>Weeks of speculation and buzz about the Academy\u2019s pick for 2017 will come to an end on Thursday (noon British time), when its permanent secretary Sara Danius announces this year\u2019s winner.<\/p>\n<p>Not only are the 18 Academy members expected to go with a more orthodox choice, predictions are that they will also honour someone who enjoys broad consensus and is seen as Nobel-worthy, with\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/music\/news\/nobel-academy-member-calls--bob-dylan-impolite-and-arrogant\/\">the institution keen to avoid the media spectacle surrounding Dylan\u2019s win<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The first singer-songwriter to win the prestigious prize, the rock legend\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/music\/artists\/bob-dylan-removes-all-mention-of-nobel-prize-win-from-his-websit\/\">didn\u2019t comment on his Nobel for several weeks<\/a>\u00a0and<a href=\"http:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/men\/the-filter\/world-exclusive-bob-dylan---ill-be-at-the-nobel-prize-ceremony-i\/\">\u00a0then snubbed the formal prize ceremony in Stockholm<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The Academy is actually a very discreet society and we shouldn\u2019t expect anything sensational&#8221; this year, Clemens Poellinger, literary critic for Swedish daily Svenska Dagbladet, told AFP.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"htmlEmbed section\">\n<div class=\"html-embed component version-1\">\n<div class=\"component-content\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"articleBodyText section\">\n<div class=\"article-body-text component  \">\n<div class=\"component-content\">\n<p><span class=\"m_first-letter m_first-letter--flagged\">S<\/span>o who will get the nod?<\/p>\n<p>The Academy is known for its cloak-and-dagger methods to prevent any leaks, resorting to code names for authors and fake book covers when reading in public.<\/p>\n<p>Pundits therefore try to dissect the Academy\u2019s latest interests to guess the winner, while punters have a field day on betting sites.<\/p>\n<p>On Wednesday, novelists Haruki Murakami of Japan and Ngugi wa Thiong\u2019o of Kenya had the lowest odds on numerous sites. They were followed by Canada\u2019s Margaret Atwood, whose novel &#8220;The Handmaid\u2019s Tale&#8221; was recently made into a well-received TV series, and Israel\u2019s Amos Oz.<\/p>\n<p>Will the prize go to yet another man? Of the 113 laureates honoured since the prize was first awarded to France\u2019s Sully Prudhomme in 1901, only 14 are women.<\/p>\n<p>But the Academy insists it doesn\u2019t take gender into consideration, nor nationality, language or genre for that matter.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The gender balance among those who have received the prize is embarrassing&#8221;and the Swedish Academy must be aware of it, said Rakel Chukri, the cultural editor of regional daily Sydsvenskan.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"articleBodyImage section\">\n<div class=\"article-body-image component \">\n<div class=\"component-content\">\n<figure>\n<div class=\"lazy-image article-body-image-image is-loaded\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"responsive\" src=\"http:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/content\/dam\/news\/2017\/10\/05\/afp-murakami_trans_NvBQzQNjv4Bqq4InsaC7g3ZFg-mDk7QTa6skjiCG4qGizZKn66d5KWI.jpg?imwidth=480\" alt=\"Japanese writer Haruki Murakami is among the favourites\" \/><\/div><figcaption><span class=\"article-body-image-caption\">Japanese writer Haruki Murakami is among the favourites<\/span>\u00a0<span class=\"article-body-image-copyright\"><span class=\"article-body-image-copyright-label\">CREDIT:<\/span>\u00a0AFP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"articleBodyText section\">\n<div class=\"article-body-text component  \">\n<div class=\"component-content\">\n<p><span class=\"m_first-letter m_first-letter--flagged\">I<\/span>f the Academy were to go with a political pick, it could choose Syrian-born and secular poet Adonis, a stark critic of dictatorship who blends classical and modern styles.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, two Icelandic writers are also making buzz: Sjon, the pen name of poet Sigurjon Birgir Sigurdsson, and Jon Kalman Stefansson.<\/p>\n<p>Halldor Laxness was the only Icelandic author to win the Nobel, in 1955.<\/p>\n<p>Each February, the Academy makes a list of all the nominations it has received by those eligible to do so \u2013 including former laureates and university professors \u2013 before reducing it to five names in May.<\/p>\n<p>The members then spend the summer reading those writers, before making their choice in October.<\/p>\n<p>Behind the scenes, intense lobbying campaigns are mounted to influence the Academy, though its members insist they are immune to such efforts.<\/p>\n<p>The lobbying can even backfire against the writers.<\/p>\n<p>Kjell Espmark, an Academy member for more than 30 years, told daily Dagens Nyheter that the institution was regularly courted by regimes, especially in countries that have industrialised rapidly.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They want an atomic bomb and a laureate,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"htmlEmbed section\">\n<div class=\"html-embed component version-1\">\n<div class=\"component-content\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"articleBodyText section\">\n<div class=\"article-body-text component  \">\n<div class=\"component-content\">\n<p><span class=\"m_first-letter m_first-letter--flagged\">H<\/span>e recounted how during a visit to Portugal in the 1990s, he was approached by then president Mario Soares.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He walked up with Jose Saramago and said \u2019You give the prize to this guy.\u2019 Saramago was so embarrassed he wanted to disappear,&#8221; Espmark recalled.<\/p>\n<p>The Academy, which had already been mulling Saramago for the prize, found itself in a tricky situation, he said: Should they turn their backs on Saramago, or ignore Soares\u2019 blunt move?<\/p>\n<p>They ultimately honoured Saramago in 1998. He remains the only Portuguese-language writer to win the Nobel, though Antonio Lobo Antunes\u2019 name regularly appears in the speculation.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This year I think it\u2019s going to be either Antonio Lobo Antunes or Ismail Kadare from Albania. Both of them are writers who have been tipped for the Nobel for a long time, and both of them are names that when they are read out, everyone will think \u2019Ah, of course they deserve the prize\u2019, and there\u2019ll be no objection,&#8221; said Dagens Nyheter\u2019s culture editor Bjorn Wiman.<\/p>\n<p>At the Hedengrens bookstore in central Stockholm, owner Nicklas Bjorkholm has set up a wall with books by possible winners, including Spain\u2019s Javier Marias, Americans Joan Didion and Don DeLillo, Poland\u2019s Olga Tokarczuk and David Grossmann of Israel.<\/p>\n<p>His personal favourite for the prize is Korean poet Ko Un because, he insists, &#8220;the time has come for a non-anglophone and an Asian&#8221;.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<p>Nobel Literature Prize 2017: Will Handmaid&#8217;s Tale earn top award for Margaret Atwood? &#8211; <a href=\"http:\/\/bndl.tw\/vuH4NU2T\">http:\/\/bndl.tw\/vuH4NU2T<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Swedish Academy stunned the world last year when it awarded the\u00a0Nobel Literature Prize\u00a0to US counter-culture icon and rock star Bob Dylan. This year, experts say, the laureate will be more conventional. Weeks of speculation and buzz about the Academy\u2019s pick for 2017 will come to an end on Thursday (noon British time), when its [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13826,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,3],"tags":[147,146,149,148,150,145],"class_list":["post-1676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-other","tag-will","tag-146","tag-earn-top-award-for","tag-handmaids-tale","tag-margaret-atwood","tag-nobel-literature-prize","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/wanfahminfaiz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/wanfahminfaiz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/wanfahminfaiz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/wanfahminfaiz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13826"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/wanfahminfaiz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1676"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/wanfahminfaiz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1676\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1707,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/wanfahminfaiz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1676\/revisions\/1707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/wanfahminfaiz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/wanfahminfaiz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/wanfahminfaiz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}