Mo Yan Wins Nobel Prize

[kennyc]

PARIS — The Swedish Academy announced on Thursday that it had awarded the 2012 Nobel Prize in Literature to the Chinese author Mo Yan, the cultural high point of a week of accolades to scientists, writers and peacemakers.

“Through a mixture of fantasy and reality, historical and social perspectives, Mo Yan has created a world reminiscent in its complexity of those in the writings of William Faulkner and Gabriel García Márquez, at the same time finding a departure point in old Chinese literature and in oral tradition,” the citation for the award declared.

In addition to novels, Mo Yan has published short stories, essays on various topics, and “despite his social criticism is seen in his homeland as one of the foremost contemporary authors.”

Mr. Mo was born in 1955 in Gaomi, China, and, according to the academy, is resident in China. The citation for the award described him as a writer “who with hallucinatory realism merges folk tales, history and the contemporary.”

The name Mo Yan is a pseudonym for Guan Moye. He is the son of farmers who left school during the Cultural Revolution to work, first in agriculture and later in a factory, according to his Nobel biography.

In 1976 he joined the People’s Liberation Army and began to study literature and write. His first short story was published in a literary journal in 1981, the biography on the Nobel Web site said.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/12/bo...rize.html?_r=0

Several of his books are available free in the Kindle Lending Library on Amazon such as:
http://www.amazon.com/Breasts-Wide-A...9958872&sr=1-1

[HomeInMyShoes]

I read Life and Death are Wearing me Out last year. It seems I'm getting better read every day, even if I'm not reading.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by HomeInMyShoes

I read Life and Death are Wearing me Out last year. It seems I'm getting better read every day, even if I'm not reading.

Yes, yes you are.

[HomeInMyShoes]

I did just put Red Sorgham onto my Want to Read list. That probably should have been the starting point. Has anyone here read it? Is it worthy?

[kennyc]

I know nothing about this writer, just from that article and a brief search/review/reading on Amazon. You're way ahead of me.

[HomeInMyShoes]

I just took a look through the list of Nobel Laureates. I've read something by 8 of 108. That doesn't seem so good. Although I don't read much poetry or drama so that cuts out quite a few winners, but still I could do better.

George Bernard Shaw, Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, John Steinbeck, William Golding, Mo Yan, Gao Xingjian, and Kenzaburo Oe

[Kumabjorn]

It is not inconceivable that Mo Yan will be the last Chinese Nobel Laureate for the next few decades. Chair number five in the Academy belongs to Prof. Göran Malmqvist whose specialty is modern Chinese literature. Prof Malmqvist is 88 years old and will most likely be succeeded by an academic with a different field than Chinese literature. When Gao Xingjian received the prize there was something of a stink in Swedish media because Prof. Malmqvist's translation of Soul Mountain coincided with the announcement.

[HomeInMyShoes]

^Part of the reason I read Soul Mountain last year was the controversy. As the saying goes, "there is no such thing as bad publicity." Then there's all the Eurocentric and Sweden-centric problems as well. But it's a prize, it will always be coloured by the panel itself.

So, who might be future laureates?

I've got Ismail Kadare on my reading list for next year so that's my guess.

[Kumabjorn]

I would be willing to put some money on a female Canadian poet within the next five years.

[Kumabjorn]

Seems some Chinese journalist present in Stockholm almost fainted when the Permanent Secretary of the Academy announced Mo Yan.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Kumabjorn

I would be willing to put some money on a female Canadian poet within the next five years.

Surely there are already female Canadian poets?

[Kumabjorn]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Surely there are already female Canadian poets?

There has to be in case one should take the Nobel Prize in literature
Don't think any laureate has ever been chosen for an oeuvre that only extends over five years. Another sure bet is a Korean author, but I would extend that to ten years.