South African Man Wins Literary Prize
Posted on: Tuesday, 7 October 2003, 06:00 CDT
In the fall of 1990, before either had won the Nobel literature prize, South Africans J.M. Coetzee and Nadine Gordimer visited New York to promote their latest books.
Both were white opponents of the brutal racial system of apartheid, which collapsed during the next few years. But Mr. Coetzee, who won the Nobel prize Thursday, and Ms. Gordimer, the winner in 1991, had different ideas on how a writer should narrate it.
Ms. Gordimer spoke of fiction's subversive power: Imagining a revolution can make it more likely to happen.
Mr. Coetzee questioned whether the novel was an effective way to comment upon current events.
"I don't think the novel is the most effective way to intervene in the daily processes of political life," Mr. Coetzee told The Associated Press at the time.
In winning the Nobel, Mr. Coetzee was cited Thursday as a "scrupulous doubter, ruthless in his criticism of the cruel rationalism and cosmetic morality of Western civilization."
The Swedish Academy said Mr. Coetzee's novels, which include Disgrace, Waiting for the Barbarians and Age of Iron, are characterized by their "well-crafted composition, pregnant dialogue and analytical brilliance."
The 63-year-old Mr. Coetzee, a visiting professor at the University of Chicago's Committee on Social Thought, said in a statement Thursday that the award "came as a complete surprise - I was not even aware that the announcement was pending."
The prize includes a check for more than $1.3 million; it should also help sales. Viking Penguin, Mr. Coetzee's U.S. publisher, anticipates at least doubling the planned 33,000 first printing for his new novel, Elizabeth Costello, due Oct. 16.
A week of Nobel Prizes starts Monday with the medicine award, followed Tuesday with physics and Wednesday with chemistry and economics.
The Nobel Peace Prize winner will be named Oct. 10 in Oslo, Norway.
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