Dedicated to the great Russian writers.

From October 21 to November 21, 2015, the Library and Information Complex invites you to the exhibition, dedicated to creativity Nobel laureates in literature from Russia and the USSR.

The Nobel Prize for Literature in 2015 was won by a Belarusian writer. The award was given to Svetlana Aleksievich with the following wording: "For her polyphonic creativity - a monument to suffering and courage in our time." We also presented works by Svetlana Alexandrovna at the exhibition.

The exposition can be found at the address: Leningradsky prospect, 49, 1st floor, room. one hundred.

The awards established by the Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel are considered the most honorable in the world. They are awarded annually (since 1901) for outstanding work in the field of medicine or physiology, physics, chemistry, for literary works, for contributions to the strengthening of peace and economy (since 1969).

The Nobel Prize for Literature is an award for achievements in the field of literature, awarded annually by the Nobel Committee in Stockholm on December 10. According to the charter of the Nobel Foundation, the following persons can nominate candidates: members of the Swedish Academy, other academies, institutes and societies with similar tasks and goals; university professors of literary history and linguistics; laureates of the Nobel Prizes in Literature; chairmen of the authors' unions representing literary creativity in the respective countries.

Unlike laureates for other prizes (for example, physics and chemistry), the decision to award Nobel Prize on literature accept members of the Swedish Academy. The Swedish Academy unites 18 workers from Sweden. The Academy includes historians, linguists, writers and one lawyer. They are known in the community as "Eighteen". Membership in the academy is lifetime. After the death of one of the members, the academicians elect a new academician by secret ballot. The Academy selects the Nobel Committee from among its members. It is he who deals with the issue of awarding the prize.

Nobel laureates in literature from Russia and the USSR :

• I. A. Bunin(1933 "For the strict skill with which he develops the traditions of Russian classical prose")
• B.L. Parsnip(1958 "For significant achievements in modern lyric poetry, as well as for the continuation of the traditions of the great Russian epic novel")
• M. A. Sholokhov(1965 "For artistic strength and honesty with which he displayed in his Don epic historical era in the life of the Russian people ")
• A. I. Solzhenitsyn(1970 "For the moral strength with which he followed the immutable traditions of Russian literature")
• I. A. Brodsky(1987 "For an all-encompassing creativity, imbued with clarity of thought and passion of poetry")

Russian laureates in literature are people with different, sometimes opposite views. I. A. Bunin and A. I. Solzhenitsyn are staunch opponents of the Soviet regime, and M. A. Sholokhov, on the contrary, is a communist. However, the main thing they have in common is their undoubted talent, for which they were awarded the Nobel Prizes.

Ivan Alekseevich Bunin is a famous Russian writer and poet, an outstanding master of realistic prose, an honorary member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. In 1920, Bunin emigrated to France.

The most difficult thing for a writer in exile is to remain himself. It so happens that, having left his homeland because of the need to make dubious compromises, he is again forced to mortify the spirit in order to survive. Fortunately, this fate has passed Bunin. Despite any trials, Bunin always remained true to himself.

In 1922, Ivan Alekseevich's wife, Vera Nikolaevna Muromtseva, wrote in her diary that Romain Rolland had nominated Bunin for the Nobel Prize. Since then, Ivan Alekseevich lived in hopes that someday he would be awarded this prize. 1933 year. All the newspapers in Paris on November 10 came out with big headlines: "Bunin - Nobel laureate." Every Russian in Paris, even a loader at the Renault plant, who had never read Bunin before, took it as a personal holiday. For the compatriot turned out to be the best, the most talented! In Parisian taverns and restaurants that evening there were Russians, who sometimes drank their last pennies for "their own."

On the day the prize was awarded, November 9, Ivan Alekseevich Bunin watched in the "Cinema" "funny nonsense" - "Baby". Suddenly a narrow beam of a flashlight cut through the darkness of the hall. They were looking for Bunin. He was called by telephone from Stockholm.

"And immediately my whole old life... I go home quite quickly, but feeling nothing but regret that I was not able to see the film. But no. It is impossible not to believe: the whole house is shining with lights. And my heart squeezes with some kind of sadness ... Some kind of break in my life, "Bunin recalled.

Exciting days in Sweden. V concert hall in the presence of the king, after a report by the writer, member of the Swedish academy, Peter Galstrem, about Bunin's work, he was presented with a folder with a Nobel diploma, a medal and a check for 715 thousand French francs.

When presenting the award, Bunin noted that the Swedish Academy acted very bravely in awarding the emigrant writer. Among the contenders for this year's prize was another Russian writer, M. Gorky, however, largely due to the publication of the book "Arseniev's Life" by that time, the scales tipped towards Ivan Alekseevich.

Returning to France, Bunin feels himself a rich man and, sparing no money, distributes "allowances" to emigrants, donates funds to support various societies. Finally, on the advice of well-wishers, he invests the remaining amount in a "win-win" and is left with nothing.

Bunin's friend, poet and prose writer Zinaida Shakhovskaya, in her memoir book Reflection, remarked: "With skill and a small amount of practicality, the prize should have been enough to the end. But the Bunins did not buy an apartment or a villa ..."

Unlike M. Gorky, A. I. Kuprin, A. N. Tolstoy, Ivan Alekseevich did not return to Russia, despite the admonitions of the Moscow "messengers". I never came to my homeland, even as a tourist.

Boris Leonidovich Pasternak (1890-1960) was born in Moscow into the family of the famous artist Leonid Osipovich Pasternak. Mother, Rosalia Isidorovna, was a talented pianist. Perhaps that is why in childhood the future poet dreamed of becoming a composer and even studied music with Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin. However, the love of poetry won out. Glory to BL Pasternak was brought by his poetry, and bitter trials - "Doctor Zhivago", a novel about the fate of the Russian intelligentsia.

The editors of the literary magazine, to which Pasternak offered the manuscript, considered the work anti-Soviet and refused to publish it. Then the writer transferred the novel abroad, to Italy, where it was published in 1957. The very fact of publication in the West was sharply condemned by Soviet colleagues in the creative workshop, and Pasternak was expelled from the Writers' Union. However, it was Doctor Zhivago that made Boris Pasternak a Nobel laureate. The writer was nominated for the Nobel Prize since 1946, but it was awarded only in 1958, after the publication of the novel. In the conclusion of the Nobel Committee it is said: "... for significant achievements both in modern lyric poetry and in the field of the great Russian epic tradition."

At home, the award of such honorary award The "anti-Soviet novel" was outraged by the authorities, and under the threat of expulsion from the country, the writer was forced to refuse the award. Only 30 years later, his son, Evgeny Borisovich Pasternak, received a diploma and a Nobel laureate medal for his father.

The fate of another Nobel laureate, Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn, is no less dramatic. He was born in 1918 in Kislovodsk, and spent his childhood and youth in Novocherkassk and Rostov-on-Don. After graduating from the Physics and Mathematics Faculty of Rostov University, A.I. Solzhenitsyn worked as a teacher and at the same time studied in absentia at the Literary Institute in Moscow. When the Great began Patriotic War, the future writer went to the front.

Shortly before the end of the war, Solzhenitsyn was arrested. The reason for the arrest was the critical remarks about Stalin found by the military censorship in Solzhenitsyn's letters. He was released after Stalin's death (1953). In 1962 the journal " New world"published the first story -" One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich ", which tells about the life of prisoners in the camp. literary magazines refused to print. There was only one explanation: anti-Soviet orientation. However, the writer did not back down and sent the manuscripts abroad, where they were published. Alexander Isaevich was not limited to literary activity- he fought for the freedom of political prisoners in the USSR, sharply criticized the Soviet system.

A. I. Solzhenitsyn's literary works and political position were well known abroad, and in 1970 he was awarded the Nobel Prize. The writer did not go to Stockholm for the ceremony: he was not allowed to leave the country. Representatives of the Nobel Committee, who wanted to present the prize to the laureate at home, were not allowed into the USSR.

In 1974 A. I. Solzhenitsyn was expelled from the country. At first he lived in Switzerland, then moved to the United States, where he was, with a significant delay, awarded the Nobel Prize. In the West, such works as "The First Circle", "The Gulag Archipelago", "August 1914", "Cancer Ward" were published. In 1994 A. Solzhenitsyn returned to his homeland, having traveled through all of Russia, from Vladivostok to Moscow.

The fate of Mikhail Alexandrovich Sholokhov, the only one of Russian laureates Nobel Prize in Literature, who was supported government bodies... M. A. Sholokhov (1905-1980) was born in the south of Russia, on the Don - in the center of the Russian Cossacks. His small homeland - the Kruzhilin farm of the village of Vyoshenskaya - he later described in many works. Sholokhov graduated from only four classes of the gymnasium. He actively participated in the events civil war, led a food detachment that took away the so-called surplus grain from rich Cossacks.

Already in his youth, the future writer felt a penchant for literary creativity. In 1922 Sholokhov arrived in Moscow, and in 1923 he began to publish his first stories in newspapers and magazines. In 1926, the collections "Don Stories" and "Azure Steppe" were published. Work on "Quiet Don" - a novel about the life of the Don Cossacks in the era of the Great Crisis (First World War, revolutions and civil war) - began in 1925. In 1928 the first part of the novel was published, and Sholokhov finished it in the 30s. " Quiet Don"became the pinnacle of the writer's creativity, and in 1965 he was awarded the Nobel Prize" for the artistic power and completeness with which he in his epic about the Don reflected a historical phase in the life of the Russian people. "" Quiet Don "has been translated in 45 countries of the world into several dozen languages.

By the time of receiving the Nobel Prize in the bibliography of Joseph Brodsky, there were six collections of poems, the poem "Gorbunov and Gorchakov", the play "Marble", many essays (written mainly in English language). However, in the USSR, from where the poet was exiled in 1972, his works were distributed mainly in samizdat, and he received the prize, already being a citizen of the United States of America.

For him, the spiritual connection with his homeland was important. As a relic, he even wanted to wear Boris Pasternak's tie for the Nobel Prize, but protocol rules did not allow. Nevertheless, Brodsky still came with Pasternak's tie in his pocket. After perestroika, Brodsky was repeatedly invited to Russia, but he never came to his homeland, which rejected him. “You can't enter the same river twice, even if it's the Neva,” he said.

From Brodsky's Nobel Lecture: “A person with taste, in particular literary, is less susceptible to repetitions and rhythmic incantations inherent in any form of political demagoguery. The point is not so much that virtue is not a guarantee of a masterpiece, but rather that evil, especially political, is always a bad stylist. The richer the aesthetic experience of an individual, the harder his taste, the clearer it is. moral choice, the freer he is - although, perhaps, not happier. It is in this, rather applied than platonic, sense that Dostoevsky's remark that "beauty will save the world" or Matthew Arnold's statement that "poetry will save us" should be understood. The world, probably, will not be able to save, but it is always possible to save an individual person. "

South African John Maxwell Coetzee is the first writer to be twice awarded the Booker Prize (in 1983 and 1999). In 2003, he won the Nobel Prize in Literature "for creating countless guises of amazing situations involving outsiders." Coetzee's novels are characterized by well-thought-out composition, rich dialogues and analytical skill. He mercilessly criticizes the cruel rationalism and artificial morality of Western civilization. At the same time, Coetzee is one of those writers who rarely speaks about his work, and even less often about himself. However, Scenes from Provincial Life, amazing autobiographical novel, - an exception. Here Coetzee is extremely frank with the reader. He talks about the painful, suffocating love of his mother, about the hobbies and mistakes that followed him for years, and about the path that he had to go through to finally start writing.

"Modest Hero" by Mario Vargas Llosa

Mario Vargas Llosa is an eminent Peruvian novelist and playwright who received the 2010 Nobel Prize in Literature “for mapping the structure of power and bright images resistance, rebellion and defeat of the individual. " Continuing the line of great Latin American writers such as Jorge Luis Borges, García Márquez, Julio Cortazar, he creates amazing novels balancing on the brink of reality and fiction. In the new book by Vargas Llosa "The Modest Hero" in an elegant rhythm, the mariners masterfully twist two parallel storylines... The hard worker Felicito Yanache, decent and trusting, falls prey to strange blackmailers. At the same time, a successful businessman Ismael Carrera, at the end of his life, seeks revenge on his two sons-idlers who yearn for his death. And Ismael and Felicito, of course, are not heroes at all. However, where others faint-heartedly agree, the two engage in a quiet riot. Old acquaintances - the characters of the world created by Vargas Llosa - flicker on the pages of the new novel.

"The Moons of Jupiter" by Alice Munro

Canadian writer Alice Munroe is a master of contemporary short story, winner of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature. Critics constantly compare Munro to Chekhov, and this comparison is not without reason: like a Russian writer, she knows how to tell a story in such a way that readers, even those belonging to a completely different culture, recognize themselves in the heroes. So these twelve stories, presented, at first glance, in an ingenuous language, reveal amazing plot abysses. On some twenty pages, Munroe manages to create a whole world - alive, tangible and incredibly attractive.

"Beloved" by Toni Morrison

Toni Morrison won the 1993 Nobel Prize for Literature as a writer “who, in her novels full of dreams and poetry, brought to life important aspect American reality ". Her most famous novel, Beloved, came out in 1987 and won the Pulitzer Prize. The book is based on real events that took place in Ohio in the 80s of the nineteenth century: this amazing story black slave Satie, who decided on a terrible deed - to give freedom, but take life. Sety kills her daughter to save her from slavery. A novel about how difficult it is sometimes to tear out the memory of the past from the heart, oh difficult choice destiny-changing, and people who remain loved forever.

"A Woman from Nowhere" by Jean-Marie Gustave Leclezio

Jean-Marie Gustave Leclezio, one of the largest living French writers, won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2008. He is the author of thirty books, including novels, stories, essays and articles. In the presented book, for the first time in Russian, two stories by Leclezio are published at once: "The Tempest" and "A Woman from Nowhere". The first action takes place on an island lost in the Sea of ​​Japan, the second - in Cote d'Ivoire and the Parisian suburbs. However, despite such a vast geography, the heroines of both stories are somewhat similar - these are teenage girls who desperately strive to find their place in an inhospitable, hostile world. The Frenchman Leclezio, who has lived for a long time in the countries of South America, Africa, Southeast Asia, Japan, Thailand and on his home island of Mauritius, writes about how a person who grew up in the bosom of pristine nature feels himself in the oppressive space of modern civilization.

"My Strange Thoughts" Orhan Pamuk

Turkish prose writer Orhan Pamuk received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2006 "for finding new symbols for the clash and intertwining of cultures in his search for the melancholic soul of his hometown." "My Strange Thoughts" - last novel author, on which he worked for six years. The main character, Mevlut, works on the streets of Istanbul, watching the streets fill with new people, and the city gains and loses new and old buildings. Before his eyes, coups are taking place, the authorities are replacing each other, and Mevlut is still wandering the streets. winter evenings, wondering what makes him different from other people, why strange thoughts about everything in the world visit him, and who really is his beloved, to whom he has been writing letters for the past three years.

“Legends of our time. Occupation essays "Czeslaw Milosz

Czeslaw Milosz is a Polish poet and essayist who won the 1980 Nobel Prize for Literature "for showing with fearless clairvoyance the vulnerability of man in a world torn apart by conflict." “Legends of the Present” is the first translated into Russian “Confession of the Son of the Century”, written by Milos on the ruins of Europe in 1942–1943. It includes essays on outstanding literary (Defoe, Balzac, Stendhal, Tolstoy, Zhide, Witkiewicz) and philosophical (James, Nietzsche, Bergson) texts, and polemical correspondence between C. Milos and E. Andzheevsky. Exploring modern myths and prejudices, appealing to the tradition of rationalism, Milos is trying to find a fulcrum for the European culture humiliated by the two world wars.

Photo: Getty Images, Press Services Archive

The Nobel Prize in Literature is the most prestigious international award. Established from the foundation of the Swedish chemical engineer, millionaire Alfred Bernhard Nobel (1833-96); according to his will, is awarded annually to the person who created outstanding work"Ideal direction". The selection of the candidacy is carried out by the Royal Swedish Academy in Stockholm; a new laureate is determined at the end of October each year, and on December 10 (the day of Nobel's death) the Gold Medal is awarded; then the laureate makes a speech, usually of a programmatic nature. Laureates are also eligible to deliver the Nobel Lecture. The amount of the premium fluctuates. Usually awarded for all the work of the writer, less often for individual works... The Nobel Prize began to be awarded in 1901; in some years it was not awarded (1914, 1918, 1935, 194043, 1950).

Nobel Prize Laureates for Literature:

The Nobel Prize winners are writers: A. Sully-Prudhomme (1901), B. Bjornson (1903), F. Mistral, H. Echegaray (1904), G. Senkevich (1905), J. Carducci (1906), R. Kipling (1906), S. Lagerlöf (1909), P. Heise (1910), M. Meterlink (1911), G. Hauptmann (1912), R. Tagore (1913), R. Rollan (1915), K. G. W. von Heidenstam (1916), K. Gjellerup and H. Pontoppidan (1917), K. Spitteler (1919), K. Hamsun (1920), A. France (1921), H. Benavente y Martinez (1922), U B. Yeats (1923), B. Raymont (1924), J. B. Shaw (1925), G. Deledez (1926), C. Unseg (1928), T. Mann (1929), S. Lewis (1930 ), E.A. Karlfeldt (1931), J. Golsworthy (1932), I. A. Bunin (1933), L. Pirandello (1934), J. O'Neill (1936), R. Martin du Gard (1937 ), P. Bak (1938), F. Sillanpää (1939), I. V. Jensen (1944), G. Mistral (1945), G. Hesse (1946), A. Gide (1947), T.S. Eliot (1948), W. Faulkner (1949), P. Lagerkvist (1951), F. Moriak (1952), E. Hemingway (1954), H. Laxness (1955), H. R. Jimenez (1956), A. Camus (1957), B.L. Pasternak (1958), S. Quasimodo (1959), Saint-Jon Perce (1960), I. Andrich (1961), J. Steinbeck (1962), G. Seferiadis (1963) , J.P. Sartre (1964), M.A.Sholokhov (1965), S.I. Agnon and Nelly Sachs (1966), M.A.Asturias (1967), J.Kawabata (1968), S. Beckett (1969), A. I. Solzhenitsyn (1970), P. Neruda (1971), G. Böll (1972), P. White (1973), H. E. Martinson, E. Ionson (1974), E. Montale (1975) , S. Bellou (1976), V. Alexandre (1977), I.B. Singer (1978), O. Elitis (1979), C. Milos (1980), E. Canetti (1981), G. Garcia Marquez ( 1982), W. Golding (1983), J. Seifersh (1984), K. Simon (1985), V. Shoyinka (1986), I. A. Brodsky (1987), N. Mahfuz (1988), K. Kh Selah (1989), O. Pas (1990), N. Gordimer (1991), D. Walcott (1992), T. Morrison (1993), C. Oe (1994), S. Heaney (1995), V. Shimbarskaya (1996), D. Fo (1997), J. Saramagu (1998), G. Grass (1999), Gao Xinjiang (2000).

Among the laureates of the Nobel Prize in Literature are the German historian T. Mommsen (1902), the German philosopher R. Eiken (1908), French philosopher A. Bergson (1927), English philosopher, political scientist, publicist B. Russell (1950), English politician and historian W. Churchill (1953).

The Nobel Prize was rejected: B. Pasternak (1958), J.P. Sartre (1964). At the same time, L. Tolstoy, M. Gorky, J. Joyce, B. Brecht were not awarded the prize.

Nobel Prize for Literature

What is a Nobel Prize?

Since 1901, the Nobel Prize in Literature (Swedish: Nobelpriset i litteratur) has been awarded annually to an author from any country who, according to the testament of Alfred Nobel, has created "the most outstanding literary work of idealistic orientation" (Swedish source: den som inom litteraturen harrat produce det mest framstående verket i en idealisk riktning). While individual works are sometimes noted as particularly noteworthy, “work” here refers to the author's entire legacy. The Swedish Academy decides every year who will receive the prize, if any at all. The Academy will announce the name of the selected laureate in early October. The Nobel Prize for Literature is one of five established by Alfred Nobel in his will in 1895. Other prizes: Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Nobel Prize in Physics, Nobel Peace Prize, and Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Despite the fact that the Nobel Prize in Literature has become the most prestigious literary prize in the world, the Swedish Academy has received significant criticism for its awarding procedures. Many of the award winning authors have discontinued their writing while others who were denied awards by the jury remain widely scrutinized and read. The prize "has come to be widely regarded as a political prize - a peace prize in literary guise." Judges discriminate against authors with political views that differ from their own. Tim Parks remarked skeptically that "Swedish professors ... allow themselves to compare a poet from Indonesia, possibly translated into English, to a novelist from Cameroon, whose work is probably only available in French, and another who writes in Afrikaans but is published in German and Dutch ... ". As of 2016, 16 of the 113 laureates were of Scandinavian origin. The academy was often accused of preferring European, and in particular Swedish, authors Some notable personalities, such as the Indian academician Sabari Mitra, have noted that while the Nobel Prize in Literature is significant and tends to overshadow other awards, it "is not the only benchmark for literary excellence."

The "vague" wording that Nobel gave to the criteria for evaluating the award, leads to ongoing controversy. The original Swedish word for idealisk is translated as either "idealistic" or "ideal". The interpretation of the Nobel Committee has changed over the years. V last years I mean a kind of idealism in advocating for human rights on a large scale.

History of the Nobel Prize

Alfred Nobel stipulated in his will that his money should be used to establish a number of prizes for those who bring "the greatest benefit to humanity" in physics, chemistry, peace, physiology or medicine, as well as literature. of his life, the latter was written just over a year before his death, and signed at the Swedish-Norwegian Club in Paris on November 27, 1895. Nobel bequeathed 94% of his total assets, that is, 31 million SEK (198 million US dollars, or 176 million euros as of 2016), for the establishment and presentation of five Nobel Prizes. high level skepticism around his will, it was not put into effect until April 26, 1897, when the Storting (Norwegian parliament) approved it. The executors of his will were Ragnar Sulman and Rudolph Liliequist, who established the Nobel Foundation to take care of the Nobel state and organize prizes.

The members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, who were to award the Peace Prize, were appointed shortly after the will was approved. They were followed by the awarding organizations: the Karolinska Institute on June 7, the Swedish Academy on June 9, and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences on June 11. The Nobel Foundation then reached an agreement on the basic principles according to which the Nobel Prize should be awarded. In 1900, King Oscar II promulgated the newly established statutes of the Nobel Foundation. According to Nobel's will, the Royal Swedish Academy was to award the prize in the field of literature.

Candidates for the Nobel Prize in Literature

Every year, the Swedish Academy sends out requests for nominations for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Academy members, members of literary academies and communities, professors of literature and language, former Nobel Prize winners in literature, and presidents of writers' organizations all have the right to nominate a candidate. You are not allowed to nominate yourself.

Thousands of requests are sent every year, and as of 2011, about 220 offers have been rejected. These proposals must be received at the Academy by February 1, after which they are considered by the Nobel Committee. Until April, the Academy is reducing the number of candidates to about twenty. By May, the Committee will approve the final list of five names. The next four months are spent reading and reviewing the papers of these five candidates. In October, the members of the Academy vote and the candidate with more than half of the votes is declared the Nobel Prize Laureate in Literature. No one can win an award without being on the list at least twice, so many of the authors are reviewed multiple times over the years. The academy is fluent in thirteen languages, but if a shortlisted candidate is working in an unfamiliar language, they will hire sworn translators and experts to provide samples of that writer’s work. The rest of the process is the same as in other Nobel Prizes.

The size of the Nobel Prize

The Nobel Prize Laureate in Literature receives a gold medal, a diploma with a quote, and sum of money... Sum awarded prize depends on the income of the Nobel Foundation this year. If the prize is awarded to more than one laureate, the money is either divided in half between them, or, if there are three laureates, it is divided in half, and the other half is divided into two quarters of the amount. If a prize is awarded jointly to two or more laureates, the money is split between them.

The prize fund for the Nobel Prize has fluctuated since its inception, but as of 2012 it stood at 8,000,000 kroons (about 1,100,000 USD), up from 10,000,000 kroons previously. This was not the first time the prize money had been diminished. Starting with a par value of 150,782 kronor in 1901 (equivalent to 8,123,951 kronor in 2011), the par value was only 121,333 kronor (equivalent to 2,370,660 kronor in 2011) in 1945. But since then, the amount has grown or has been stable, peaking at SEK 11,659,016 in 2001.

Nobel Prize medals

The Nobel Prize medals, minted by the mints of Sweden and Norway since 1902, are registered trademarks of the Nobel Foundation. The obverse (obverse) of each medal shows the left profile of Alfred Nobel. The Nobel Prize medals in physics, chemistry, physiology and medicine, literature have the same obverse with the image of Alfred Nobel and the years of his birth and death (1833-1896). The Nobel portrait is also depicted on the obverse of the Nobel Peace Prize medal and the Prize in Economics medal, but the design is slightly different. The depiction on the reverse of the medal varies depending on the awarding institution. The reverse sides of the Nobel Prize medals in chemistry and physics have the same design. The design of the Nobel Prize in Literature Medal was developed by Eric Lindbergh.

Nobel Prize Diplomas

Nobel laureates receive their diplomas directly from the hands of the King of Sweden. Each diploma is specially designed by the institution that awards the prize to the laureate. The diploma contains an image and text, which indicates the name of the laureate, and as a rule it is cited for which he received the award.

Nobel Prize Winners in Literature

Selection of candidates for the Nobel Prize

Potential recipients of the Nobel Prize in Literature are difficult to predict, since the nominations are kept secret for fifty years, until the database of the nominees for the Nobel Prize in Literature is freely available. On the this moment only nominations submitted between 1901 and 1965 are available for public viewing. Such secrecy leads to speculation about the next Nobel laureate.

What about rumors circulating around the world about certain people allegedly nominated for the Nobel Prize this year? - Well, either these are just rumors, or one of the invited persons, proposing nominees, leaked information. Since the nominations have been kept secret for 50 years, you will have to wait until you know for sure.

According to Professor Göran Malmqvist of the Swedish Academy, Chinese writer Shen Tsongwen should have been awarded the 1988 Nobel Prize in Literature if he hadn't died suddenly that year.

Criticism of the Nobel Prize

Controversy over the selection of Nobel Prize winners

From 1901 to 1912, a committee headed by the conservative Karl David af Wiersen evaluated the literary value of the work in comparison with its contribution to humanity's pursuit of "the ideal." Tolstoy, Ibsen, Zola, and Mark Twain were rejected in favor of authors that few people read today. In addition, many believe that Sweden's historical antipathy towards Russia is the reason why neither Tolstoy nor Chekhov were awarded the prize. During and immediately after World War I, the Committee adopted a policy of neutrality, favoring authors from non-belligerent countries. The committee has repeatedly bypassed August Strindberg. However, he received a special honor in the form of the Antinobel Prize, awarded to him in the wake of stormy national recognition in 1912 by future Prime Minister Karl Hjalmar Branting. James Joyce wrote books that ranked # 1 and # 3 on the list of 100 best novels modern times - "Ulysses" and "Portrait of an Artist in his Youth", but Joyce has never been awarded the Nobel Prize. As his biographer Gordon Bowker wrote, "This award was simply beyond Joyce's reach."

The academy found the novel War with the Salamanders by the Czech writer Karel Czapek too offensive for the German government. In addition, he refused to provide any non-controversial publication of his that could be referred to when evaluating his work, saying: "Thanks for the favor, but I have already written my doctoral dissertation." Thus, he was left without a prize.

The first woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature only in 1909 was Selma Lagerlöf (Sweden 1858-1940) for "the high idealism, vivid imagination and spiritual insight that distinguish all her works."

French novelist and intellectual André Malraux was seriously considered a candidate for the prize in the 1950s, according to the archives of the Swedish Academy studied by Le Monde since its opening in 2008. Malraux competed with Camus, but was turned down several times, notably in 1954 and 1955, "until he returned to the novel." Thus, Camus was awarded a prize in 1957.

Some believe that W.H. Auden was not awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature due to errors in his 1961 translation of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dag Hammarskjöld's book Vägmärken / Markings, and the statements Oden made during his a lecture tour of Scandinavia, suggesting that Hammarskjold, like Auden himself, was homosexual.

In 1962, John Steinbeck received the Nobel Prize in Literature. The selection was heavily criticized and was called "one of the Academy's biggest mistakes" in a Swedish newspaper. The New York Times wondered why the Nobel Committee gave the award to an author whose "limited talent even in his best books diluted with the most base philosophizing ", adding the following:" it seems to us curious that the author was not honored ... whose meaning, influence and perfect literary heritage has already had a deeper impact on the literature of our time. "Steinbeck himself, when asked on the day the results were announced if he deserved the Nobel Prize, replied:" Honestly, no. "In 2012 (50 years later), the Nobel Committee opened its the archives, and it was revealed that Steinbeck was a "compromise" among the shortlisted nominees such as Steinbeck himself, British authors Robert Graves and Lawrence Darrell, French playwright Jean Anouil and Danish writer Karen Blixen. Declassified documents indicate that he was chosen as the lesser of evils. "There are no clear candidates for the Nobel Prize, and the award committee is in an unenviable position," writes committee member Henry Olson.

In 1964, Jean-Paul Sartre was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, but declined it, stating that “There is a difference between the signature“ Jean-Paul Sartre, ”or“ Jean-Paul Sartre, Nobel Prize winner. ”A writer must not allow to turn oneself into an institution, even if it takes the most honorable forms. "

Soviet dissident writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn, laureate of 1970, did not attend the Nobel Prize ceremony in Stockholm for fear that the USSR would prevent his return after the trip (his work there was distributed through samizdat - an underground form of printing). After the Swedish government refused to honor Solzhenitsyn with an award ceremony and a lecture at the Swedish embassy in Moscow, Solzhenitsyn refused the award altogether, noting that the conditions set by the Swedes (who preferred a private ceremony) were "an insult to the Nobel Prize itself." Solzhenitsyn accepted the award and cash prize only on December 10, 1974, when he was deported from the Soviet Union.

In 1974, Graham Greene, Vladimir Nabokov, and Saul Bellow were considered candidates for the prize, but were rejected in favor of a joint prize awarded to Swedish authors Eyvind Yunson and Harry Martinson, members of the Swedish Academy at the time, unknown outside their home country. Bellow received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1976. Neither Green nor Nabokov were awarded the prize.

Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges has been nominated for the award several times, but according to Edwin Williamson, Borges's biographer, the Academy did not present him with the award, most likely due to his support for some Argentine and Chilean right-wing military dictators, including Augusto Pinochet. whose social and personal connections were highly convoluted, according to Colm Toybin's review of Williamson's Borges in Life. Borges's denial of the Nobel Prize for supporting these right-wing dictators contrasts with the Committee's recognition of writers who openly supported controversial left-wing dictatorships, including Joseph Stalin in the cases of Sartre and Pablo Neruda. In addition, the moment with Gabriel García Márquez's support for the Cuban revolutionary and President Fidel Castro was controversial.

The awarding of Italian playwright Dario Fo in 1997 was initially considered "rather superficial" by some critics, as he was primarily viewed as a performer, and Catholic organizations considered the award to Fo controversial, as he had previously been condemned by the Roman Catholic Church. The Vatican newspaper L "Osservatore Romano" expressed surprise at Fo's choice, noting that "Giving an award to someone who is also the author of questionable works is unthinkable." Salman Rushdie and Arthur Miller were clear candidates for the prize, but Nobel organizers, as later was quoted as saying they would be "too predictable, too popular."

Camilo José Cela willingly offered his services as an informant for the Franco regime and voluntarily moved from Madrid to Galicia during the Spanish Civil War to join the rebel forces there. Miguel ngel Vilhena's article Between Fear and Impunity, which collected comments from Spanish novelists about the remarkable silence of the older generation of Spanish novelists about the past of public intellectuals during the Franco dictatorship, appeared under a photograph of Cela during his Nobel Prize ceremony in Stockholm in 1989 ...

The choice of the 2004 laureate, Elfrida Jelinek, was contested by a member of the Swedish Academy, Knut Anlund, who had not been an active member of the Academy since 1996. Anlund resigned, arguing that Jelinek's choice caused "irreparable damage" to the prize's reputation.

The announcement of Harold Pinter as a 2005 winner was delayed by several days, apparently due to the resignation of Anlund, and this led to renewed speculation that there was a "political element" in the presentation of the Prize by the Swedish Academy. Although Pinter was unable to read his controversial Nobel lecture personally, due to ill health, he broadcast it from a television studio and it was broadcast on video to screens in front of an audience at the Swedish Academy in Stockholm. His comments became the source a large number interpretations and discussions. Their "political stance" was also raised in response to the Nobel Prize in Literature to Orhan Pamuk and Doris Lessing in 2006 and 2007, respectively.

The choice of 2016 fell on Bob Dylan, and it was the first time in history that a musician and songwriter received the Nobel Prize for Literature. The award sparked some controversy, particularly among writers, who argued that Dylan's literary merit was not equal to that of some of his colleagues. Lebanese novelist Rabih Alameddin tweeted that "Bob Dylan, winning the Nobel Prize for Literature, is the same as if Mrs. Fields' cookies received 3 Michelin stars." French-Moroccan writer Pierre Assulin called this decision "contempt for writers." During a live web chat hosted by The Guardian, Norwegian writer Karl Uwe Knausgaard said: “I am very discouraged. fine. But knowing that Dylan is from the same generation as Thomas Pynchon, Philip Roth, Cormac McCarthy, I find it very difficult to accept. " Scottish writer Irwin Welch said: "I'm a Dylan fan, but this award is just a poorly balanced nostalgia expelled by the old rotten prostates of mumbling hippies." Dylan's songwriter and friend Leonard Cohen said no awards were needed to recognize the greatness of the man who transformed pop music with records such as Highway 61 Revisited. "For me," Cohen said, "[being awarded the Nobel Prize] is like hanging a medal on Mount Everest for being the tallest mountain." Writer and columnist Will Self wrote that the award "devalued" Dylan when he hoped the laureate would "follow Sartre's example and reject the award."

Controversial Nobel Prize awards

The focus of the award on Europeans, and Swedes in particular, has been the subject of criticism, even in Swedish newspapers. Most of the laureates were Europeans, and Sweden received more awards than all of Asia together with Latin America. In 2009, Horace Engdahl, later permanent secretary of the Academy, stated that “Europe is still the center of the literary world,” and that “the United States is too isolated, too withdrawn. They don’t translate enough works, and they don’t take an active part in the big literary dialogue. "

In 2009, Peter Englund, who replaced Engdahl, rejected this opinion (“In most language areas ... there are authors who really deserve and could receive the Nobel Prize, and this applies to both the United States and the Americas in overall ") and acknowledged the Eurocentric nature of the award, stating:" I think this is a problem. We tend to be more responsive to literature written in Europe and in the European tradition. " American critics are known to have objected that their compatriots like Philip Roth, Thomas Pynchon and Cormac McCarthy have been overlooked, as have Hispanics like Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortazar, and Carlos Fuentes, while the Europeans, lesser known on this continent, were victorious. The 2009 award, retired by Gerte Müller, formerly little known outside Germany, but many times named the favorite of the Nobel Prize, renewed the view that the Swedish Academy was biased and Eurocentric.

However, the 2010 prize went to Mario Vargas Llosa, who was originally from Peru in South America. When the prize was awarded to the distinguished Swedish poet Tumas Tranströmer in 2011, the permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy Peter Englund said the prize was not awarded on a political basis, describing the term “literature for dummies”. The next two awards were presented to non-Europeans by the Swedish Academy, the Chinese author Mo Yan, and Canadian writer Alice Munroe. Victory French writer Modiano revived the Eurocentrism issue in 2014. Asked by The Wall Street Journal, "So, again without Americans this year? Why?"

Undeservedly received Nobel Prizes

In the history of the Nobel Prize in Literature, many literary achievements have been overlooked. Literary historian Kjell Espmark admits that “when it comes to early prizes, bad choices and egregious omissions are often justified. For example, instead of Sully Prudhomme, Aiken, and Heise, it was worth rewarding Tolstoy, Ibsea, and Henry James. "There are omissions that are outside the control of the Nobel Committee, for example, due to the untimely death of the author, as was the case with Marcel Proust, Italo Calvino, and Roberto Bolagno. According to Kjell Espmark, "the main works of Kafka, Cavafy and Pessoa were published only after their death, and the world learned about the true greatness of Mandelstam's poetry primarily from unpublished poems that his wife saved from oblivion long after his death in Siberian exile." British novelist Tim Parks attributed the endless controversy surrounding the Nobel committee's decisions to "the prize's principled frivolity and our own stupidity in taking it seriously," and also noted that "eighteen (or sixteen) Swedish citizens will have a certain amount of authority when evaluating Swedish literature. but which group could ever truly embrace their m mind the infinitely varied work of dozens of different traditions? And why should we ask them to do this? "

Equivalents to the Nobel Prize in Literature

The Nobel Prize in Literature is not the only literary prize for which authors of all nationalities are eligible. Other notable international literary awards include the Neustadt Literary Prize, the Franz Kafka Prize, and the International Booker Prize. Unlike the Nobel Prize in Literature, the Franz Kafka Prize, the International Booker Prize, and the Neustadt Prize for Literature are awarded every two years. Journalist Hepzibah Anderson noted that the International Booker Prize "is rapidly becoming a more significant award, serving as an increasingly competent alternative to the Nobel." The Booker International Prize "focuses on the overall contribution of a single writer to fiction on the world stage" and "focuses on literary excellence only." Since it was only established in 2005, it is not yet possible to analyze the importance of its impact on potential future Nobel Prize winners in literature. Only Alice Munroe (2009) has been honored with both. However, some International Booker Prize winners such as Ismail Kadare (2005) and Philip Roth (2011) are considered nominees for the Nobel Prize in Literature. The Neustadt Literary Prize is considered one of the most prestigious international literary awards, and is often referred to as the American equivalent of the Nobel Prize. Like the Nobel or Booker Prize, it is awarded not for any work, but for the entire work of the author. The prize is often seen as an indicator that a particular author may be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Gabriel García Márquez (1972 - Neustadt, 1982 - Nobel), Czeslaw Milos (1978 - Neustadt, 1980 - Nobel), Octavio Paz (1982 - Neustadt, 1990 - Nobel), Tranströmer (1990 - Neustadt, 2011 - Nobel) were initially awarded Neustadt International Literary Prize before being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Another noteworthy award is the Princess of Asturias Prize (formerly the Prize of the Irinsky of Asturias) for Literature. In the early years of its existence, it was almost exclusively awarded to writers who wrote in Spanish, but later the prize was also awarded to writers working in other languages. Among the writers who have received both the Princess of Asturias Prize for Literature and the Nobel Prize for Literature are Camilo José Cela, Gunther Grass, Doris Lessing, and Mario Vargas Llosa.

The American Prize for Literature, which does not provide a cash prize, is an alternative to the Nobel Prize for Literature. To date, Harold Pinter and Jose Saramago are the only writers to have received both literary awards.

There are also prizes that honor the lifetime achievement of writers in specific languages, such as the Miguel de Cervantes Prize (for authors writing in Spanish, established in 1976) and the Camões Prize (for Portuguese-speaking authors, established in 1989). Nobel laureates who were also awarded the Cervantes Prize: Octavio Paz (1981 - Cervantes, 1990 - Nobel), Mario Vargas Llosa (1994 - Cervantes, 2010 - Nobel), and Camilo José Cela (1995 - Cervantes, 1989 - Nobel). Jose Saramago is, to date, the only author to have received both the Camões Prize (1995) and the Nobel Prize (1998).

The Hans Christian Andersen Award is sometimes called the "Little Nobel". The award deserves its name because, like the Nobel Prize in Literature, it takes into account the lifetime achievements of writers, although the Andersen Prize focuses on one category. literary works(children's literature).

FIVE RUSSIAN WRITERS BECOMING NOBEL LAUREATES 1. IVAN BUNIN. On December 10, 1933, King Gustav V of Sweden presented the Nobel Prize in Literature to the writer Ivan Bunin, who became the first Russian writer to receive this high award. All in all, the prize, established by the inventor of dynamite Alfred Bernhard Nobel in 1833, was received by 21 people from Russia and the USSR, five of them in the field of literature. True, historically it happened that for Russian poets and writers The Nobel Prize was fraught with big problems. Ivan Alekseevich Bunin handed out the Nobel Prize to his friends. In December 1933, the Paris press wrote: “Without a doubt, I.A. Bunin - in recent years - the most powerful figure in Russian fiction and poetry "," the king of literature confidently and equally shook hands with the crowned monarch. " The Russian emigration applauded. In Russia, however, the news that a Russian emigrant had received the Nobel Prize was reacted very caustically. After all, Bunin reacted negatively to the events of 1917 and emigrated to France. Ivan Alekseevich himself was very upset by emigration, was actively interested in the fate of his abandoned homeland and during the Second World War categorically refused all contacts with the Nazis, having moved to the Alpes-Maritimes in 1939, returned from there to Paris only in 1945. It is known that Nobel laureates have the right to themselves decide how to spend the money they receive. Someone invests in the development of science, someone in charity, someone in own business... Bunin, a creative person and devoid of "practical ingenuity," disposed of his prize, which amounted to 170,331 crowns, was completely irrational. Poet and literary critic Zinaida Shakhovskaya recalled: “Returning to France, Ivan Alekseevich ... apart from money, began to arrange feasts, distribute“ benefits ”to emigrants, donate funds to support various societies. Finally, on the advice of well-wishers, he invested the remaining amount in some kind of "win-win business" and was left with nothing. " Ivan Bunin is the first emigrant writer to be published in Russia. True, the first publications of his stories appeared already in the 1950s, after the death of the writer. Some of his novels and poems were published in his homeland only in the 1990s. Merciful God, why did you Gave us passions, thoughts and concerns, Thirst for work, glory and comfort? Happy are cripples, idiots, Leper is the happiest of all. (I. Bunin. September, 1917)

2.BORIS PASTERNAK. Boris Pasternak refused the Nobel Prize. Boris Pasternak was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature "for significant achievements in modern lyric poetry, as well as for the continuation of the traditions of the great Russian epic novel" annually from 1946 to 1950. In 1958, he was again proposed by last year nobel laureate Albert Camus, and on October 23, Pasternak became the second Russian writer to receive this prize. The writers 'environment in the poet's homeland took this news extremely negatively and on October 27 Pasternak was unanimously expelled from the USSR Writers' Union, at the same time submitting a petition to deprive Pasternak of Soviet citizenship. In the USSR, the receipt of the Pasternak prize was associated only with his novel Doctor Zhivago. Literary newspaper wrote: “Pasternak received“ thirty pieces of silver ”, for which the Nobel Prize was used. He was rewarded for agreeing to play the role of bait on the rusty hook of anti-Soviet propaganda ... An inglorious end awaits the resurrected Judas, Doctor Zhivago, and his author, whose lot will be popular contempt. " The massive campaign launched against Pasternak forced him to refuse the Nobel Prize. The poet sent a telegram to the Swedish Academy, in which he wrote: “Due to the importance that the award awarded to me received in the society to which I belong, I must refuse it. Do not consider my voluntary refusal to be an insult. " It is worth noting that in the USSR until 1989, even in the school curriculum for literature, there was no mention of Pasternak's work. The first director Eldar Ryazanov decided to introduce the Soviet people to the creative work of Pasternak. In his comedy "The Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath!" (1976) he included the poem "No one will be in the house", transforming it into an urban romance, performed by the bard Sergei Nikitin. Later Ryazanov included in his film "Office Romance" an excerpt from yet another poem by Pasternak - "To love others is a heavy cross ..." (1931). True, it sounded in a farcical context. But it is worth noting that at that time the very mention of Pasternak's poems was a very bold step. It is easy to wake up and see the light, To shake the verbal dirty linen from the heart And to live without further clogging, All this is not a big trick. (B. Pasternak, 1931)

3.MIKHAIL SHOLOKHOV Mikhail Sholokhov, receiving the Nobel Prize, did not bow to the monarch. Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1965 for his novel Quiet Flows the Don and went down in history as the only Soviet writer to receive this prize with the consent of the Soviet leadership. The laureate's diploma says “in recognition of artistic power and honesty, which he showed in his Don epic about the historical phases of the life of the Russian people. " Award winner Soviet writer Gustav Adolphus VI called him “one of the most outstanding writers our time". Sholokhov did not bow to the king, as the rules of etiquette prescribed. Some sources claim that he did it on purpose with the words: “We, the Cossacks, do not bow to anyone. Here in front of the people - please, but before the king I will not ... "

4. ALEXANDER SOLZHENITSYN Alexander Solzhenitsyn was deprived of Soviet citizenship because of the Nobel Prize. Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn, the commander of the sound reconnaissance battery, who rose to the rank of captain during the war years and was awarded two military orders, in 1945 was arrested by front-line counterintelligence for anti-Sovietism. The verdict is 8 years in the camps and life in exile. He went through a camp in New Jerusalem near Moscow, the Marfinsky "sharashka" and the Special Ekibastuz camp in Kazakhstan. In 1956, Solzhenitsyn was rehabilitated, and since 1964, Alexander Solzhenitsyn devoted himself to literature. At the same time, he worked immediately on 4 major works: "GULAG Archipelago", "Cancer Ward", "Red Wheel" and "In the First Circle". In the USSR in 1964 the story "One Day in Ivan Denisovich" was published, and in 1966 the story "Zakhar-Kalita" was published. On October 8, 1970, Solzhenitsyn was awarded the Nobel Prize "for moral strength, gleaned in the tradition of the great Russian literature." This became the reason for the persecution of Solzhenitsyn in the USSR. In 1971, all the writer's manuscripts were confiscated, and in the next 2 years all his publications were destroyed. In 1974, the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR was issued, according to which Alexander Solzhenitsin was deprived of Soviet citizenship and deported from the USSR for the systematic commission of actions incompatible with belonging to the citizenship of the USSR and damaging the USSR. They returned citizenship to the writer only in 1990, and in 1994 he returned to Russia with his family and became actively involved in public life.

5. JOSEPH BRODSKY Nobel Prize winner Joseph Brodsky was convicted of parasitism in Russia. Joseph Alexandrovich Brodsky began writing poetry at the age of 16. Anna Akhmatova predicted a hard life for him and a glorious creative destiny... In 1964, in Leningrad, a criminal case was opened against the poet on charges of parasitism. He was arrested and sent into exile in the Arkhangelsk region, where he spent a year. In 1972, Brodsky turned to Secretary General Brezhnev with a request to work in his homeland as a translator, but his request remained unanswered, and he was forced to emigrate. Brodsky first lives in Vienna, London, and then moves to the United States, where he becomes a professor at New York, Michigan and other universities in the country. December 10, 1987 Joseph Brosky was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature "for an all-encompassing creativity, imbued with clarity of thought and passion of poetry." It is worth saying that Brodsky, after Vladimir Nabokov, is the second Russian writer who writes in English as in his native language. The sea was not visible. In the whitish haze that swaddled from all sides, it was absurd to think that the ship was going to land - if at all it was a ship, and not a clot of fog, as if someone had poured white into the milk. (B. Brodsky, 1972)

INTERESTING FACT For the Nobel Prize in different time such famous personalities as Mahatma Gandhi, Winston Churchill, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Benito Mussolini, Franklin Roosevelt, Nicholas Roerich and Leo Tolstoy were nominated, but never received it.