Yep. I started to suspect this in 2016 when Bob Dylan, of all people, was given the Nobel Prize for literature.
Fun fact, the Norwegian author Knut Hamsun was awarded this in 1920 and then gave the medallion to Goebbels in 1943
During World War II, Hamsun put his support behind the German war effort. He courted and met with high-ranking Nazi officers, including Adolf Hitler. Nazi Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels wrote a long and enthusiastic diary entry concerning a private meeting with Hamsun; according to Goebbels Hamsun’s “faith in German victory is unshakable”.
In 1940 Hamsun wrote that “the Germans are fighting for us”. After Hitler’s death, he published a short obituary in which he described him as “a warrior for mankind” and “a preacher of the gospel of justice for all nations.”
After the war, he was detained by police on 14 June 1945, for treason, then committed to a hospital in Grimstad (Grimstad sykehus) “due to his advanced age”, according to Einar Kringlen (a professor and medical doctor). In 1947 he was tried in Grimstad, and fined. Norway’s supreme court reduced the fine from 575,000 to 325,000 Norwegian kroner.
The whereabouts of Hamsun’s medal remain unknown.
This is just racist. It also feels inaccurate because it implies that only those countries have produced good literature when that’s not the case by a long shot.
: “See! Told you I’m the master race!”
Considering that the Nobel prize originates in Sweden, this is a bit self-congratulatory, no?
It’s a complete sham price. Even other Europeans have criticized it for being to Sweden-centric.
Along with the obvious pro-European cultural bias, how is a comittee of 18 Swedes supposed to judge texts from all languages in the world fairly? Anything you can read untranslated is gonna have a huge advantadge.
