Nobel Prize in Literature

Herta Muller

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 11:21:46 GMT

2009 Motivation: "who, with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossessed."

Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 08:30:30 GMT

2008 Motivation: "Author of new departures, poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy, explorer of a humanity beyond and below the reigning civilization"

Doris Lessing

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 13:25:11 GMT

2007 Motivation: "that epicist of the female experience, who with scepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilisation to scrutiny"

Orhan Pamuk

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 13:25:30 GMT

2006 Motivation: "who in the quest for the melancholic soul of his native city has discovered new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures"

Harold Pinter

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 13:25:43 GMT

2005 Motivation: "who in his plays uncovers the precipice under everyday prattle and forces entry into oppression's closed rooms"

Elfriede Jelinek

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 13:26:11 GMT

2004 Motivation: "for her musical flow of voices and counter-voices in novels and plays that with extraordinary linguistic zeal reveal the absurdity of society's clichés and their subjugating power"

J.M. Coetzee

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 13:27:29 GMT

2003 Motivation: "who in innumerable guises portrays the surprising involvement of the outsider"

Imre Kertesz

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 13:28:45 GMT

2002 Motivation: "for writing that upholds the fragile experience of the individual against the barbaric arbitrariness of history"

V.S. Naipaul

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 13:36:38 GMT

2001 Motivation: "for having united perceptive narrative and incorruptible scrutiny in works that compel us to see the presence of suppressed histories"

Gao Xingjian

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 13:38:34 GMT

2000 Motivation: "for an œuvre of universal validity, bitter insights and linguistic ingenuity, which has opened new paths for the Chinese novel and drama"

Gunter Grass

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 13:39:45 GMT

1999 Motivation: "whose frolicsome black fables portray the forgotten face of history"

Jose Saramago

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 13:39:58 GMT

1998 Motivation: "who with parables sustained by imagination, compassion and irony continually enables us once again to apprehend an elusory reality"

Dario Fo

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 13:42:05 GMT

1997 Motivation: "who emulates the jesters of the Middle Ages in scourging authority and upholding the dignity of the downtrodden"

Wislawa Szymborska

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 13:44:22 GMT

1996 Motivation: "for poetry that with ironic precision allows the historical and biological context to come to light in fragments of human reality"

Seamus Heaney

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 13:46:09 GMT

1995 Motivation: "for works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles and the living past"

Kenzaburo Oe

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 13:47:33 GMT

1994 Motivation: "who with poetic force creates an imagined world, where life and myth condense to form a disconcerting picture of the human predicament today"

Toni Morrison

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 13:48:50 GMT

1993 Motivation: "who in novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import, gives life to an essential aspect of American reality"

Derek Walcott

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 13:52:58 GMT

1992 Motivation: "for a poetic oeuvre of great luminosity, sustained by a historical vision, the outcome of a multicultural commitment"

Nadine Gordimer

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 13:54:29 GMT

1991 Motivation: "who through her magnificent epic writing has - in the words of Alfred Nobel - been of very great benefit to humanity"

Octavio Paz

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 13:57:30 GMT

1990 Motivation: "for impassioned writing with wide horizons, characterized by sensuous intelligence and humanistic integrity"

Camilo Jose Cela

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 14:01:13 GMT

1989 Motivation: "for a rich and intensive prose, which with restrained compassion forms a challenging vision of man's vulnerability"

Naguib Mahfouz

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 14:01:48 GMT

1988 Motivation: "who, through works rich in nuance - now clear-sightedly realistic, now evocatively ambiguous - has formed an Arabian narrative art that applies to all mankind"

Joseph Brodsky

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 14:03:43 GMT

1987 Motivation: "for an all-embracing authorship, imbued with clarity of thought and poetic intensity"

Wole Soyinka

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 14:04:01 GMT

1986 Motivation: "who in a wide cultural perspective and with poetic overtones fashions the drama of existence"

Claude Simon

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 14:05:55 GMT

1985 Motivation: "who in his novel combines the poet's and the painter's creativeness with a deepened awareness of time in the depiction of the human condition"

Jaroslav Seifert

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 14:09:55 GMT

1984 Motivation: "for his poetry which endowed with freshness, sensuality and rich inventiveness provides a liberating image of the indomitable spirit and versatility of man"

William Golding

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 14:10:26 GMT

1983 Motivation: "for his novels which, with the perspicuity of realistic narrative art and the diversity and universality of myth, illuminate the human condition in the world of today"

Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 14:10:38 GMT

1982 Motivation: "for his novels and short stories, in which the fantastic and the realistic are combined in a richly composed world of imagination, reflecting a continent's life and conflicts"

Elias Canetti

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 14:12:32 GMT

1981 Motivation: "for writings marked by a broad outlook, a wealth of ideas and artistic power"

Czeslaw Milosz

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 14:14:41 GMT

1980 Motivation: "who with uncompromising clear-sightedness voices man's exposed condition in a world of severe conflicts"

Odysseas Elytis

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 14:14:54 GMT

1979 Motivation: "for his poetry, which, against the background of Greek tradition, depicts with sensuous strength and intellectual clear-sightedness modern man's struggle for freedom and creativeness"

Isaac Bashevis Singer

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 14:17:16 GMT

1978 Motivation: "for his impassioned narrative art which, with roots in a Polish-Jewish cultural tradition, brings universal human conditions to life"

Vicente Aleixandre

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 14:22:42 GMT

1977 Motivation: "for a creative poetic writing which illuminates man's condition in the cosmos and in present-day society, at the same time representing the great renewal of the traditions of Spanish poetry beween the wars"

Saul Bellow

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 14:25:13 GMT

1976 Motivation: "for the human understanding and subtle analysis of contemporary culture that are combined in his work"

Eugenio Montale

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 14:28:53 GMT

1975 Motivation: "for his distinctive poetry which, with great artistic sensitivity, has interpreted human values under the sign of an outlook on life with no illusions"

Harry Martinson

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 14:33:29 GMT

1974* Motivation: "for writings that catch the dewdrop and reflect the cosmos"

Eyvind Johnson

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 14:37:46 GMT

1974* Motivation: "for a narrative art, far-seeing in lands and ages, in the service of freedom"

Patrick White

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 14:42:48 GMT

1973 Motivation: "for an epic and psychological narrative art which has introduced a new continent into literature"

Heinrich Boll

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 14:45:54 GMT

1972 Motivation: "for his writing which through its combination of a broad perspective on his time and a sensitive skill in characterization has contributed to a renewal of German literature"

Pablo Neruda

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 14:46:08 GMT

1971 Motivation: "for a poetry that with the action of an elemental force brings alive a continent's destiny and dreams"

Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 14:47:51 GMT

1970 Motivation: "for the ethical force with which he has pursued the indispensable traditions of Russian literature"

Samuel Beckett

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 14:48:06 GMT

1969 Motivation: "for his writing, which - in new forms for the novel and drama - in the destitution of modern man acquires its elevation"

Yasunari Kawabata

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 18:20:54 GMT

1968 Motivation: "for his narrative mastery, which with great sensibility expresses the essence of the Japanese mind"

Miguel Angel Asturias

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 18:23:33 GMT

1967 Motivation: "for his vivid literary achievement, deep-rooted in the national traits and traditions of Indian peoples of Latin America"

Nelly Sachs

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 18:28:04 GMT

1966* Motivation: "for her outstanding lyrical and dramatic writing, which interprets Israel's destiny with touching strength"

Shmuel Yosef Agnon

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 18:30:11 GMT

1966* Motivation: "for his profoundly characteristic narrative art with motifs from the life of the Jewish people"

Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 18:35:47 GMT

1965 Motivation: "for the artistic power and integrity with which, in his epic of the Don, he has given expression to a historic phase in the life of the Russian people"

Jean-Paul Sartre

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 18:36:03 GMT

1964 Motivation: "for his work which, rich in ideas and filled with the spirit of freedom and the quest for truth, has exerted a far-reaching influence on our age"

Giorgos Seferis

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 18:40:23 GMT

1963 Motivation: "for his eminent lyrical writing, inspired by a deep feeling for the Hellenic world of culture"

John Steinbeck

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 18:44:23 GMT

1962 Motivation: "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humour and keen social perception"