Coetzee Awarded Nobel Prize for Literature
Roger Wilkison
South African writer JM Coetzee has won this year's
Nobel Prize for Literature. The Swedish Academy, which awarded the prize,
praised Mr. Coetzee's works for what it called their
well-crafted（构思巧妙）composition and analytical brilliance.
John Maxwell Coetzee, whose novels and essays
are characterized by a bleak（荒凉的, 凄凉的）vision
of his racially divided homeland, is the second South African author
to win the Nobel Prize. Nadine Gordimer received the award in 1991.
Mr. Coetzee was the first writer to win Britain's
prestigious Booker Prize（布克奖）twice, first
for The Life and Times of Michael K（《麦可·K
的生命与时代》）in 1983 and, again, for Disgrace（《耻》）
in 1999.
But the publicity-shy author has long been skittish
about the attention of the media and stayed away from the awards ceremony
on both occasions.
Mr. Coetzee's main characters are often innocents
or outcasts（被遗弃的）who are overwhelmed
by historical forces over which they have no influence. South Africa's
former apartheid（种族隔离）system of separating
the races is a recurring theme in his works.
The Swedish Academy praised Mr. Coetzee for
his intellectual honesty, noting that the 63-year-old author has been,
in its words, ruthless in his criticism of the cruel rationalism and
cosmetic morality in western civilization.
The academy, in announcing the .3 million
award, also noted that, although Mr. Coetzee makes the distinction between
right and wrong crystal clear（极其明白, 十分清楚）,
he also portrays it as being ultimately pointless.
Mr. Coetzee was born in Cape
Town（开普敦）to an English-speaking family of Afrikaaner background.
Though he has spent most of his life in South Africa, he studied and
worked in the United States and Britain and emigrated to Australia two
years ago.
His novels include Waiting
for the Barbarians（《等待野蛮人》）and Dusklands（《幽暗之乡》）as
well as his latest work of fiction, Elizabeth
Costello（《伊丽莎白．克丝泰洛》）. He has also written essays on such
topics as rugby and censorship.
The literature prize is the first of the Nobels
to be awarded this year. In the days ahead, the Swedish Academy will
announce the winners of the medicine, physics, chemistry and economics
prizes. On October 10, the Norwegian Academy will announce the winner
of the Nobel Peace Prize.
note:
Booker Prize：布克奖，Booker是英国最大的现购批发商，英国出版名人马斯开尔TomMaschler找到这个企业赞助，成立了一项鼓励文学创作的奖项，奖励当年度最佳英文小说创作。
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