| German writer Herta Müller Wins the 2009 Nobel literary prize |
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08/10/2009 16:16 (44 Day 06:44 minutes ago) | |||||
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The FINANCIAL -- Herta Müller, the Romanian-born German writer has won the 2009 Nobel Prize in literature, for her depiction of life in her native Romania under the dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. As the winner, Müller will receive 10 million Swedish kroner, about $1.4 million.
According to AP, the Swedish Academy, which has picked the winner annually since 1901, said Thursday that Mueller "who with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossessed."
Müller becomes only the 12th woman to have won the Nobel since it launched in 1901; in 2007 British novelist Doris Lessing won for her "scepticism, fire and visionary power ... [which] subjected a divided civilisation to scrutiny", Guardian reported. Worth 10m Swedish kronor (£893,000), the Nobel is awarded to "the person who shall have produced in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction", as described in Alfred Nobel's will of 1895.
Mueller was born to a family from Romania's German minority and her mother was deported to a labour camp in the Soviet Union after World War II, BBC wrote. She emigrated to Germany in 1987, after being dismissed from her job in Romania during the 1970s due to her refusal to co-operate with the regime's secret police.
Her first collection of German language short stories, published in 1982, were censored in Romania, according to the same source. Mueller's initial works were smuggled out of the country, while in later years she was awarded several literary prizes, including Dublin's Impac Award in 1998. One of her later works, 2001's The Appointment, gives great detail about living in a stagnated dictatorship.
The Nobel prize winner is selected by 18 members of the Swedish Academy, who receive around 200 nominations at the start of the year, whittling this down to a secret shortlist of five and then choosing their winner, who must receive more than half of the votes cast, Guardian reported. Müller becomes its 106th winner; last year French novelist JMG Le Clézio won, cited for his "new departures, poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy", and for exploring "a humanity beyond and below the reigning civilization".
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