Polish Studies Newsletter

Article / interview

10.10.2019

Olga Tokarczuk wins the Nobel Prize

Olga Tokarczuk won the 2018 Nobel Prize in Literature. The committee praised her “narrative imagination that with encyclopaedic passion represents the crossing of boundaries as a form of life.” Austrian author Peter Handke was the winner for 2019.

source: the Swedish Academy | Akademia Szwedzka

Olga Tokarczuk is the fifth author writing in Polish to ever receive the award.

Tokarczuk’s debut book was a collection short stories published under the name of Natasza Borodin. In 1993 her first novel “Podróż ludzi Księgi” [“Journey of the People of the Book”] came out, followed by “E.E” two years later. “Prawiek i inne czasy“ [“Primeval and Other Times”] which was published in 1996 turned out to be her first big success.

Over the years Olga Tokarczuk wrote “Dom dzienny, dom nocny” [“House of Day, House of Night”], “Bieguni” [“Flights”], “Prowadź swój pług przez kości umarłych “ [“Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead”], “Księgi Jakubowe” [“The Books of Jacob”]. Tokarczuk brings together realism and poetry in her writing, often focusing on the motive of inner transformation and the search for one’s identity. She uses myths, poetry of dreaming and refers to biblical traditions and fairytale fantasies.

In her 2014 interview for Polish weekly magazine “Tygodnik Powszechny” Tokarczuk said: “Maybe it will sound a bit eccentric in our ever-so-pragmatic times but I have always tried to ensure that my work had some kind of meaning, that it’s constructive, and that it brings at least some goodness to others. Nothing big, but it allows for work to become practice. […] In fact I cannot do anything else but write now and this is a special kind of work, in fact a beloved hobby which has become a job. The best possible option.”

Tokarczuk received a number of awards for her work, including the Kościelski Award, the Nike Literary Award (Nagroda Literacka Nike) in 2007 and 2015, and the Man Booker International Prize in 2018.

The news about the Nobel Prize for Olga Tokarczuk comes as no surprise. The likelihood of Tokarczuk becoming the winner has been debated in the last few years. In the days preceding the announcement world media talked of the possibility of the Nobel Prize for the Polish writer. The major Swedish newspaper “Dagens Nyheter”  published a large interview with Tokarczuk a week before the award notification.

You may watch the announcement of the winners here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4osurAgmjQ.

The Swedish Academy was in crisis since autumn 2017 as Jean-Claude Arnault, photographer, director and husband of a member of the Swedish Academy, was accused of rape and of leaking the names of Nobel Prize winners.
He was also receiving high donations from the Swedish Academy for his cultural club. Due to the crisis no Nobel Prize in Literature was announced in 2018.

The 2019 Nobel Prize winner was Peter Handke, an Austrian writer, who was awarded "for an influential work that with linguistic ingenuity has explored the periphery and the specificity of human experience."

The cash award is worth 9-million kronor (around 780 000 Euro). The ceremony will take place on 10 December, on the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death.

Information

Added on:
10 October 2019; 14:21 (Olga )
Edited on:
8 November 2019; 21:55 (Mariola Wilczak)

See also

01.10.2019

100th anniversary of “Biblioteka Narodowa” (National Library of Poland) book series

This year marks the 100th  anniversary of the creation of "The National Library of Poland" - the oldest and best known literary series in Poland. So far, it has published 605 volumes of the most valuable works of Polish and world literature in exemplary, professional and accessible studies, which came from the pens of the best Polish literary scholars.

08.07.2019

On "Geopolonistyka" at the University of Grodno

The international scientific conference 'Mickiewicz and romantics towards East Slavic cultures' became an opportunity to familiarize participants with the 'Geopolonistyka' project. The conference was attended by the editors of the "Polish Studies Newsletter" - Olga Zakolska and Piotr Bordzoł.

04.07.2019

Nałkowska, Orzeszkowa and others ... Interview with Professor Svetlana Musijenko

Courtesy of the Yanka Kupala State University of Grodno, the Department of Philological Research „East – West” at the Institute of Polish Philology of University of Białystok, the International Adam Mickiewicz Institute in Grodno, the Scientific Library of the Yanka Kupala State University of Grodno and the “Książnica Podlaska” Podlasie Digital Library, the editors of the "Polish Studies Newsletter" - Olga Zakolska and Piotr Bordzoł – have participated in the international comparative conference "Mickiewicz and romantics towards East Slavic cultures". The conference became an opportunity to present our tools supporting Polish studies, as well as discussions on the designed interactive map of Polish "Geopolonistics" centers. During the meeting, the members of the editorial team of the Newsletter had the pleasure of talking with Professor Svetlana Musijenko - the founder of the first chair of Polish philology in Belarus, a distinguished researcher of Slavic literatures and cultures. We invite you to read.

03.09.2024

Interview with Prof. Anna Frajlich, Senior Lecturer, Emerita of the Department of Slavic Languages at Columbia University

Professor Anna Frajlich, a renowned poet with impressive dossier of achievements, who left Poland in 1969 because of the anti-Semitic campaign, has lived in New York for years. Here, at the Slavic Studies Department of New York University, she defended her doctoral thesis on the legacy of ancient Rome in the Silver Age of Russian Poetry, and for 34 years, from 1982 to 2016, she was a lecturer at the Slavic Studies Department of Columbia University. Currently, retired for eight years, she continues to actively participate in American and Polish literary life, taking part in meetings, conferences, and talks. One of them was conducted by Przemysław Górecki in the New York apartment of the professor and her husband.

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