Writer Guerner won the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature
How unpopular are the winners this year?
Official website test: 95% of netizens have not read his work
Focus on the 2021 Nobel Prize
West China Metropolis Daily (Reporter Zhang Jie, Yan Wenwen, Li Yuxin) The Swedish Academy of Letters announced on the 7th that the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature will be awarded to writer Abdul-Razak Gurner because he “does not compromise with the influence of colonialism. The fate of refugees in the gulf between different cultures and continents", and "compassionately penetrated" this into his works.
Gurna was born in Zanzibar (now part of Tanzania) in 1948, and moved to the UK as a refugee in the 1960s.
Since the 1980s, he has successively published more than 10 novels and some short stories. His representative works include "Leaving Memories" (1987) and "Paradise" (1994).
The work focuses on the theme of refugees, mainly describing the living conditions of the colonial people, focusing on identity, ethnic conflict, and historical writing. The post-colonial living conditions he showed are considered to have important social and practical significance.
Gulner's most famous novel is "Heaven", which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.
This also proves a rule again: many Nobel Prize winners have won or shortlisted for other major international literary awards.
Therefore, these literary awards are also a vane of the Nobel Prize.
From 1980 to 1982, Gulna taught at the Kano branch of Bayero University in Nigeria.
In 1982, he moved to the University of Kent, where he received his Ph.D.
His main academic interests are postcolonial writing and discourses related to colonialism, especially discourses related to Africa, the Caribbean, and India.
He edited two volumes of essays on African writing and published many articles by contemporary postcolonial writers. Since 1987, he has been a contributing editor of Wasafiri magazine.
Mats Malm, the permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, said that he had talked with Gurner on the phone.
Due to the new crown epidemic, this year's Nobel Prize winners will continue the method of last year and receive relevant awards in their respective countries, instead of going to the Swedish capital Stockholm to participate in the award ceremony.
After the news was released, the official website of the Nobel Prize also released a quiz to ask netizens whether they have read Gurnah's literary works.
The test results showed that nearly 2,000 netizens voted, and 95% of netizens have not read Guerner's work.
The reporters from West China Metropolis Daily and Cover News learned that, except for a collection of works by African writers published by Yilin Publishing House a few years ago, and selected works by Gulner, no single copies of his works have been found in China.
The online book-buying platform only has original version reservations.
The official Weibo of ChinaTu.com wrote: “The Nobel Prize for Literature in 2021 has just been announced, and the Tanzanian novelist Abdul-Razak Gurna won the crown. Congratulations! I don’t have the author’s work on my site. This is because There is no Chinese translation in China. I look forward to the publication of the Chinese translation as soon as possible."
Character close-up
Gurna: When I was young, I loved to pick up ancient Chinese porcelain pieces by the sea.
Gurna was born on the island of Zanzibar, which has a name in the history of world literature.
The writer John Bruner once wrote a dystopian science fiction novel "Standing in Zanzibar", which made this small African island famous all over the world.
Many writers have lived on this small island, so until now, this small island has held a literary festival every year, during which the works of famous poets will be recited.
Gulna was born in Zanzibar in 1948. When he was young, he lived by the sea and his favorite thing was to go to the beach to "treasure hunt".
The treasure he searched for was the Chinese tiles on the ancient shipwreck that were washed up on the coast.
In an interview, Gulner specifically mentioned these adventures as a child: "When you go to a museum or hear about the arrival of the Chinese fleet in eastern Africa, you will think that those tiles are very precious things, or It is related to some important things. When you see them with your own eyes on the beach, what you see is whether they are complete, how much weight, and whether they are beautiful or not. This is inevitable, these are just a few A century ago, the distant Chinese culture."
In fact, the relationship between Zanzibar and China was established as early as the Southern Song Dynasty.
You can see the exchanges between the people of the two places in some ancient Chinese books, such as "Zhu Fan Zhi" called "stratified country", "Lingwai Dai Da" recorded "Kunlun Stratum State", and "Chen Tong Kao" , "History of the Song Dynasty" "Chengtan", "Island Yi Zhilue" "Cheng Yaoluo", etc., record that the island residents are Arabs and residents from Africa.
Ancient Chinese blue and white porcelain and Song Dynasty copper coins were unearthed on the island.
In the Ming dynasty, Zanzibar was a transit point for transactions between Africa and Arabia and India, and Chinese porcelain and silk products arrived here through Arab merchants.
West China Metropolis Daily-Cover News Correspondent Yan Wenwen
Industry Comments
"Unpopular writers won the Nobel Prize to help expand our literary horizons"
The annual Nobel Prize in Literature is like a bright light, focusing on the award-winning writers, and it also lights up a reading direction for readers all over the world.
At 7 pm on October 7th, Beijing time, the Swedish Academy of Letters announced that the 2021 Nobel Prize for Literature would be awarded to Gurner, a Tanzanian novelist now living in the UK.
That night, reporters from West China Metropolis Daily and cover news interviewed Qiu Huadong, secretary of the Secretariat of the Chinese Writers Association, famous writer and literary critic.
Qiu Huadong has accumulated rich reading experience for many years, super keen eye, and unique touch of the writer.
He has published "72 Classes Close to Literary Masters", in-depth analysis of 72 modern and contemporary world-class literary masters such as Proust, Joyce, Faulkner, Hemingway, "dismantling" the essence of creation secrets and capturing Its secret creation pulses.
As early as more than ten years ago, Qiu Huadong also wrote an article "Who is the seed player of the Nobel Prize in Literature", analyzing who he thinks is likely to win the Nobel Prize from multiple perspectives such as literature.
On the list of more than 30 writers he mentioned, more than 10 have won awards.
Qiu Huadong mentioned that this year's Nobel Prize winner should be the most unpopular Nobel writer in the past 20 years.
"Actually, he is not only unpopular in China, I don't think anyone in non-English speaking countries will be very familiar with him. My observation and thinking is that since the beginning of the new century, the award of the Nobel Prize has shown two characteristics: one of them is, Among the 21 award-winning writers, 9 are English writing, including the latest winner, Gurner, who also writes in English. This shows that English writing is still very strong in the world. Another obvious change is that in the previous one. In 100 years, there were only 9 women writers who won the Nobel Prize. However, in the new century, there were 7 women writers who won prizes. Female writing has received more attention."
For such an unpopular Nobel Prize winner, Qiu Huadong believes that it is also a good thing, "Reminding us to pay attention to those writers who are not usually paid attention to will help us expand our reading sight."
Qiu Huadong also emphasized, "I hope that after the news has been refreshed for a while, everyone can keep reading about this winner's work. After the Chinese version (Gurna's work) is published, we will calm down and take a look at him. What is the beauty of what is written. Quiet reading is more important than the excitement of refreshing the screen."