Stockholm (AFP)
"I love literature, not opinions": in Stockholm where he must receive the Nobel Prize, Peter Handke was caught up in the controversy over his pro-Serb positions during the wars in the former Yugoslavia.
During the traditional press conference of the winners of the literature prize before the December 10 ceremonies, the Austrian writer was very annoyed by the controversy, refusing to answer the questions of the media.
"I like literature, not opinions," he told a journalist who asked him if he had changed his mind about what had happened in the Balkans in the 1990s. abhor opinions, "he insisted.
In English and in a shocked speech, he said he had vainly tried several times to establish a dialogue with his detractors and said he wanted to make a gesture of "reconciliation".
"I asked a friend in Bosnia and Herzegovina how to get there, but he told me that at the moment it was not possible, I wanted to meet (...) two single mothers who lost their children at the time. war, a Serb side, the other side Muslim, but it is not possible, "he said.
A journalist from the investigation site The Intercept then asked him why in his books he did not take note of the work of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) which recognized the genocide of Srebrenica for which Ratko Mladic, chief Bosnian Serbs, and Radovan Karadzic, his political counterpart, were sentenced.
"Continue your questions, I like your questions," Peter Handke quipped, before reading a hostile letter that was recently sent to him with toilet paper. "I prefer an anonymous letter with toilet paper to your empty and ignorant questions," he said, adding that he had also received many letters of support.
The press conference had begun well, however, with a happy chorus in attendance singing a "Happy Birthday" in honor of the Nobel Prize writer who was celebrating his 77th birthday on Friday.
In 1996, a year after the end of the conflicts in Bosnia and Croatia, Peter Handke published a pamphlet, "Justice for Serbia", which sparked controversy.
The author, who lives near Paris, in 1999 condemned the Western bombing of Serbia, which was aimed at forcing Slobodan Milosevic, a strong man from Belgrade during this period, to withdraw his troops from Kosovo.
And in 2006 he went to the funeral of Milosevic, who died before hearing his verdict for war crimes in international justice.
- Storm at the Academy -
Since the announcement of the prize in early October, the Swedish Academy which awards the Nobel is also in the heart of the storm.
On Friday, a few hours before Peter Handke's press conference, a prominent academician, Peter Englund, said he would not attend the award ceremony.
"I will not participate in Nobel Week this year, and celebrating Peter Handke's Nobel Prize is pure hypocrisy on my part," wrote Peter Englund, historian and writer, to the daily Dagens Nyheter,
Perpetual secretary of the Swedish Academy between 2009 and 2015, Peter Englund covered the conflicts of the 1990s in the Balkans for Swedish newspapers.
Two members (non-academics) of the Nobel Committee also announced Monday their resignation.
Kristoffer Leandoer said he did not have "the patience" to follow the internal reforms launched by the academy after the sexual assault scandal that caused it to implode in 2017.
Gun-Britt Sundström, for one, invoked, among other reasons, the attribution of the Nobel to Peter Handke.
While she says she is "happy" to have taken part in the designation of the Polish poet Olga Tokarczuk for the 2018 prize, she says she is opposed to the coronation of the Austrian writer for the 2019 edition.
"The choice of the 2019 laureate was not limited to rewarding a literary work but was also interpreted, both inside and outside the academy, as a position that places literature above the + policy + ", she wrote to the newspaper Dagens Nyheter.
"This ideology is not mine," she added.
© 2019 AFP