Peter Handke wins Nobel Prize for literature, sparks outrage

After Australian Author Peter Handke won a Nobel Prize in the literature on October 10 along with Olga Tokarczuk from Poland, an outrage erupted in Albania, Bosnia, and Kosovo. Handke was seen as a supporter of late Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic in these countries. The Prime Minister of Albania took to Twitter to condemn the writer and said it was a “disgraceful choice” which was made by the authorities. Furthermore, even the 76-year-old author was “astonished” to receive an award and said that he never thought he would be chosen. 

Read - Swedish Academy To Award Two Nobel Literature Prizes For 2018, 2019'

'Most influential'

The Swedish academy called Handke as one of the “most influential” writers in Europe and praised his work. However, the 76-year-old author had faced criticism for his strong defense of the Serbs during the wars of the 1990s. These wars were also responsible for the devastation of Balkans as Yugoslavia disintegrated and Handke even compared the Serbs to Jews under Nazis. Reportedly, he later retracted the comment. Handke called the former Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic, who died while facing trials of war crimes in 2006, a “rather tragic man” at his funeral.

He even wrote a travelogue, 'A Journey to the Rivers: Justice for Serbia' even caused an outrage in 1996 and he also returned the Buechner prize in 1999 during the protest at bombing of Belgrade.  Handke believed that it was very “courageous” of the award committee to make the decision of honouring him. He further added that they are “good people”. Handke wrote his first novel “The Hornets” in 1966. 

Read - Nobel Prize In Literature Awarded To Olga Tokarczuk, Peter Handke

Widespread outrage over the award

People took on Twitter to express their anger, while some of them even said that “protests are coming”. The Muslim member from the joint presidency of Bosnia, Sefik Dzaferovic reportedly called the incident of Handke being awarded a Nobel Prize as 'scandalous' and 'shameful'. In a statement, he even accused the Swedish committee to neglect the fact that the people who Handke was trying to protect have even been sentenced by the United Nations court for most severe crimes including genocide. Dzaferovic further believes that by awarding Handke the Nobel Prize, the officials have also diverged from their moral compass. A Bosnian Actor, Nermic Tulic along with hundreds of others condemned the Swedish academy which praised Handke for writing powerfully about the catastrophe. 

Read - John B. Goodenough Gets Honoured With Nobel For Lithium-ion Batteries

Read - Nobel Prize In Chemistry Awarded To John B, M Stanley, Akira Yoshino