Why is Nobel Laureate Peter Handke Controversial?
Two days ago, it was announced by the
Swedish Academy that the Nobel Prize for Litearture for the year 2019 is
awarded to Peter Handke, an Austrian writer. He has always been the centre of
controversy due to his shocking political stands.
His famous works include Offending
the Audience, The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick, and A
Sorrow Beyond Dreams. The Keralite viewers might be familiar with the
second work as it is famously referenced in one of N.S. Madhavan’s famous short
stories titled Higuita.
In this video, we will not be focusing
on his works and achievements but rather the controversy that has clouded the
award. The Swedish academy’s citation to Handke says that he was awarded "for an influential work that with
linguistic ingenuity has explored the periphery and the specificity of human experience.”
The award was widely criticized by international bodies such as PEN America, writers
like Salman Rushdie, Politicians across Europe etc.
So why is Handke such a controversial
figure? What has he done, to evoke the ire of so many people and organizations?
The particular award came under a lot
of controversy due to the writers anti-islamic, pro-Serbian politics. He had
infamously denied the Sebrenica genocide which took place in 1995 during the
Bosnian War of Independence. He was once even called the International Moron of
the Year by Salman Rushdie for his apologetic stance towards the war criminal
president of Serbia, Slobodan Milosevic.
His defence of the Serbian stance
towards the Bosnians and other minorities seeps into his works of fiction as
well. One of his Serb characters famously remark “You know it was we who protected you from the Asian hordes
for centuries. And without us you would still be eating with your fingers.”
While one may argue that it is a work of fiction, Handke has openly and
unabashedly claimed that the Sarajevo Muslims who were killed during the
genocide had actually killed themselves to frame the Serbs.
Its important at this juncture to
briefly discuss about what had conspired in Yugoslavia at the time of this
genocide. The state of Yugoslavia disintegrated through a series of civil wars
and referendums in the 1990’s. In 1992, when a referendum was passed in favour
of independence and the new Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina was recognized
by the International community, the Serbian Government under Slobodan Milosevic
supported by the Army and the Bosnian Serb forces attacked the state to secure
the areas that were of Serb majority. In the attack, the non-Serb minority
especially the ethnic Albanians of the region had to undergo gruesome ethnic
cleansing.
Despite indictments and convictions by
the international community, Handke denies the existence of the Srebrenica
genocide and had time and again defended his friend and former President of Serbia,
Slobodan Milosevic, a convicted war-criminal. He went on to attend the latter’s
funeral claiming that the truth of the
matter is unknown, while Serbia and Milosevic remained close to himself.
However,
the Swedish Academy has until now, remained unapologetic. The Academy’s
permanent Secretary told the New York Times that “its not the academy's mandate
to balance literary quality against political considerations”. This curious
statement comes right after a year when the Academy had to face a series of
non-literary controversies and was mired by the #metoo scandal that ripped
apart the inner circles of the organization. Can an organization such as the
Swedish Academy stay aloof from political considerations? Would the Academy
have made the same statement against criticism regarding the Academy’s Eurocentric
and Anti-women choices for the past 120 years?
References and Further Reading
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