question about the Nobel Prize in Literature

by Victor Abruzzi

Posted to WritersAndGenres on 2002-03-07 23:20:00

Hi,

I have a WILD question that is going around in my head, I wonder if you could please help me answer it :

How does the judging committee decide what author or writer should be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for a year?

What intrigues me the most is how do they manage to compare authors who write in different languages. Here are some examples :

– Claude Simon (1985) (French language)
– Octavio Paz (1990) (Spanish language)
– Seamus Heaney (1995) (English language)
– Gunther Grass (1999) (German language)
– Gao Xingjian (2000) (Chinese language)

Regards
V.A.


The Literary Kicks message boards were active from 2001 to 2004.