JM Coetzee is 'easy' Nobel winner

JM Coetzee
Defoe tribute: Coetzee

South African writer JM Coetzee has won the 2003 Nobel Prize for literature.

The 63-year-old writer, long a favoured contender, was given the prestigious award for his ability to write stories that "in innumerable guises portrays the surprising involvement of the outsider."

In its citation, the academy said Coetzee's novels are characterised by their well-crafted composition, pregnant dialogue and analytical brilliance. "But at the same time, he is a scrupulous doubter, ruthless in his criticism of the cruel rationalism and cosmetic morality of western civilisation."

Horace Engdahl, the permanent secretary of the academy, said the decision was an easy one.

"We were very much convinced of the lasting value of his contribution to literature. I'm not speaking of the number of books, but the variety, and the very high average quality," he said. "I think he is a writer. . . that will continue to be discussed and analysed and we think he should belong to our literary heritage."

The prize includes a cheque for more than 10m kronor (US$1.3 million), but it can also bestow the added advantage of increased sales, celebrity and admiration.

It is the second time since 1991 that the academy has given the award to a South African. In 1991, they awarded the prize to Nadine Gordimer.

The academy has been Eurocentric in its recent decisions, giving the award to Europeans the last eight years. Since 1980, only three winners have come from Africa, three from South America, two from the United States and one from Asia. It's been 14 years since someone from the Middle East was given the nod, Egyptian Naguib Mahfouz.

Coetzee is renowned for shunning publicity, and never bothered to collect the two Booker prizes he won in 1983 and 1999 (for Disgrace).

Coetzee, who holds a Ph.D in computer-generated language, is one of South Africa's most successful authors, penning eight novels and numerous essays and manifestos covering everything from rugby to censorship.

Currently in Chicago on sabbatical from the University of Cape Town, Coetzee spent time working as a computer programmer in the United Kingdom before studying linguistics in Texas.

"There is a great wealth of variety in Coetzee's works," the academy said in its citation. "No two books ever follow the same recipe. Extensive reading reveals a recurring pattern, the downward spiraling journeys he considers necessary for the salvation of his characters."




Work by JM Coetzee


Dusklands (1974)
In the Heart of the Country: A Novel (1977)
Waiting for the Barbarians (1980)
Life and Times of Michael K 1983 (Winner of the 1983 Booker Prize)
Foe (1986)
Age of Iron (1990)
A Land Apart (1992)
The Master of Petersburg (1994)
Disgrace 1999 (Winner of the 1999 Booker Prize)
The Lives of Animals (1999)
Youth: Scenes from Provincial Life II (2002)
Elizabeth (2003)


White Writing: On the Culture of Letters (1988)
Doubling the Point : Essays and Interviews (1992)
Giving Offense: Essays on Censorship (1996)
Stranger Shores: Literary Essays, 1986-1999 (2001)

Nobel literature laureates since 1960:

2003: J.M. Coetzee, South African
2002: Imre Kertesz, Hungarian
2001: V.S. Naipaul, Trinidad-born Briton
2000: Gao Xingjian, Chinese-born French
1999: Guenter Grass, German
1998: Jose Saramago, Portuguese
1997: Dario Fo, Italian
1996: Wislawa Szymborska, Polish
1995: Seamus Heaney, Irish
1994: Kenzaburo Oe, Japanese
1993: Toni Morrison, American
1992: Derek Walcott, St. Lucian
1991: Nadine Gordimer, South African
1990: Octavio Paz, Mexican
1989: Camilo Jose Cela, Spanish
1988: Naguib Mahfouz, Egyptian
1987: Joseph Brodsky, Russian-born American
1986: Wole Soyinka, Nigerian
1985: Claude Simon, French
1984: Jaroslav Seifert, Czech
1983: William Golding, British
1982: Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Colombian
1981: Elias Canetti, Bulgarian-born Briton
1980: Czeslaw Milosz, Polish-born American
1979: Odysseus Elytis, Greek
1978: Isaac Bashevis Singer, Polish-born American
1977: Vicente Aleixandre, Spanish
1976: Saul Bellow, Canadian-born American
1975: Eugenio Montale, Italian
1974: Eyvind Johnson and Harry Martinson, both Swedish
1973: Patrick White, British-born Australian
1972: Heinrich Boell, German
1971: Pablo Neruda, Chilean
1970: Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Russian
1969: Samuel Beckett, Irish
1968: Yasunari Kawabata, Japanese
1967: Miguel A. Asturias, Guatemalan
1966: Shmuel Y. Agnon, Polish-born Israeli, and Nelly Sachs, German-born Swede
1965: Mikhail Sholokhov, Russian
1964: Jean-Paul Sartre, French (declined award)
1963: Giorgos Seferis, Turkish-born Greek
1962: John Steinbeck, American
1961: Ivo Andric, Yugoslav
1960: Saint-John Perse, French

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