- News>
- Literary Corner
Coetzee hailed as `heir to Kafka`
Johannesburg,Oct 03: South African-born author JM Coetzee, who won the Nobel Literature Prize Thursday, has been hailed as the `great heir to Kafka` and an inspiration to young African writers.
Johannesburg,Oct 03: South African-born author JM Coetzee, who won the Nobel Literature Prize Thursday, has been hailed as the "great heir to Kafka" and an inspiration to young African writers.
He received accolades from politicians to literature experts across the world Thursday for his emphatic works born out of experiences of the apartheid regime.
It is about time," said Michael Marais, a Johannesburg-based professor who completed his doctorate on Coetzee. "He is too good a writer to be continued to be ignored."
Academics from the University of Adelaide in Australia, where Coetzee now lives, to literature experts in Africa and the United States, where he is currently attending a conference, expressed delight with the Swedish Academy's choice. Coetzee himself, known for his reclusiveness -- he did not even travel to London when he made history by twice winning Britain's coveted Booker Prize -- said the award came as a complete surprise.
"I received the news in a phone call from Stockholm at 6:00 this morning," he said in a statement posted on the website of the University of Chicago, where he is teaching this semester.
"It came as a complete surprise. I was not even aware that the announcement was pending," Coetzee said even though he had been repeatedly tipped as a possible laureate in recent years. Coetzee is following in the footsteps of anti-apartheid activist Nadine Gordimer, who won the Nobel for literature in 1991, and five other South Africans who had also been awarded Nobel prizes.
In Senegal, a spokesman for a Senegalese group of intellectuals said,"We can only rejoice and congratulate him". South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC), elected into power in the country's first non-racial elections, hailed his achievement.
"The ANC hopes the recognition given to South African authors will serve as an inspiration to young writers in this country and on the African continent," ANC spokesman Smuts Ngonyama said.
Bureau Report
Academics from the University of Adelaide in Australia, where Coetzee now lives, to literature experts in Africa and the United States, where he is currently attending a conference, expressed delight with the Swedish Academy's choice. Coetzee himself, known for his reclusiveness -- he did not even travel to London when he made history by twice winning Britain's coveted Booker Prize -- said the award came as a complete surprise.
"I received the news in a phone call from Stockholm at 6:00 this morning," he said in a statement posted on the website of the University of Chicago, where he is teaching this semester.
"It came as a complete surprise. I was not even aware that the announcement was pending," Coetzee said even though he had been repeatedly tipped as a possible laureate in recent years. Coetzee is following in the footsteps of anti-apartheid activist Nadine Gordimer, who won the Nobel for literature in 1991, and five other South Africans who had also been awarded Nobel prizes.
In Senegal, a spokesman for a Senegalese group of intellectuals said,"We can only rejoice and congratulate him". South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC), elected into power in the country's first non-racial elections, hailed his achievement.
"The ANC hopes the recognition given to South African authors will serve as an inspiration to young writers in this country and on the African continent," ANC spokesman Smuts Ngonyama said.
Bureau Report