South Africa hails Nobel Literature Prize winner Coetzee

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, October 03, 2003

South Africa hails Nobel Literature Prize winner Coetzee

South Africa Thursday hailed Nobel Literature Prize winner John Maxwell Coetzee as "the great heir to (Franz) Kafka" and "huge honor" for South African literature.

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South Africa Thursday hailed Nobel Literature Prize winner John Maxwell Coetzee as "the great heir to (Franz) Kafka" and "huge honor" for South African literature.

Stephen Watson, head of the University of Cape Town's English Department, said, "He was a very valued colleague of mine who taught here for 30 years. He taught American and English literature and linguistics."

Coetzee's accolade was announced on Thursday afternoon by the Swedish Academy.

He is the seventh South African Nobel Prize winner following Nelson Mandela, F.W. de Klerk (Peace Prize) in 1993, Nadine Gordimer (Literature Prize) in 1991, Desmond Tutu (Peace Prize) in1984, Albert Luthuli (Peace Prize) in 1960, and Max Theiler (Medicine Prize) in 1951.

"He is in any terms the great heir to Kafka, whether focusing on South Africa or places of no location," Watson said. "He manages to bring into focus, as few of his contemporary writers have done, some of the more imponderable questions of existence."

Franz Kafka (1883 - 1924), a Czech, was an existentialist whosework, with its themes of alienation from society and a general anxiety over just being alive, had a strong influence on European intellectuals.

The African National Congress (ANC) heaped praise on Coetzee on Thursday after it was announced that he had won the Nobel Prize for Literature.

"The ANC hopes the recognition given to South African authors like Coetzee and Nadine Gordimer, who received the award in 1991, will serve as an inspiration to young writers in this country and on the African continent," said ANC spokesman Smuts Ngonyama.

"We also hope it will encourage publishers and readers to realize the continent's vast untapped literary potential," he added.

The Democratic Alliance hailed the award as a "huge honor" for South African literature.

"Coetzee joins the best of the best with this award, most notably his compatriot Nadine Gordimer who won the award in 1991,"said Sydney Opperman, MP.

"Coetzee has made us all proud," he said.

A statement from the Swedish Academy, which adjudicates and awards the prizes, said, "There is a great wealth of variety in Coetzee's works. 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. His protagonists are overwhelmed by the urge to sink but paradoxically derive strength from being stripped of all external dignity," it said.

According to Watson, Coetzee related extremely well to students during his tenure at the University of Cape Town.

"He was too formidable a presence to be popular in the usual sense, but he was much admired," he said.

Watson's comment added to the excitement that came from Coetzee's publishers.

Stephen Johnson, MD of Random House SA, which distributes his books, published by the same company in the United Kingdom, said the company was "very excited and thrilled."

"For the author there is extraordinary prestige being a Nobel Laureate. The man is a genius. He says so much with so few words,"he added.

Johnson said Coetzee relocated to Australia some time ago and apart from this latest accolade, had also won Britain's premier literary honor, the Booker Prize.

Coetzee is now teaching graduate-level courses at the University of Chicago this fall on Plato's Phaedrus and US poet Walt Whitman.

The university's website noted that Coetzee is part of its Committee on Social Thought, which trains students working toward a doctorate in literature, philosophy, history, theology, art or politics.

The writer has been teaching at the university for several years, initially as a visiting professor.

Coetzee, who earned a doctorate in English and linguistics in 1969 from the University of Texas at Austin, also works at the University of Adelaide in Australia and has taught at prestigious US universities including Harvard and Johns Hopkins.

Coetzee was born on Feb. 9, 1940, and spent most of his childhood in Cape Town and Worcester, a scenic Western Cape town northeast of the South African harbor city.

He began his writing career in 1974 and rose to international renown in 1980 with his novel "Waiting for the Barbarians."

He won the Booker Prize for his "Life and Times of Michael K" in 1983 and for "Disgrace" in 1999.

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