Peru's Llosa wins 2010 Nobel Prize in Literature

[News_Editor]

Peru's Llosa wins 2010 Nobel Prize in Literature

2010-10-08 01:38:51 GMT+7 (ICT)

STOCKHOLM (BNO NEWS) -- Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa, one of the most acclaimed writers in Latin America, was awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize in Literature on Thursday.

Llosa, 74, was awarded the honorable prize by the Swedish Academy "for his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual's resistance, revolt, and defeat."

"Well, so, is it true then?" Llosa said when he was called by Adam Smith of the Swedish Academy, minutes after the announcement was made during a press conference in Stockholm. "Because I received a call from the Secretary General of the Academy and I was wondering if it was true or a joke," he added. "I still don't believe it, you know, I need to read it in the paper."

Llosa said he was 'very moved' by the prize, arguably one of the top prizes in the world, and called it a 'fantastic encouragement.' "Frankly, I didn't expect it, you know. I didn't know that my name was among the possible candidates," he said.

The Peruvian author has written more than 30 novels, plays and essays over the years. For Llosa, literature gives readers a kind of third eye and enables them to see what is lacking in the real world. It sews the seed of a revolutionary attitude and great novels give us an appetite for the impossible. Llosa's writing has always been experimental, as he explores different ways of telling a story, of depicting the passage of time, and of combining fact and fiction. His novels are very varied, but whatever form they take, they are interested in the interrelationship between politics and the individual and explore the private histories of nations.

The early novels are characterized by seriousness and darkness. 'The Conversation in the Cathedral' in 1969, for example, uses the form of a murder mystery to criticize authoritarianism and rightwing dictatorship. This phase was followed in the 1970s by more playful, comic novels, with strong elements of satire and parody. 'Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter' in 1977, for example, follows the career and romantic life of a young writer which it intersperses with scenes from a soap opera. Then Llosa moved into historical novels, with books such as 'The War of the End of the World' in 1981, an expose of fanaticism, self-delusion and violence, based on the real confrontation between the young Brazilian state and a lunatic sect.

Llosa's political engagement even made him run for President of Peru in 1990, but failed. Llosa has pledged to continue writing.

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