A Nobel for a screenwriter
November 3rd, 2005
By awarding the 2004 prize to Elfriede Jelinek and this year’s prize to Harold Pinter, the Nobel academy proved it prefers to give its literature prize to people whose political involvement in public life involves protest. This year the prize recipient is worthy of it
Ariana Melamed
Some have taken objection to the selection of Jewish playwright Harold Pinter for a Nobel Prize, noting Pinter's intense anti-Americanism and harsh criticism of Israel. Ynet cultural correspondent Ariana Melamed offers us her supportive take on the body of work of the son of a Jewish tailor.
Some facts about Harold Pinter:
* Even at 75, he is still annoying the British establishment. * He is the son of a Jewish tailor of Portuguese origin. * The family name was originally “Pinto.” * He was a conscientious objector and did not serve in the British army during a time when there was compulsory conscription. * He does not need the prize money. His second wife, the biographer Lady Antonia Fraser, is the daughter of a wealthy, well-connected family, and he himself has been earning quite well since the late 1950s, when his first play, "The Room," was a success both in England and in other parts of the world. "The Room" became a hit with the respectable bourgeoisie because of its loaded silences and the depth of its examination of the relations between a couple, which discomfitted the audience in an interesting way for a little while.
Pinter’s previous prize was a small, worthless figurine given to him in 2004. The Wilfred Owen poetry award does not appear on the list of glittering events on the world literary scene, because it is given only to poets whose writing is expressly anti-war.
Pinter received the award for a bunch of poems that expressed fierce opposition to the war in Iraq, as well as a bit of anti-American loathing. This was evident in his poetry, his opinion pieces, and his public lectures. In addition to his vehement verbal opposition to any and all American military operations, from Grenada to the Balkans, he is an anti-censorship activist and an enthusiastic supporter of Amnesty International.
He received the Nobel Prize for innovative playwriting. For many years he was admired, but not understood. Because of the discomfort evident in his texts and the theatrical minimalism that characterized some of his first plays, he was placed in the same category as Beckett and Ionesco, as a successor of the fathers of the theater of the absurd.
This is not what he intended, since almost all the situations he wrote about were completely realistic, and later interpreters of his works abandoned these meditations on Pinter and the absurd, and noted that the heroes of his plays, and the things that happened to them, changed over the years: As he rose in the English social order, his characters became richer and more powerful, and they no longer burst onto the stage from the poorer neighborhoods of London.
read more,....
Some have taken objection to the selection of Jewish playwright Harold Pinter for a Nobel Prize, noting Pinter's intense anti-Americanism and harsh criticism of Israel. Ynet cultural correspondent Ariana Melamed offers us her supportive take on the body of work of the son of a Jewish tailor.
Some facts about Harold Pinter:
* Even at 75, he is still annoying the British establishment. * He is the son of a Jewish tailor of Portuguese origin. * The family name was originally “Pinto.” * He was a conscientious objector and did not serve in the British army during a time when there was compulsory conscription. * He does not need the prize money. His second wife, the biographer Lady Antonia Fraser, is the daughter of a wealthy, well-connected family, and he himself has been earning quite well since the late 1950s, when his first play, "The Room," was a success both in England and in other parts of the world. "The Room" became a hit with the respectable bourgeoisie because of its loaded silences and the depth of its examination of the relations between a couple, which discomfitted the audience in an interesting way for a little while.
Pinter’s previous prize was a small, worthless figurine given to him in 2004. The Wilfred Owen poetry award does not appear on the list of glittering events on the world literary scene, because it is given only to poets whose writing is expressly anti-war.
Pinter received the award for a bunch of poems that expressed fierce opposition to the war in Iraq, as well as a bit of anti-American loathing. This was evident in his poetry, his opinion pieces, and his public lectures. In addition to his vehement verbal opposition to any and all American military operations, from Grenada to the Balkans, he is an anti-censorship activist and an enthusiastic supporter of Amnesty International.
He received the Nobel Prize for innovative playwriting. For many years he was admired, but not understood. Because of the discomfort evident in his texts and the theatrical minimalism that characterized some of his first plays, he was placed in the same category as Beckett and Ionesco, as a successor of the fathers of the theater of the absurd.
This is not what he intended, since almost all the situations he wrote about were completely realistic, and later interpreters of his works abandoned these meditations on Pinter and the absurd, and noted that the heroes of his plays, and the things that happened to them, changed over the years: As he rose in the English social order, his characters became richer and more powerful, and they no longer burst onto the stage from the poorer neighborhoods of London.
read more,....
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