In this photo taken on Tuesday, September 16, 2014, Belarusian journalist Svetlana Alexievich speaks in Minsk, Belarus.
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Belarussian author Svetlana Alexievich has won the Nobel Prize for Literature for her portrayal of life in the former Soviet Union which the Swedish Academy said was “a monument to suffering and courage in our time”.
Alexievich, 67, is the author of books such as War’s Unwomanly Face, Zinky Boys: The Record of a Lost Soviet Generation, and Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster. She also has written three plays and screenplays for 21 documentary films. Her work is hailed for blending literature and journalism.
Announcing the prize in Stockholm, the chair of the Swedish Academy, Sara Danius, called her writing “a monument to courage and suffering in our time”, according toBBC News. In 2000 Alexievich fled Belarus and moved to Paris, spending a decade overseas, after the global Cities of Refuge Network (ICORN) offered her sanctuary.
“She’s actually devised a new genre, a new kind of literary genre”, Darius said. “She has said many times that “I’m not interested in events, the history of events, I’m interested in the history of emotions” and that’s kept her busy for the past 40 years”.
Alexievich told The AP she had not yet received any congratulations from the president, whom she has pithily criticized for years.
“It’d be interesting to see what he’s going to do in this situation”, she said, speaking on the landing outside her apartment in a Soviet-era block.
At a news conference Thursday afternoon in Minsk, the writer said Belarusian authorities simply pretend that she doesn’t exist. “And this is the theme of my books, this is my path, my circles of hell, from man to man”. “I’m thrilled that this win will mean that more readers will be exposed to the metaphysical dimensions of her subjects’ survival and despair through the tragedies of Soviet history”.
“As I was searching for the way to represent this, I began to understand that what I was hearing people say on the street and in the crowds was much more effectively capturing what was going on than what I was reading in print – and the way that people were trying to convey it using their pen”, Alexievich said. “I love the Belarusian people”, she said. Her four nonfiction books have been published in 19 countries, including the U.S., U.K., Germany China and Japan. It sold more than 2 million copies.
Alexievich suffered persecution in Belarus during the Alexander Lukashenko years: Her books were censored, her phoned was bugged, and she was banned from doing public appearances.
Alexievich’s first book, “I’ve Left My Village”, gave her a reputation as a dissident.
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She is the 14th woman to win Nobel’s literature honor and was preceded by Alice Munro who was given the award in 2013. “On the one hand, it’s such a fantastic feeling, but it’s also a bit disturbing”.
