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Peter Handke Awarded The Nobel Prize in Literature 2019

October 13, 2019
Last updated May 10, 2023

The Nobel Prize in Literature 2019 was awarded to Peter Handke. The jury cited "an influential work that with linguistic ingenuity has explored the periphery and the specificity of human experience."

Peter Handke is an Austrian novelist, playwright, translator, poet, film director and screenwriter. In the late 1960s, he was recognized for works such as the play Publikumsbeschimpfung (Offending the Audience) and the novel Die Angst des Tormanns beim Elfmeter (The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick). 

Handke's Nobel prize win was mostly negatively received in Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania and Croatia, resulting in public statements of disapproval from some politicians, academics, actors, journalists and the other media, activists, etc. – due to writer's past pro-Serbian  attitudes, including support for Slobodan Milošević.  

PEN America also gave negative critics, stating "deep regret." In 2014, Handke called for Nobel Prize in Literature to be abolished and dubbed it a "circus."

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