| La Femme Nikita |
Posted
on 09-Nov-01 01:48 PM
First, it was VS Naipaul - a writer of South Asian origin - who bagged the prestigious Nobel Prize.
Now, it's Arundhati Roy - a Booker prize winner and prospective Nobel laureate -
who has bagged a prestigious French award.
Way to go, South Asian literary compatriots!
Here follows an article on Roy's most recent accolade:
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Arundhati Roy wins French literary prize
France's Universal Academy of Cultures has
awarded its top prize to Arundhati Roy 'for her
literary work and her commitment to the fight for
human rights'.
The $68,000 prize is awarded to writers for their
work against intolerance, racism and discrimination
against women.
Roy, 39, is the second person to win the prize after
Vaclav Havel, the Czech president and former
dissident playwright.
She won the Booker prize in 1997 for The God of
Small Things, which has since been translated in 30
languages, becoming the first Indian author living in India to receive the
prestigious British award.
Roy also wrote The Cost of Living, a scathing essay against her
government's policy on dams and India's role as a nuclear power.
Created in 1992 by Nobel peace laureate Elie Wiesel, the academy
comprises several internationally renowned intellectuals, such as Margaret
Atwood, Saul Bellow, Yussef Chahine, Umberto Eco and Ismail Kadare.
French Education Minister Jack Lang will present the award to Roy in a
ceremony at the Sorbonne University in Paris on November 12.
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| anepalikt |
Posted
on 10-Nov-01 11:23 AM
I loved Roy's book, but I think the new French Award she got is a bit premature!! especially for human rights!! sounds like she wrote one essay!! big deal. Also saw here recent peice in response to 9/11 and the American attacks on Afghanistan.... fell a bit short. I could not even finish it.
Nailpaul on the other hand has had a long and productive career and a controversial one at that.
Yes, bravo to both I guess. But I personally think "South Asia" has been coopted solely by the Indians and don't want to see Nepal get swallowed in by it. So let's not get terribly jouyous about how Indian writers or writers of Indian descent get acknowledgement... too much like riding the coattails for one, and secondly most of the time, in most cases, for most folks South Asia simply means India and Pakistan... Nepal? What is that? Kathmandu is in India didn't you see in CNN!
Sorry to be so cynical... don't mean to be divisive, but just want to point out the problem with South Asian solidarity... it is more like hegemony.
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