Yesterday (October 13), the Swedish Academy announced the recipient of the 2005 Nobel Prize in Literature. It is Harold Pinter, the English playwright.
Pinter is regarded as the greatest living playwright in England.
In an official statement, the Academy praised Pinter for “uncovering the precipice beneath the trivial chatter of daily life and forcing entry into the closed rooms of oppression” (translated, “who in his plays uncovers the precipice under everyday prattle and forces entry into oppression’s closed rooms”).
His minimalist, restrained style of drama, marked by ominous and uneasy silences, has led to the coining of a term in English: “Pinteresque“, meaning “in the style of Pinter“.
Harold Pinter was born on October 10, 1930, in East London. He was a playwright, director, actor, poet, and political activist. He wrote twenty-nine plays, including notable works such as The Birthday Party, The Caretaker, The Homecoming, and Betrayal, as well as twenty-one film scripts, including The Servant, The Go-Between, and The French Lieutenant’s Woman. Additionally, he directed twenty-seven plays, including James Joyce’s Exiles, seven plays by Simon Gray, and many of his own works.
Pinter received numerous awards, including the Shakespeare Prize (Hamburg), the European Literature Prize (Vienna), the Pirandello Prize (Palermo), the David Cohen British Literature Prize, and the New York Drama Critics’ Award. He was also awarded many honorary degrees from fourteen universities.
Pinter was very active in his political views. Over the years, he strongly condemned the abuse of state power in various parts of the world, such as NATO’s bombing of Serbia. In 2002, at an anti-war rally, he criticized the so-called “defensive war” against Iraq. He stated: “Bush said: ‘We will not allow the worst weapons in the world to be in the hands of the worst leaders in the world’. That’s absolutely right. Look in the mirror. The worst leader in the world is him, isn’t it?”
Before Pinter, other notable playwrights who received the Nobel Prize in Literature included George Bernard Shaw, Samuel Beckett, Eugene O’Neill, and Dario Fo.
Thụ Nhân (compiled)
