The UoB Linguist Magazine http://theuoblinguist.co.uk Tue, 22 May 2018 19:45:07 +0000 en-US hourly 1 Nobel Literature Prize 2018 Postponed http://theuoblinguist.co.uk/uncategorized/nobel-literature-prize-2018-postponed/ http://theuoblinguist.co.uk/uncategorized/nobel-literature-prize-2018-postponed/#comments Tue, 22 May 2018 19:44:17 +0000 Tom Shacklock http://theuoblinguist.co.uk/?p=13982 By JOSEPHINE GREENLAND

STOCKHOLM. After news that Jean-Claude Arnault accosted Crown Prince Victoria, and that yet another member resigned, the Swedish Academy announced that the Nobel Prize for Literature 2018 has been cancelled, and that two prizes will be allocated in 2019.

Friday 27th April, only a few days after Svenska Dagbladet’s publication about the alleged assault on the Crown Princess, author Sara Stridsberg announced her departure from the Academy. Peter Englund, another former member, commented that “the Academy is not only losing a great talent, but also a wise and thoughtful member. Sara has a very strong character and has proved that she doesn’t give up immediately, but everyone has a limit to what they can put up with and I can understand she’s had enough.”

At the same time, an investigation concerning the possibility of economic crime by the Academy had been launched. The aim was to find out if the assaults were known to the Academy Members, and whether Arnault, through his marriage with Frostensson, had any influence on the Academy’s decision making.

On Thursday May 3rd, the remaining ten held a meeting to discuss the future of the Nobel Prize. The following morning, it was announced that the prize would be postponed. Two prizes would instead be awarded in 2019.

“The present decision was arrived at in view of the currently diminished academy and the reduced public confidence in the academy,” the body said in a press statement.

Interim Permanent Secretary Anders Olsson states that they “find it necessary to commit time to recovering public confidence… before the next laureate can be announced. This is out of respect for previous and future literature laureates, the Nobel Foundation and the general public.”

Maria Schottenius, literature editor at Dagens Nyheter, thinks the decision is wise. “They will have a chance to restore the institution this year and fill the empty seats, and come back with a strong academy that can award the prize.”

After such a scandal, however, it is questionable whether the Nobel Prize will ever regain its former status. The general consensus of the Swedish public is that the Academy should be rebuilt from the base, with 18 new members replacing the old ones. Demonstrations have been held in the square protesting against Danius’ resignation and the ten remaining members.

Reactions and statements throughout the years suggest that the scandal is the sum of a growing negative sentiment towards the prize. The Guardian writes that the literature prize has often been regarded as an anomaly amongst the science-related awards established by chemist Alfred Nobel. Nobel wrote in his testament that five Nobel Prizes would be set up: the three science prizes, the literature prize and the peace price. He specifically requested that the Academy be responsible for the literature prize.

The method by which the Academy chooses a winner has remained opaque for decades. Each February, the Academy reviews 200 nominations, constructs a shortlist by May, and reads up on the five writers over the summer. The winner is the one deemed to best fulfil Nobel’s desire to reward “the most outstanding work in an ideal direction.” This is a vague definition, and does not signify whether the writer should be well-known to a wider, global audience or indeed have won other prestigious prizes. Rather, the prize-winner reflects the Academy’s definition of what an ideal literary work is. This has sometimes resulted in laureates who were virtually unknown internationally, such as the 2015 laureate Svetlana Alexeivitch, when 10,000 reporters supposedly googled her name, having never heard of her before.

One of the main, long-standing criticisms of the prize is that it is awarded to writers who no longer need it. The average age of a laureate is 67. At age 87, Doris Lessing famously commented: “Oh Christ. It’s been going on for 30 years. One can get more excited.” On an even more sensational note, postponed laureate George Bernard Shaw stated: “I can find it easy to forgive the man who invented a devilish instrument like dynamite, but how can one ever forgive the diabolical mind that invented the Nobel Prize for literature?”

It is seventy years since the Nobel Literature prize was previously postponed. Since its launch in 1901, it has been missed seven times, six of these due to the first and second world wars, and in 1935 for unknown reasons. It has also been reserved due to a lack of suitable winners in 1915, 1919, 1925, 1926, 1927, 1936 and 1949.

Carl-Henrik Heldin, Chairman of the Nobel Foundation, says that the other prize categories will not be affected.

Clearly, a cesspool of tension has circulated beneath the serene mask of the cultural body, formerly considered to be one of the leading institutions of high culture in Sweden. Now that these tensions have broken through the surface, the fate of the Academy remains uncertain. Due to the earlier resignations and announcement that two prizes will be awarded in 2019, the ten remaining members (nine men and one woman) mainly consist of Frostensson’s sympathizers – possibly the most conservative faction of the Academy. They could either respond to public criticism by electing at least three female members ready to steer the Academy in new directions, and by selecting two female prize winners. On the other hand, they could resort to more traditional methods, meaning that the Academy, despite the Arnault scandal, remains fundamentally unchanged.

PHOTO CREDIT: The Swedish Academy by Adam.thomp07, 14 July 2016.

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Nobel Abuse Scandal Affects Royal Family http://theuoblinguist.co.uk/uncategorized/nobel-abuse-scandal-affects-royal-family/ http://theuoblinguist.co.uk/uncategorized/nobel-abuse-scandal-affects-royal-family/#comments Sun, 13 May 2018 01:01:01 +0000 Tom Shacklock http://theuoblinguist.co.uk/?p=13964 By JOSEPHINE GREENLAND

STOCKHOLM.  In the wake of the allegations of sexual harassment against Jean-Claude Arnault, newspaper Svenska Dagbladet wrote that the abuse had even affected the royal family. According to three witnesses, the photographer groped the then 27-year-old Crown Princess Victoria on the bottom, at a Christmas event held by the Academy in 2004.

Professor and writer Ebba Witt Brattstrom, present at the event, said in an interview with the Telegraph that Arnault “came lurking from behind and I saw his hand land on her neck and go downward. It was all the way down.”

Brattstrom explained that Victoria’s female Adjutant immediately intervened. “She just threw herself at Arnault. She grabbed him, and ‘whop’ he was gone. The Crown Princess just turned in surprise. I guess she had never been groped before. She just looked like ‘what’?”

Brattstrom said that both she, her former husband and current Academy member Horace Engdahl, King Carl Gustaf XVI and two other Academy members had been standing in a circle with the Crown Princess when Arnault struck.

Following the event, the Swedish Court was instructed to ensure that Victoria was never left alone with Mr. Arnault.

“He kind of molested lightly,” Brattstrom said. “That was his way and everybody knew that, and no one was supposed to take it seriously.” Arnault’s behaviour was supposedly tolerated by the Academy, and according to Brattstrom this shows that “these kinds of men are still proud of this old-fashioned sexism.” She draws a parallel towards her ex-husband, with whom she was married for 33 years. Her poetic novel Love/ War published in Britain 2016, based upon her marriage, stages a dialogue between a he and a she, and can be compared to the Swedish Academy scandal.

Mr. Horace Engdahl denied being present at the event, and believes that Brattstrom is “known to make the greatest possible effort to do harm to the Swedish Academy and to me personally.”

Margareta Thorngren, the Swedish Court’s press chief, said the Crown would “neither confirm nor deny” the Svenska Dagbladet story. However, the court supported the MeToo movement and found the claims aginst Mr Arnault “frightening.”

The Swedish Academy was drawn into crisis in the wake of the MeToo campaign. Newspaper Dagens Nyheter wrote that 18 women had made allegations of sexual harassment by photographer and cultural profile Jean-Claude Arnault. Arnault, together with his wife and Academy Member Katarina Frostensson, led a cultural organization called The Forum where poets, artists and Nobel laureates presented their work. The Forum received grants from the Academy, and a number of the abuse are said to have taken place in apartments owned by the Academy. Arnault is also suspected of leaking the name of the Nobel laureate seven times since 1996, including Harold Pinter in 2005 and Bob Dylan in 2016.

As a result, the Swedish Academy split into two camps. One supported Sarah Danius’ attempt to exclude Frostensson from the Academy. The other defended Frostensson and claimed the allegations were exaggerated. Three members resigned in protest, followed by Danius and Frostensson a week later.

The Academy’s reputation was, as culture editor Bjorn Wiman from Dagens Nyheter put it, at “rock bottom” even before the news about the Crown Princess was published. Horace Engdahl’s denial about being present during the incident, after having publically announced that it was time to put old grudges aside, is likely to reflect badly on both the Academy and his own person. Undoubtedly, restoring confidence in the Academy and the validity of the Nobel Prize will now seem nigh on impossible.

PHOTO CREDIT: Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden, 3 June 2012, by US Embassy Sweden

 

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Per què aprendre català? http://theuoblinguist.co.uk/latest-articles-2/per-que-aprendre-catala/ http://theuoblinguist.co.uk/latest-articles-2/per-que-aprendre-catala/#comments Wed, 09 May 2018 09:09:42 +0000 Stewart Tunstall http://theuoblinguist.co.uk/?p=13952 Fa tres anys, la ciutat de Barcelona em va proporcionar la meva primera interacció amb el català quan vaig viatjar-hi amb la meva família. Recordo que veia els senyals informatius escrits en aquesta llengua estranya i que això em cridava l’atenció i em feia tornar a mirar enrere. Sovint quan dic a la gent que estudio català, em pregunten «per què?» o «és el mateix que el castellà, oi?», però la meva experiència amb el català m’ha demostrat que hi ha moltes raons per interessar-s’hi.

Un aspecte molt admirable del català és que és més que una llengua. El català té una identitat pròpia, i la llengua catalana està situada al centre de gran part de la història dels Països Catalans. Per exemple, durant la dictadura franquista (1939-1975) la llengua era un símbol de l’opressió que es patia i ara, en canvi, la llengua és un símbol de la llibertat que els catalans desitgen. Un dels aspectes únics que he pogut aprendre gràcies als estudis catalans és que els catalans sempre han tingut passió per la seva llengua. El que va començar com una part acadèmica dels meus estudis ha esdevingut una passió personal.

A més, hi ha altres raons per estudiar una llengua que potser és menys coneguda: l’habilitat de parlar llengües com el català ens dona l’oportunitat de comunicar-nos amb persones diferents i de descobrir cultures noves! El meu estudi del català m’ha fet conèixer costums i tradicions específiques dels Països Catalans, com el Cagatió. L’exploració d’aquests aspectes m’ajuda a entendre la identitat catalana. En el món globalitzat d’avui, és imprescindible que tinguem  consciència de les cultures i comunitats que existeixen més enllà de les nostres.

Quan vaig decidir a estudiar català a la universitat, esperava aprendre’n els temps verbals i el vocabulari. Però durant els anys que he estudiat català el meu aprenentatge ha anat més enllà de l’aula. M’he sentit atreta per Catalunya en el seu conjunt i penso en els seus polítics i en els seus problemes com si fossin els del meu propi país. Us convido a fer el mateix!

Written by Erin Doherty

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