The chronicler of the harsh reality of the Soviet empire, the Belarusian Svetlana Alexievich is the new universal pen that is devoted to the Nobel Prize for Literature.
The journalist of 67 years has been known for portraying the Soviet empire and Afghanistan Chernobyl absent in some books in bookstores of his country, he did not forgive his vision of “homo Sovieticus” incapable to be free.
His work, rich in testimonies gathered patiently over time, it is translated into several languages, but little Spanish.
‘The end of the red man and the era of disenchantment’, a portrait without concessions but compassionate “homo Sovieticus” more than 20 years after the implosion of the empire, received in 2013 the Medicis prize for trial . in France
“I know well that ‘red man: me, the people around me, my parents,” he once explained. “It has not disappeared. And the farewell will be very long, “he said.
So feel “respect” for the Ukrainians with their protests ousted from power by pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovich in 2014. “Today is the model for all Ukraine. His desire to break completely with the past is worthy of respect, “said the Nobel.
“I think that the empire has not yet disappeared. And he said personally I have the uneasy feeling that will not go away without bloodshed “.
Born May 31, 1948 in Western Ukraine in a family of rural teachers, graduate faculty journalism at the University of Minsk, Svetlana Alexievich worked in the 1970s in the section of letters to the editor of Selskaya Gazeta, the newspaper of the Soviet kolkhoz.
That began recording on your recorder stories of women who fought during World War II. They inspired his first novel, ‘The war has no woman’s face’.
“All we knew the war was told by men (…) Why women who have supported this absolutely male world failed to defend his story, his words and feelings ? “he asked.
A Alexievich accused of “breaking the heroic image of the Soviet woman” and his book had to wait for perestroika to be published in 1985. He rose to fame throughout the Union Soviet and abroad.
Since then always resorted to the same method to his documentary novels, interviewing people for years with dramatic experiences: Soviet soldiers returning from the war in Afghanistan (‘zinc coffins’) or suicide (‘ Haunted the death ‘).
“We live between perpetrators and victims, the perpetrators are hard to find. The victims are our society, and are very numerous, “said Alexievich on the protagonists of his books.
Following the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986, the writer worked for over 10 years in ‘Voices from Chernobyl “(1997), one of the two books translated into Spanish, with’ The Chernobyl Prayer ‘. It includes testimonials from men sent to work in the central and other victims of the tragedy.
The Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, one of the countries most affected by the consequences of Chernobyl, where the subject remains taboo, has banned his book.
According to Nobel , his “dislike” the president in power for over 20 years. “We live under a dictatorship, there are opponents in jail, society is afraid and at the same time is a vulgar consumer society, people are not interested in politics. It is a difficult time, “summed up the writer in an interview in 2013.
The Belarusian intellectuals also appreciate the views of this woman claimed that on one hand the” Russian culture “that they another look distinguished and lives most of the time in Western Europe, for which they feel a mixture of attraction and repulsion.
With this award, the Minsk regime “will be forced to listen. There are so many tired people who no longer have the strength to believe. (The award) may mean something for them, “said Alexievich Swedish daily Svenska Dagbladet.
“It is a reward not only for me but also for our culture. It’s hard to be an honest person, but we must not make concessions to totalitarian power, “he said.
Alexievich happens to French novelist Patrick Modiano, winner in 2014, and will receive a reward of eight million kronor (860,000 euros, about US $ 973,000).
“Over the last 30 or 40 years, Svetlana spent his time mapping of the Soviet and post-Soviet individual. And have a history of emotions, a history of the soul, “said Sara Danius, secretary of the Swedish Academy.
Winners of Nobel
These are the last winners of the Nobel Literature Award
- 2015: Svetlana Alexievich (Belarus)
- 2014: Patrick Modiano (France)
- 2013: Alice Munro (Canada)
- 2012: Mo Yan (China)
- 2011: Tomas Tranströmer (Sweden)
- 2010: Mario Vargas Llosa (Peru)
- 2009: Herta Müller (Germany)
- 2008: Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio ( France)
- 2007: Doris Lessing (Great Britain)
- 2006: Orhan Pamuk (Turkey)
- 2005: Harold Pinter (Great Britain)
- 2004: Elfriede Jelinek (Austria)
- 2003: JM Coetzee (South Africa)
- 2002: Imre Kertesz (Hungary)
- 2001: VS Naipaul (Britain)
- 2000 Gao Xingjian (China)
- 1999 Günter Grass (Germany)
- 1998 José Saramago (Portugal)
- 1997: Dario Fo (Italy)
- 1996: Wislawa Szymborska (Poland)
- 1995: Seamus Heaney (Ireland)
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