TEXT
[1] The Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa,
whose deeply political work vividly examines
the perils of power and corruption in Latin
America, won the 2010 Nobel Prize in
[5] Literature on Thursday.
Mr. Vargas Llosa, 74, is one of the most
celebrated writers of the Spanish-speaking
world, an anti-totalitarian intellectual whose
work covers the range of human experience,
[10] whether it is ideology or eros. He is
frequently mentioned with his contemporary
Gabriel García Márquez, who won the
literature Nobel in 1982, the last South
American to do so. Mr. Vargas Llosa has
[15] written more than 30 works of nonfiction,
plays and novels, including "The Feast of the
Goat" and "The War of the End of the World."
The prize is the first for a writer in the
Spanish language in two decades, after
[20] Octavio Paz of Mexico won in 1990. It renews
attention on the Latin American writers who
gained renown in the 1960s, like Julio
Cortázar of Argentina and Carlos Fuentes of
Mexico, who formed the region’s "boom
[25] generation."
During a news conference at the
Instituto Cervantes in Manhattan on
Thursday, Mr. Vargas Llosa, an elegant,
dashing figure with silvery hair, appeared in
[30] front of a crowd of giddy journalists, mostly
Spanish-speaking, and Alejandro Toledo, the
former president of Peru, who sat in the front
row. Mr. Vargas Llosa is currently spending
the semester in the United States, teaching
[35] Latin American studies at Princeton.
Answering questions in English, Spanish
and a bit of French, Mr. Vargas Llosa called
the Nobel a recognition of the importance of
Latin American literature and of the Spanish
[40] language, which has acquired "a sort of
citizenship in the world," he said.
The announcement of the prize was
greeted largely with enthusiasm in Latin
America, where Mr. Vargas Llosa is widely
[45] admired for his literary greatness but is a
divisive figure because of his conservative
politics. He has frequently criticized leftist
governments in the region, including those of
Cuba and Venezuela.
[50] In Peru, members of Congress took to
the floor to praise him. People celebrated in
Arequipa, the provincial city where he was
born, with Peruvian television showing a
band playing the national anthem in the
[55] streets.
Felipe Calderón, Mexico’s president,
wrote in a Twitter message that the prize
was cause for "Latin American pride."
In selecting Mr. Vargas Llosa, the
[60] Swedish Academy has once again made a
literary choice tinged with politics, though
this time from the right instead of the left.
Recent winners of the literature Nobel
include Herta Müller, the Romanian-born
[65] German novelist; Orhan Pamuk of Turkey;
and Harold Pinter of Britain.
"It’s very difficult for a Latin American
writer to avoid politics," Mr. Vargas Llosa said
on Thursday. "Literature is an expression of
[70] life, and you cannot eradicate politics from
life."
The previous Nobel laureate of the
"boom generation," Mr. García Márquez of
Colombia, won the prize after wide acclaim
[75] for his masterpiece, "One Hundred Years of
Solitude." In a twist worthy of one of Mr.
Vargas Llosa’s subplots, Mr. García Márquez
and Mr. Vargas Llosa, at one point close
friends, had a violent falling out in 1976 in
[80] Mexico City, which they have yet to patch up.
The news that Mr. Vargas Llosa had won
the prize reached him early on Thursday
morning, when he was working in his
apartment in Manhattan, preparing to set out
[85] on a walk through Central Park, he told a
radio station in Peru. Initially, he thought it
was a prank.
"It was a grand surprise," he said. "It’s a
good way to start a New York day."
From: www.nytimes.com/October 7, 2010.
Among other Spanish language writers who have won the Nobel Prize in Literature, the text mentions
