2007-9-13

Writer John Maxwell Coetzee From South Africa

Sweden Royal Literature Institution announced in Stockholm on October 2 that John Maxwell Coetzee from South Africa was awarded Nobel Literature Prize in 2003 for commending his outstanding contribution to world literature.

John Maxwell Coetzee, 63 years old, began to publish his works in 1974 and made a great coup in international literature world for his publishing novel Waiting For the Barbarian in 1980. His major works include Dusk lands, In the Heart of the Country and Disgrace etc. According to introduction by Sweden Royal Literature Institution, the works of Coetzee mostly describe people¡¯s life under apartheid. One great feature of these works is that very profound psychological depict was made for the molded characters.

Sweden Royal Literature Institution said in its news communiqu¨¦ that Coetzee¡¯s creative novels have bright viewpoints with delicate structure and implicated dialogue. Yet, at the same time, he was also a prudent skeptic who relentlessly castigated the cruel rationalism and deceptive morality outlook of western civilization.

Coetzee, born in Cape town of South Africa in 1940, emigrated into British in 1960 and had been engaged as a computer programmer for several years. Later, he migrated into U.S.A for learning literature and began to teach literature in State University of New York (SUNY) after he finished his study there. Coetzee became an English Literature Professor of University of Cape Town in 1984. He emigrated into Australia in 2002 and now serves in The University of Adelaide.
The Nobel Foundation announced that the premium of each Nobel Prize this year will be SEK 10 million (about $1.30 million ).

His magnum opuses are Dusklands,In the Heart of the Country, Waiting for the Barbarians, Life and Times of Michael K and Age of Iron etc.