Why in News?

• The Nobel Prize in Literature for the year 2018 and 2019 were announced and the awardees are Polish author Olga Tokarczuk and Austrian author Peter Handke respectively.

About Olga Tokarczuk:

• She has been announced as the winner of the award for the year 2018.The academy has said that she has been chosen for works that explore the “crossing of boundaries as a form of life”.
• Olga was born is a Polish writer, activist and public intellectual. She is a trained psychologist from the University of Warsaw. She has published poems, novels.
• Her books “Flights” won the Nike award. Nike Award is considered as one of the top literary prizes of Poland. She had also won the German – Polish international Bridge prize for her accomplishments in promotion of peace and democratic development among the Europeans in different nations.

About Peter Hanke:

• The Nobel Prize in Literature 2019 has been awarded to Peter Handke for his influential work that explores the specificity of human experience.
• Peter is an Austrian novelist, translator and playwright. He has won several awards like International Ibsen award in 2014, Mulheimer Dramatikerpreis in 2012, Fraz Kafka Prize in 2009, etc.
• Over his entire career, Handke has produced many works of different genres and has successfully established himself as one of the most influential writers after the Second World War in Europe.

Who presents the Award?

• Nobel Prize for the field of Literature was chosen by the Swedish Academy. The Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded 110 times since 1901.

Criticism on the Swedish Academy:

• Since 1901 only 14 laureates were women out of 114 winners. This created criticisms that the Swedish academy is male oriented and Euro – centric.
• Apart from this, last year a sex scandal forced to postpone the Nobel Prize 2018. The scandal forced many to vacate the seats damaging the century old reputation of Nobel laurels.
• The Nobel Foundation had warned that another group could award the literature prize if the academy didn’t improve its tarnished image, but later announced that the Swedish Academy had revamped itself and restored trust.