美国国家公共电台 NPR No Shortlist Of Nominees For The Nobel Prize In Literature

 

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

The Nobel Prize in Literature will be announced tomorrow in Stockholm. And as usual, the British betting agency Ladbrokes is driving the speculation¹ on who might win. No matter that Ladbrokes rarely gets it right. The Nobel committee is famous for its surprising choices. Last year's winner was Bob Dylan. Still, some names get mentioned every year. NPR's Lynn Neary looks at this year's top contenders.

LYNN NEARY, BYLINE²: It's been quite a year for Margaret Atwood. A television adaptation of her novel "The Handmaid's Tale" was a huge success, and the book, first published more than 30 years ago, is back near the top of best-seller lists. That may be why her chance of winning the Nobel this year looks pretty good. It's also why fans like Karma Waltonen are on tenterhooks³.

KARMA WALTONEN: I mean, this is something that all Atwood fans have waited for for a really long time. And even in years when other writers that we love win, it's just so difficult when she doesn't.

NEARY: Waltonen teaches writing at UC Davis and edits the Journal of Margaret Atwood Studies. She says Atwood may be famous for "The Handmaid's Tale," but she is no one-book wonder.

WALTONEN: Everything she writes, even though she writes in a ton of different genres⁴ - in each of them, I think her signatures are that she always constructs the story in a really interesting way narratively⁵ and that she has what we keep seeing as this sort of prescience (laughter), you know? We read her books, and then later, we say, oh, wait, that just happened. (Laughter) She wrote about it, and then it came true.

NEARY: Joining Margaret Atwood as a betting favorite this year is Japanese writer Haruki Murakami. But Tufts University Professor Hosea Hirata says Murakami has one thing that might be working against him - his popularity.

HOSEA HIRATA: His books sell phenomenally. It's like "Harry⁶ Potter."

NEARY: Hirata says the Nobel committee might think that Murakami is too steeped in pop culture to be taken seriously. And literature Nobels often go to writers with strong political messages. But Hirata says it's a mistake to think Murakami is apolitical. In a book like "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle," Hirata says, Murakami forces the reader to face certain truths about World War II.

HIRATA: His book is I think really telling that at the subconscious⁷ level, we are somehow linked to all that violence that erupted in the world. And we are capable of that type of violence again if we're not careful.

NEARY: It's been 31 years since a black African writer from Sub-Saharan Africa has won the Nobel. That's one reason Macalester College professor David Moore thinks Kenyan author Ngugi wa Thiong'o has a good chance to win this year. Moore says Ngugi writes in his mother tongue, Gikuyu.

DAVID MOORE: Ngugi, since the late 1960s, has been a powerful proponent⁸ of the writing of literatures in all of the world's languages.

NEARY: Imprisoned⁹ for a year in 1977, Ngugi later went into exile and has been living in the U.S. since 1989. But Moore says he has worked to maintain his identity as a Kenyan author.

MOORE: He has not become a global cosmopolitan¹⁰ writer who's doing what Salman Rushdie writes, which is, write these novels full of characters from all over the planet finding themselves in some multicultural¹¹ stew¹². He's confronted globalization but really as a Kenyan writer.

NEARY: Ngugi's name always comes up at Nobel time. But this year, Ladbrokes has given him the best odds¹³ of winning. Lynn Neary, NPR News, Washington.

(SOUNDBITE OF LIGHTS AND MOTION'S "FIREFLIES")

1 speculation   

n.思索，沉思；猜测；投机

参考例句：

• Her mind is occupied with speculation.她的头脑忙于思考。
• There is widespread speculation that he is going to resign.人们普遍推测他要辞职。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 tenterhooks   

n.坐立不安

参考例句：

• The students are on tenterhooks to hear the result of the examination.学生们烦躁不安地听考试结果。
• The mother was on tenterhooks until her little Laura came back.当小珞拉回来后，她母亲才放下心来。

4 genres   

（文学、艺术等的）类型，体裁，风格( genre的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Novel and short story are different genres. 长篇小说和短篇小说是不同的类别。
• But confusions over the two genres have a long history. 但是类型的混淆，古已有之。 来自汉英文学 - 散文英译

5 narratively   

用故事体

参考例句：

6 harry   

vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼

参考例句：

• Today,people feel more hurried and harried.今天，人们感到更加忙碌和苦恼。
• Obama harried business by Healthcare Reform plan.奥巴马用医改掠夺了商界。

7 subconscious   

n./adj.潜意识(的)，下意识(的)

参考例句：

• Nail biting is often a subconscious reaction to tension.咬指甲通常是紧张时的下意识反映。
• My answer seemed to come from the subconscious.我的回答似乎出自下意识。

8 proponent   

n.建议者；支持者；adj.建议的

参考例句：

• Stapp became a strong early proponent of automobile seat belts.斯塔普是力主在汽车上采用座椅安全带的早期倡导者。
• Halsey was identified as a leading proponent of the values of progressive education.哈尔西被认为是进步教育价值观的主要支持者。

9 imprisoned   

下狱，监禁( imprison的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He was imprisoned for two concurrent terms of 30 months and 18 months. 他被判处30个月和18个月的监禁，合并执行。
• They were imprisoned for possession of drugs. 他们因拥有毒品而被监禁。

10 cosmopolitan   

adj.世界性的，全世界的，四海为家的，全球的

参考例句：

• New York is a highly cosmopolitan city.纽约是一个高度世界性的城市。
• She has a very cosmopolitan outlook on life.她有四海一家的人生观。

11 multicultural   

adj.融合多种文化的，多种文化的

参考例句：

• Children growing up in a multicultural society.在多元文化社会中长大的孩子们。
• The school has been attempting to bring a multicultural perspective to its curriculum.这所学校已经在尝试将一种多元文化视角引入其课程。

12 stew   

n.炖汤，焖，烦恼；v.炖汤，焖，忧虑

参考例句：

• The stew must be boiled up before serving.炖肉必须煮熟才能上桌。
• There's no need to get in a stew.没有必要烦恼。

13 odds   

n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别

参考例句：

• The odds are 5 to 1 that she will win.她获胜的机会是五比一。
• Do you know the odds of winning the lottery once?你知道赢得一次彩票的几率多大吗？