Pinter wins Nobel Prize in Literature
Foreign Desk Report

STOCKHOLM—Leading British playwright Harold Pinter has won the 2005 Nobel Literature Prize, the Swedish Academy announced. Pinter, “who in his plays uncovers the precipice under everyday prattle and forces entry into oppression’s closed rooms”, is the foremost representative of drama in post-war Britain, the jury said Thursday. The laureate “restored theatre to its basic elements: an enclosed space and unpredictable dialogue where people are at the mercy of each other and pretense crumbles,” it added. He is even credited with an adjective, Pinteresque, which is used to describe a particular atmosphere and environment in drama. Pinter, who has just turned 75, was born in the London borough of Hackney, the son of a Jewish dressmaker. During his youth he experienced anti-Semitism, which he said had been important in his decision to become a dramatist. He made his playwriting debut in 1957, with “The Room”. His conclusive breakthrough came with “The Caretaker” in 1959, followed by “The Homecoming” in 1964. Pinter will take home the prize sum of 10 million kronor (1.1 million euros, 1.3 million dollars). His name had been mentioned among the possible winners of this year’s prize. Last year, the honour went to Austrian writer Elfriede Jelinek. Pinter will receive the Nobel Prize, which consists of the prize money, a gold medal and a diploma, from Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf at a formal ceremony in Stockholm on December 10, the anniversary of the death of Alfred Nobel, the founder of the Nobel prizes, in 1896.