Two external members of the Nobel Committee on Literature have resigned, prompted by criticism recently from the Swedish Academy.
Gun-Britt Sundstrom resigned because of disagreement with Peter Handke's 2019 Nobel Prize in Literature. Sundstrom strongly disagrees with the idea that "literature rests on politics". According to her, Handke does not deserve the most important award in literature because of the not so bright past.
Christopher Leandoer, on the other hand, said he would step down because of the Academy's recent reforms related to the sex scandal. He wrote for the Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet that "there was neither time nor patience" to wait for the Academy to complete reforms.
After the sex scandal of a year ago, although the Swedish Academy tried to make a risk-free choice, it actually turned out the opposite. Austrian writer Peter Handke's assessment of the motivation "influential work that has intelligently explored the specifics of human experience" caused a backlash from well-known Albanian and foreign citizens, academics and characters.
Handke has taken a pro-Serbian stance on the Yugoslav War and the NATO bombing that brought independence to Kosovo and other countries under Serbian leadership, which has led to his image being criticized as being representative of extreme Serbian nationalism.
In the past, he has attacked the Western media accusing him of misrepresenting the causes and consequences of the war. In the same vein, he also wrote against the NATO bombing in the former Yugoslavia.
Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, known as the "Balkan butcher", demanded that Handke be summoned as his defense witness at the former Yugoslav War Crimes Tribunal, but the writer refused. He went to court as a spectator.
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Source: BBC
