北京时间10月7日晚上7点,2021年诺贝尔文学奖揭晓:坦桑尼亚小说家阿卜杜勒扎克·古纳(Abdulrazak Gurnah),获奖理由:“for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents.”
Abdulrazak Gurnah wins the 2021 Nobel prize in literature
The Guardian
The Nobel prize in literature has been awarded to the novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah “for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents”.
Gurnah, who grew up on one of the islands of Zanzibar and arrived in England as a refugee in the 1960s, has published 10 novels as well as a number of short stories. Anders Olsson, chair of the Nobel committee, said that the Tanzanian writer’s novels, from his debut Memory of Departure, about a failed uprising, to his most recent, the “magnificent”, Afterlives, “recoil from stereotypical descriptions and open our gaze to a culturally diversified East Africa unfamiliar to many in other parts of the world”.
No black African writer has won the prize since Wole Soyinka in 1986.
Afterlives, which tells of Ilyas, who was stolen from his parents by German colonial troops as a boy and returns to his village after years fighting in a war against his own people, was described in the Guardian as “a compelling novel, one that gathers close all those who were meant to be forgotten, and refuses their erasure”.
“In Gurnah’s literary universe, everything is shifting – memories, names, identities. This is probably because his project cannot reach completion in any definitive sense,” said Olsson. “An unending exploration driven by intellectual passion is present in all his books, and equally prominent now, in Afterlives, as when he began writing as a 21-year-old refugee.”
Worth 10m Swedish krona (£840,000), the Nobel prize for literature goes to the writer deemed to be, in the words of Alfred Nobel’s will, “the person who shall have produced in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction”. Winners have ranged from Bob Dylan, cited for “having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition”, to Kazuo Ishiguro “who, in novels of great emotional force, has uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world”.According to Ellen Mattson, who sits on the Swedish Academy and the Nobel committee: “Literary merit. That’s the only thing that counts.”
The Nobel winner is chosen by the 18 members of the Swedish Academy – an august and mysterious organisation that has made efforts to become more transparent after it was hit by a sexual abuse and financial misconduct scandal in 2017. Last year’s prize went to the American poet Louise Glück – an uncontroversial choice after the uproar provoked by the Austrian writer Peter Handke’s win in 2019. Handke had denied the Srebrenica genocide and attended the funeral of war criminal Slobodan Milošević.
The Nobel prize for literature has been awarded 118 times. Just 16 have gone to women, seven of those coming in the 21st century. In 2019, the Swedish academy promised the award would become less “male-oriented” and “Eurocentric”, but proceeded to give its next two prizes to two Europeans, Handke and Polish writer Olga Tokarczuk.
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词汇:
1.uncompromising
表示“(尤指遭到反对时人或其信念)不妥协的,不让步的,强硬的”,英文解释为“If people or their beliefs are uncompromising, they are fixed and do not change, especially when faced with opposition.”
2. penetration
1)表示“穿透;渗透;进入”,英文解释为“the act or process of making a way into or through sth”,如:the company's successfulpenetrationof overseas markets 公司对海外市场的顺利开拓,举个🌰:
The floor is sealed to prevent water penetration.
地板加了密封涂料防止渗水。
2)表示“洞察力;敏锐”,英文解释为“the perceptive understanding of complex matters”,如:the survey shows subtlety and penetration 那项调查表现出了细心和洞察力。
3. compassionate
表示“富有同情心的”,英文解释为“showing compassion”举个🌰:
The public's response to the crisis appeal was generous and compassionate.
公众对危难时刻的呼吁表现得慷慨大方、富有同情心。
4. colonialism
表示“殖民主义”,英文解释为“the belief in and support for the system of one country controlling another”。
5.gulf
gulf /ɡʌlf/ 表示“不可逾越的鸿沟,巨大的差距;隔阂”,英文解释为“an important difference between the ideas, opinions, or situations of two groups of people”举个🌰:
There is a widening gulf between the rich and the poor in our society.
我们的社会里,贫富差距在日益加大。
6. debut
debut /ˈdeɪbjuː/ 表示“(演员、运动员等的)首次登台,初次亮相;新事物的问世”,英文解释为“The debut of a performer or sports player is their first public performance, appearance, or recording.”举个🌰:
She made her debut in a 1937 production of "Hamlet."
她在1937年《哈姆雷特》的演出中首次登台。
7.recoil
1)表示“退缩,畏惧;(因为厌恶而)退避”,英文解释为“to move back because of fear or disgust (= dislike or disapproval)”举个🌰:
I recoiled from the smell and the filth.
那儿又脏又臭,我躲开了。
2)表示“对…作出厌恶(或恐惧)的反应”,英文解释为“o react to an idea or a situation with strong dislike or fear”举个🌰:
She recoiled from the idea of betraying her own brother.
背叛自己亲兄弟的这个想法使她感到恐惧。
8.stereotypical
表示“老一套的;陈规的;模式化的;成见的”,英文解释为“A stereotypical idea of a type of person or thing is a fixed general idea that a lot of people have about it, that may be false in many cases.”举个🌰:
Customers are tired of the stereotypical, fast-talking salesperson.
顾客们对千篇一律的摇唇鼓舌的推销员已经厌烦透了。
9. colonial
表示“殖民地的;殖民主义的”,英文解释为“relating to a colony or colonialism”举个🌰:
Turkey was once an important colonial power.
土耳其曾是一个显赫的殖民强国。
10. compelling
1)表示“令人信服的”,英文解释为“A compelling argument or reason is one that convinces you that something is true or that something should be done.”举个🌰:
Factual and forensic evidence makes a suicide verdict the most compelling answer to the mystery of his death.
事实和法庭证据使自杀的判定成为对他死亡之谜最令人信服的解答。
2)表示“引人入胜的”,英文解释为“If you describe something such as a film or book, or someone's appearance, as compelling, you mean you want to keep looking at it or reading it because you find it so interesting.”举个🌰:
Her latest book makes compelling reading.
她新出的书读起来扣人心弦。
11.erasure
erasure /ɪˈreɪʒə/ 表示“擦掉;抹掉;消除;消灭;删除”,英文解释为“the act of removing or destroying sth”举个🌰:
Globalization is the erasure of national borders for economic purposes.
全球化是为了经济发展对国界的消除。
12.definitive
表示“最终的,决定性的;不可更改的”,英文解释为“not able to be changed or improved”。
13.prominent
1)表示“重要的;著名的;杰出的”,英文解释为“important or well known”举个🌰:
He played a prominent part in the campaign.
他在这次运动中发挥了重要作用。
2)表示“突出的,显眼的”,英文解释为“Something that is in a prominent position can easily be seen.”举个🌰:
New books are displayed in a prominent position on tables at the front of the store.
新书陈列在商店前面桌子上的一个显眼位置。
14.deem
表示“认为;相信”,英文解释为“If something is deemed to have a particular quality or to do a particular thing, it is considered to have that quality or do that thing.”举个🌰:
He says he would support the use of force if the UN deemed it necessary.
他说如果联合国认为有必要,他就支持动用武力。
15.will
熟词僻义,这里作为名词表示“遗嘱”,英文解释为“a legal document that says who you want your money and property to be given to after you die”举个🌰:
Have you made a will yet?
你立遗嘱了吗?
16.abyss
abyss /əˈbɪs/ 表示“深渊”,英文解释为“a very deep hole that seems to have no bottom”;也可以指“困境;险境;绝境”,英文解释为“a difficult situation that brings trouble or destruction”。
17. illusory
illusory /ɪˈluːsərɪ/ 表示“虚假的,幻觉的,不实际的”,英文解释为“not real and based on illusion”举个🌰:
Their hopes of a peaceful solution turned out to be illusory.
他们希望和平解决的想法证明是不实际的。
18.sit
熟词僻义,表示“成为(官方组织的)成员;(在…中)任职”,英文解释为“to be a member of an official group”举个🌰:
I'm going to be sitting on the committee for one more year.
我将再任一年的委员会委员。
19.august
注意,这里的a没有大写,august作形容词,表示“(尤指因社会地位高而)威严的,令人敬畏的”,英文解释为“having great importance and especially of the highest social class”。
20.misconduct
表示“失职;处理不当;行为不端”,英文解释为“unacceptable behaviour, especially by a professional person”如:gross misconduct = very serious misconduct 严重失职,professional misconduct 玩忽职守。
📍conduct作名词,表示“行为,举止”(a person's behaviour in a particular place or in a particular situation),如:优良作风 fine conduct或者说excellent conduct,2020年报告Part 2中提到的加强党风廉政建设 improveParty conductand build a clean government.
📺美剧《芝加哥警署》(Chicago P.D.)中的台词提到:I could have you arrested for official misconduct. 我可以以渎职罪逮捕你。
21.uproar
表示“骚动;怨愤;喧嚣;嘈杂;吵闹”,英文解释为“a situation in which there is a lot of public criticism and angry argument about sth that sb has said or done”举个🌰:
The article caused (an) uproar.
这篇文章引起了轩然大波。
22.provoke
1)经常出现的含义,表示“激起,引起”,英文解释为“to cause a reaction or feeling, especially a sudden one”,如:provoke debate/discussion 激起辩论/讨论。
2)表示“激怒,挑衅”,英文解释为“to make or try to make a person or an animal angry”举个🌰:
It was a vicious-looking dog and I didn't want to provoke it.
那只狗看起来很凶,我可不想招惹它。
23.Srebrenica
斯雷布雷尼察大屠杀(Srebrenica massacre)是于1995年7月发生在波斯尼亚和黑塞哥维那的斯雷布雷尼察的一场大屠杀,造成大约8,000名当地平民死亡。屠杀由拉特科·姆拉迪奇带领下的塞族共和国军队在波斯尼亚战争期间执行。斯雷布雷尼察大屠杀是第二次世界大战之后发生在欧洲的最严重的一次屠杀行为。
24.genocide
genocide /ˈdʒɛnəʊˌsaɪd/ 表示“大屠杀;种族灭绝”,英文解释为“Genocide is the deliberate murder of a whole community or race.”
25.proceed
表示“(做完某事后)接着做”,英文解释为“to do something after you have done something else”举个🌰:
She sat down and proceeded to tell me about her holiday.
她坐了下来,接着告诉我有关她度假的事情。
句子解析:
Anders Olsson, chair of the Nobel committee, said that the Tanzanian writer's novels, from his debut Memory of Departure, about a failed uprising, to his most recent, the “magnificent”, Afterlives, “recoil from stereotypical descriptions and open our gaze to a culturally diversified East Africa unfamiliar to many in other parts of the world”.
📍主句:Anders Olsson,said that(宾语从句).
📍宾语从句:The Tanzanian writer's novels,recoil from stereotypical descriptionsandopen our gaze to a culturally diversified East Africa.
📍unfamiliar to many in other parts of the world 后置定语修饰 a culturally diversified East Africa,什么样的东非?世界上其他地方许多人不熟悉的东非。也可以理解为定语从句省略了[that is],还原为:...a culturally diversified East Africa[that is]unfamiliar to many in other parts of the world.