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Excerpt from the Swedish academy’s citation awarding the 2005 Nobel prize for Literature to British playwright Harold Pinter:
Harold Pinter is generally seen as the foremost representative of British drama in the second half of the 20th century. That he occupies a position as a modern classic is illustrated by his name entering the language as an adjective used to describe a particular atmosphere and environment in drama: ‘Pinteresque’. […] Pinter restored theatre to its basic elements: an enclosed space and unpredictable dialogue, where people are at the mercy of each other and pretence crumbles. With a minimum of plot, drama emerges from the power struggle and hide-and-seek of interlocution. Pinter’s drama was first perceived as a variation of absurd theatre, but has later more aptly been characterised as ‘comedy of menace,’ a genre where the writer allows us to eavesdrop on the play of domination and submission hidden in the most mundane of conversations. In a typical Pinter play we meet people defending themselves against intrusion or their own impulses by entrenching themselves in a reduced and controlled existence. Another principal theme is the volatility and elusiveness of the past.
Harold Pinter’s Nobel speech
Nobel prize site
Announcement of the Nobel Prize in Literature 2005 by the Permanent Secretary, Horace Engdahl, at the Swedish Academy in Stockholm, October 13, 2005 (In Swedish, English, French, German and Russian )
Prophet without Honour (Observer, 11 December 2005)
Absent Pinter Awarded Nobel (BBC, 10 December 2005)
Art Truth and Politics (Guardian, 8 December 2005)
Pinter rails against US in Nobel Prize speech (Telegraph, 8 December 2005)
Passionate Pinter’s devastating attack on US foreign policy (Guardian, 8 December 2005)
Pinter demands War Crime trials for Blair (Guardian, 8 December 2005)
Of Bandits and Terrorists: Pinter’s Broadside (Independent, 8 December 2005)
Portrait of the Artist as an Activist (Independent, 8 December 2005)
Publisher to Stand in for Pinter at Nobel Ceremony (Guardian, 8 December 2005)
Bush and Blair Slated by Pinter (BBC, 7 December 2005)
Pinter drops out of Nobel Lecture (BBC, 30 November 2005)
Pause for Thought (Observer, 23 October 2005)
Into the Abyss (Jewish Week, 21 October 2005)
The Silence of Writers (Znet, 16 October 2005)
‘A true man of the theatre’ (Observer, 16 October 2005)
Pause and Effect (Observer, 16 October 2005)
Bowled over (Observer, 16 October 2005)
Nobel adversaries (Observer, 16 October 2005)
Pinter is angry, touchy and aggressive. But good luck to him (Independent on Sunday, 16 October 2005)
A Pinter Actor Must Know His Between-the-Lines (New York Times, 16 October 2005)
(Noticias, 16 October 2005)
Reaktionen: “Verdient”, “bizarr”, “beleidigend” (Die Welt, 16 October 2005)
Contro l’assurdo e contro la guerra A Pinter il Nobel per la letteratura (La Repubblica, 16 October 2005
Harold Pinter, un Nobel de combat (Le Monde, 15 October 2005)
Pinter ta priset med ro (Dagens Nyheter, 15 October 2005)
Harold Pinter wins Nobel Prize (link temporarily failing) (BBC, 15 October 2005) Windows or Real Media player required.
Harold Pinter and Englishness (Guardian, 15 October 2005)
The Childish urge to tease our greatest living playwright (Telegraph, 15 October 2005)
Tysnad och paus skapad av Pinter (Svenska Dagbladet, 15 October 2005)
Lovord över Nobelvalet i brittisk press (Svenska Dagbladet, 15 October 2005)
“Jag är mitt uppe i firandet” (Svenska Dagbladet, 14 October 2005)
In Tampa, A Nobel Celebration (St Petesburg Times, 14 October 2005)
Harold Pinter, un Nobel aux lettres batailleuses (Le Monde, 14 October 2005)
Les mots coups de poing d’un anti-impérialste virulent (Le Monde, 14 October 2005)
De Roger Planchon aux pacifistes, un hommage appuyé (Le Monde, 14 October 2005)
Diskussion um Nobelpreis (Der Spiegel, 14 October 2005)
El gran compositor de las palabras (Ell Pias, 14 October 2005)
Giving us Pause (Village Voice, 14 October 2005)
Pinter, Master of Menacing Drama, Wins Nobel Prize (Los Angeles Times, 14 October 2005)
Sir David Hare on Pinter and his Nobel award (Guardian, 14 October 2005)
Sir Tom Stoppard’s response (Guardian, 14 October 2005)
Harold Pinter’s statement to Michael Billington (Guardian, 14 October 2005)
In Praise of… Harold Pinter (Guardian, 14 October 2005)
The Nobel Academy’s citation (Guardian, 14 October 2005)
Pinter Wins Nobel for Dramas of Ominous Power Struggles (New York Times, 14 October 2005)
Recognition for Pinter’s World (Times, 14 October 2005)
Pause for Thought – Comment (Times, 14 October 2005)
Early reviewers left baffled by shock of the new (Times, 14 October 2005)
Bard of our perilous era (Times, 14 October 2005)
Nobel for Pinter (Independent, 14 October 2005)
Pause for Applause (Independent, 14 October 2005)
Torture and Misery in the name of Freedom (Independent front page, 14 October 2005)
Happy Birthday Party for Harold Pinter (Telegraph, 14 October 2005)
Pinter left speechless (Telegraph, 14 October 2005)
Pinter wins Nobel Prize (Jerusalem Post, 14 October 2005)
Harold Pinter es el nuevo Nobel de Literatura (El Pias, 13 October 2005)
Is Pinter a Worthy Winner – vox pop debate (Times, 13 October 2005)
Pinter Interviewed by Kirsty Wark on BBC2’s Newsnight (BBC 13 October 2005) (viewable until 22:30 GMT, 14 October 2005)
(Feature on Pinter from 31:48 – interview from 38:33)
“Ich muss jetzt aufhören, sprachlos zu sein” (Der Speigel, 13 October 2005)
Pinter wins Nobel Literature prize (Independent, 13 October 2005)
Nobel Prize goes to Pinter (Guardian, 13 October 2005)
Pinter Awarded Nobel (International Herald Tribune, 13 October 2005)
Nobel per la Letteratura ad Harold Pinter (Correire della Sera, 13 October 2005)
Playwright Pinter wins Nobel prize (USA Today, 13 October 2005)
UK Dramatist wins Literature Nobel (al Jazeera, 13 October 2005)
British Dramatist wins Nobel prize (CBS News, 13 October 2005)
Pinter wins Nobel Literature prize (CNN, 13 October 2005)
Ett blygsamt forslag (Dagens Nyheter, 13 October 2005)
Hårt, rått och macho (Dagens Nyheter, 13 October 2005)
Pinters talande tystnad (Dagens Nyheter, 13 October 2005)
Politics may have helped me win Nobel, says Pinter (Times, 13 October 2005)
Luminaries applaud Pinter’s Nobel (BBC 13 October 2005)
‘Political element’ to Nobel Prize (BBC 13 October 2005)
Pinter wins Nobel Prize (BBC 13 October 2005)