Louis Esterhuizen. Gaan ‘n vroueskrywer vanjaar se Nobelprys vir Letterkunde wen?
Wednesday, October 10th, 2012Hierdie week is dit weer tyd vir die Nobelprys-toekennings en môre-oggend (Donderdag, 11 Oktober) is dit die beurt van vanjaar se wenner van die 1.2 miljoen USD-prys vir letterkunde om aangekondig te word. Uiteraard wemel die internet van bespiegelinge oor wie vanjaar se uitverkorene gaan wees. Volgens die beroepswedders blyk dit dat die Japannese skrywer, Haruki Murakami, as gunsteling beskou word. Ander name wat sterk figureer is Bob Dylan (weereens, by wyse van eentonige herhaling aangesien hy die afgelope jare al as gunsteling beskou word) en dan ook nog die Chinese skrywer Mo Yan, saam met die Amerikaner Thomas Pynchon.
Die interessantste besinning het ek egter op The Daily Sun se webblad teëgekom waar die beriggewer van AFP van mening is dat vanjaar se prys aan ‘n vroueskrywer behoort te gaan, aangesien daar maar net 12 vroue-laureates was uit die totaal van 108 pryse wat sedert 1901 vir letterkunde toegeken was: “Stockholm’s literary circles are abuzz with speculation about this year’s Nobel Literature Prize, and while it’s notoriously difficult to predict the laureate, some experts are saying it’s time for a woman,” skryf die beriggewer. “Among the women whose names are making the rounds ahead of the Swedish Academy’s announcement on Thursday are Canadian short story writer Alice Munro, Canadian poet Anne Carson (foto), and Egyptian feminist novelist Nawal el Saadawi.”
Die afgelope dekade was vroueskrywers drie keer vereer: Herta Mueller (Duitsland),Doris Lessing (Groot Brittanje) en Elfriede Jelinek (Oostenryk).
Elisabeth Grate, ‘n bekende Sweedse uitgewer van onder andere Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio (wat die prys in 2008 gewen het) se boeke, het soos volg reageer: “I can only guess and speculate, it’s fun and incredibly exciting, One could imagine that it could go to an author from North America, perhaps a man like Don DeLillo or Philip Roth,” het sy aan AFP gesê en bygevoeg: “But ‘it would be nice with a woman’.” Sy is egter van mening dat dit nié ‘n digter gaan wees nie, aangesien die bekende Sweedse digter, Tomas Tranströmer, die prys verlede jaar verower het.
Nog ‘n interessantheid is die Stig Dagerman Society se prys vir letterkunde wat elke jaar enkele dae voor die aankondiging van die Nobelpryswenner, bekend gemaak word, aangesien dié Society die afgelope paar jaar twéé keer in die kol was met hul nominasie: Jelinek (in 2004) en Le Clezio (in 2008). Bengt Soederhaell, voorsitter van die Stig Dagerman Society, het haar soos volg hieromtrent uitgelaat: “I think it’s always time for a woman as there are too few women laureates. Since there are so few women who have won the prize, the male dominance among the laureates could be seen as political, in the same way that very few writers from non-European cultures and languages have won the prize.”
Haar stigting het vanjaar die Egiptiese skrywer Nawal el Saadawi bekroon. “It’s possible (dat el Saadawi die Nobel-laureate gaan wees), it would tie in well with the developments in the Arab world and she’s a woman,” het Grate beaam.
Maar kom ons veronderstel dat vanjaar se wenner inderdaad ‘n vrou gaan wees en boonop ‘n digter: Wie sal dan as die vernaamste kandidate gereken kan word? Beslis die reeds genoemde Kanadese digter Anne Carson; veral vanweë haar grensverskuiwende bundel Nox wat verlede jaar verskyn het. Dan sekerlik ook die Amerikaanse poet laureate, Natsha Trethewey (alhoewel haar indrukwekkende nuutste bundel, Thrall, dalk net-net te laat verskyn het vir beoordeling). Of Rita Dove, dalk? Onder die Britte is daar natuurlik die trio bestaande uit Jo Shapcott, Gillian Clarke en Carol Ann Duffy. Maar my voorkeurkandidaat sal nog altyd die Roemeense digter Nina Cassian wees.
En ons sterkste Suid-Afrikaanse kandidate, sonder inagneming van geslag of genre? Sekerlik die Groot Drie: Breyten Breytenbach, Antjie Krog en Athol Fugard. Maar, sug … Oor watter verblykte horisonne droom ek nie nou nie!
In iedergeval, teen môremiddag sal ons weet.
Vir jou leesplesier plaas ek (weer) die openingsgedig uit Natsha Trethewey se nuwe bundel, Thrall, hieronder. (En gaan lees gerus die blog wat ek oor haar geskryf het, indien jy dit vroeër gemis het.)
***
Elegy
for my father
I think by now the river must be thick
with salmon. Late August, I imagine it
as it was that morning: drizzle needling
the surface, mist at the banks like a net
settling around us-everything damp
and shining. That morning, awkward
and heavy in our hip waders, we stalked
into the current and found our places-
you upstream a few yards, and out
far deeper. You must remember how
the river seeped in over your boots,
and you grew heavier with that defeat.
All day I kept turning to watch you, how
first you mimed our guide’s casting,
then cast your invisible line, slicing the sky
between us; and later, rod in hand, how
you tried-again and again-to find
that perfect arc, flight of an insect
skimming the river’s surface. Perhaps
you recall I cast my line and reeled in
two small trout we could not keep.
Because I had to release them, I confess,
I thought about the past-working
the hooks loose, the fish writhing
in my hands, each one slipping away
before I could let go. I can tell you now
that I tried to take it all in, record it
for an elegy I’d write-one day-
when the time came. Your daughter,
I was that ruthless. What does it matter
if I tell you I learned to be? You kept casting
your line, and when it did not come back
empty, it was tangled with mine. Some nights,
dreaming, I step again into the small boat
that carried us out and watch the bank receding-
my back to where I know we are headed.
© Natasha Trethewey