Radio România Internațional

Tag: Nobel Prize in Literature

  • October 7, 2021

    October 7, 2021


    COVID-19 – The Government has decided to extend the
    state of alert for another 30 days starting October 30. Face masks are now
    mandatory outside in areas where the incidence rate has exceeded 7 per thousand
    inhabitants. Another 14,467 new cases of infection were reported on Thursday,
    in addition to 263 related fatalities. 1,556 people are in intensive care. The
    authorities and hospital managers are looking for solutions in order to make
    more beds available so as to treat the growing number of incoming patients.


    ENERGY – On the sidelines of yesterday’s summit
    hosted by Slovenia, EU leaders expressed divergent opinions regarding what the
    EU’s response should be concerning the scandal revolving around the recent
    electricity price hikes. Romania, France, Spain, the Czech Republic and Greece
    have called for a joint approach. Germany and the Netherlands, however, claim
    the situation is temporary, being linked to the limited number of offers and
    the economic fallout of COVID-19. On October 13, Brussels is expected to announce
    a set of temporary measures to combat the surge in energy prices. The topic
    will also rank on the agenda of the EU Summit of October 21-22, which is
    expected to tackle long-term solutions.


    CARS – New vehicle registrations went up 4.3% in the first nine
    months of the year, compared to the same period in 2020, whereas electric,
    hybrid, plug-in and full hybrid cars now have a 12% market share. According to
    official data, the number of gas cars is slightly on the rise, accounting for
    67% of total cars registered, while Diesel-fuel cars reported a 6.2% drop, with
    a total market share of 21%. Hybrid, plug-in and full-hybrid vehicles accounted
    for 12% of total cars registered on the market at the end of September 2021,
    which is 1.8 times higher compared to September 2020.


    NOBEL – The Nobel Prize in Literature will be announced later
    today. Last year, the prize went to Louise Glück, for her unmistakable poetic
    voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal. In the
    past, two people refused the Nobel Prize for Literature. In 1958, the
    Russian-born writer Boris Pasternak was forced by the USSR leadership to refuse
    the award, while in 1946 the French writer Jean-Paul Sartre refused to accept
    the prize. This week, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced the Nobel
    prizes in physics, medicine and chemistry. The Nobel Peace Prize will be
    announced tomorrow.


    HANDBALL – The Romanian women’s handball team on Wednesday
    defeated the Faeroe Islands 26-19 in preliminary group 2 of the EHF EURO 2022.
    Today, Denmark is playing Austria in the same group. Romania will next play
    Austria on October 10. The top two teams will qualify to EURO 2022, a
    tournament that will be hosted by Slovenia, North Macedonia and Montenegro in
    November, 2022.


    TENNIS – Romanian tennis player Irina Begu (61 WTA) has advanced to
    the second round at the WTA 1,000 tournament in Indian Wells, California,
    totaling over 8 million USD. In the first round, Begu ousted Fiona Ferro of
    France (83 WTA), 6-2, 7-6. On the other hand, Gabriela Ruse (92 WTA) was
    knocked out in the first round by Alizé Cornet of France, 6-3, 7-6. Another two
    players will represent Romania in the main draw – Simona Halep and Sorana
    Cîrstea, who will both compete in the second round. Seeded 11th,
    Halep will go up against Marta Kostiuk of Ukraine, while Cîrstea, seeded 32nd,
    will play Misaki Doi of Japan. (VP)

  • Bob Dylan Wins Nobel Prize in Literature

    Bob Dylan Wins Nobel Prize in Literature

    75-year old singer and songwriter Bob Dylan on Thursday joined an impressive line of American writers awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, including the likes of Eugene ONeill, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway and John Steinbeck. The Swedish Academy decided Dylan has produced a remarkable body of literary work. Bob Dylan is thus the first musician in history honoured with a Nobel in literature, for “having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition. Here is the president of the poetry section of the Romanian Writers Union, Dan Mircea Cipariu, explaining the decision of the Swedish Academy, which came with a nearly one-million-dollar cash award:



    “This prize must be viewed in a different light, it must be read as a meta-cultural political decision, so to say, because Bob Dylan was a symbol of the flower power generation. This type of poetic thinking that Bob Dylans work puts forth is one that transcends the literary genre we call poetry and it even transcends literature itself. Bob Dylan is not necessarily a poet, but rather the creator of a specific type of poetic thinking, one that we need so much today. The world nowadays needs a spiritual dimension, something beyond this daily consumerism and tabloidization.



    Bob Dylan released some 60 albums in his five-decade long career. His work has chronicled social unrest and the identity crisis of the American society after the war in Vietnam. It embodied concepts like defiance, courage, and a criticism of neo-colonial militarism and adventurism, with songs like “Blowing in the Wind becoming anthems of anti-war and civil rights movements. The Nobel he received on Thursday follows a long line of distinctions granted to Bob Dylan, including the Grammy, Golden Globe and Oscar. He was inducted in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and in 2008 he received a Pulitzer for the poetic force of his works, which had a deep impact on American music and culture.



    Those who criticised the award of this prize to Mr. Dylan spoke about the fact that many major authors have been cited as possible Nobel recipients for years, but have never won it. One example is the Romanian Mircea Cartarescu, whose works were translated into many languages, and who wrote, in a Facebook post regarding Bob Dylan, “a great poet, but I pity the true writers. The Nobel Committee played us this time around. In turn, the Romanian poet Florin Iaru sees the award as a political decision.


    (Translated by A.M. Popescu)