Peter Handke is an Austrian novelist, playwright, translator, film director, and poet, whose most recent works include 2008’s The Moravian Night, which is a novel about a retired writer and his 2011 play Storm Still about the Slovenian uprising against the Nazi regime. 

Handke has just won the 2019 Nobel Prize for Literature. In a press release, the Committee explained they chose Handke “for an influential work that with linguistic ingenuity has explored the periphery and the specificity of human experience” as well as his versatility across genres. 

Handke has a reputation as a genocide apologist. In his 1996 essay A Journey to the Rivers: Justice for Serbia, Handke stirred controversy by portraying Serbia as a victim of the Yugoslav Wars and admonishing the Western media for ‘misrepresenting’ the causes and effects of the war. His Slovenian heritage caused him to suggest that Sarajevo’s Muslims had massacred themselves and then blamed the Serbs. He also spoke at former Serbian president Slobodan Milošević’s funeral, a war criminal. 

Among those voicing their concerns in author Hari Kunzru, who said, “More than ever we need public intellectuals who are able to make a robust defense of human rights in the face of the indifference and cynicism of our political leaders. Handke is not such a person.” Handke’s win will remain controversial as he is undoubtedly a talented and prolific writer, but he used his voice to undercut the truth and support the government responsible for genocide. 

Handke’s Nobel Prize win has reignited the debate surrounding his name, works, and legacy. Handke’s win raises the question, why in such divisive times, with nationalism on the rise across Europe and the rest of the world, would the Committee single him out for this distinction?

Photo Courtesy of Francois Mori/AP Photo