Nobel Prize in Literature 2021

Nobel Prize in Literature 2021 was conferred to Tanzanian novelist “Abdulrazak Gurnah”.

Key facts

The novelist was awarded with the Prize for his uncompromising & compassionate penetration of “effects of colonialism” and fate of refugees in the gulf between cultures & continents.

Abdulrazak Gurnah was born in the year 1948. He grew up on the island of Zanzibar in Indian Ocean. Later he arrived in England as a refugee in 1960’s. He worked as Professor of English & Postcolonial Literatures at the University of Kent, Canterbury. He has published ten novels and several short stories.

His work revolves around the theme of the refugee’s disruption. He started writing as a 21-year-old in English exile. Even though Swahili was his first language, he made English his literary tool. He consciously breaks with convention to highlight the indigenous populations. As a result, his novel ‘Desertion’ about a love affair becomes a contradiction to “the imperial romance”.