4 May 2018
Riven by infighting and resignations following allegations of sexual misconduct, financial malpractice and repeated leaks, the Swedish Academy has said no Nobel prize for literature will be awarded this year.
For the first time since 1949, the secretive jury that hands out the world’s most prestigious literary prize will not unveil a winner this autumn, instead revealing two laureates in 2019, it announced on Friday.
“The present decision was arrived at in view of the currently diminished academy and the reduced public confidence in the academy,” the body, founded by King Gustav III in 1786 and still under royal patronage, said in a statement.
“We find it necessary to commit time to recovering public confidence ... before the next laureate can be announced,” its interim permanent secretary Anders Olsson said. “This is out of respect for previous and future literature laureates, the Nobel Foundation and the general public.”
At the root of the institution’s unprecedented crisis are a raft of wide-ranging allegations against Jean-Claude Arnault, a photographer and leading cultural figure in Sweden, who is married to Katarina Frostenson, an academy member and author.
Last November, the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter published detailed allegations by 18 women accusing Arnault of sexual harassment and physical abuse over a period of more than 20 years, in France and Sweden and including at properties owned by the academy.
For years, Arnault and Frostenson ran Forum, a club in Stockholm that showcased exhibitions, readings and performances by prominent cultural personalities including Nobel laureates. Now closed, the club was partly funded by the academy, prompting allegations of a conflict of interest.
As the escalating scandal unfolded, Dagens Nyheter also reported that an internal investigation by the academy had concluded that Arnault may have leaked the names of seven Nobel literature laureates – the subject of heavy betting – in advance, including those of Bob Dylan in 2016 and Harold Pinter in 2005.
The Franco-Swedish photographer’s lawyer, Björn Hurtig, has repeatedly said his client denies all the allegations against him, adding that Arnault has become “the victim of a witch hunt” and that the accusations “may have been made with the sole purpose of harming” him.
The hidebound and traditionally deeply patriarchal academy’s inability to respond adequately to the allegations against Arnault sparked a bitter internal feud, with members exchanging public insults in the pages of the Swedish media.
Three members of the 18-strong academy resigned last month in protest over a decision not to expel Frostenson, followed days later – amid protests that women were being made to carry the can for male misbehaviour – by the permanent secretary, Sara Danius, who had battled in vain to reform it, and by Frostenson herself.
Technically, academy members are appointed for life and not permitted to resign, although they could choose to leave their chairs empty. But with the body now down to 10 active members – and 12 required to elect new ones – King Carl XVI Gustaf this week announced a change in its statutes to ensure its survival.
The decision to postpone the 2018 award was broadly welcomed. “I think it’s wise; this is the best decision they could make,” said Dagens Nyheter’s literature critic, Maria Schottenius. “They’ll have a chance to restore the institution this year and fill the empty seats, and come back with a strong academy that can award the prize.”
One academy member, Göran Malmqvist, told Sweden’s TT news agency that the body was in crisis and would take time to rebuild. But Jens Liljestrand of the Expressen newspaper told TT it was “a disaster for the Swedish Academy’s reputation … that they didn’t manage to handle this better”.
The Nobel Foundation, which administers the estate of dynamite inventor Alfred Nobel, said the crisis had “adversely affected” the literature prize and its judges. “Their decision underscores the seriousness of the situation and will help safeguard the long-term reputation of the prize,” it said in statement.
Public prosecutors have said they are dropping parts of their probe against Arnault due to a lack of evidence, but the bulk of the investigation continues. Sweden’s economic crimes bureau last week said it was investigating a case linked to the academy, widely assumed to be the subsidies it paid to Arnault.
How the academy chooses the winner of the literature award has remained opaque for decades. Each February, academy members review around 200 nominations, coming up with a shortlist by May, and then reading up on the five authors still in the running for the prize over the summer.
The winner is the author deemed to best fulfil Alfred Nobel’s desire to reward “the most outstanding work in an ideal direction”.
The honour has not been awarded at all on seven occasions since its launch in 1901, although previously never over a scandal. The prize was missed in 1914, 1918, 1940, 1941, 1942 and 1943, during the first and second world wars, and in 1935 for reasons never disclosed. It has also been “reserved” – due to a lack of suitable winners – in 1915, 1919, 1925, 1926, 1927, 1936 and 1949.
The chairman of the Foundation, Carl-Henrik Heldin, said separately that the awarding of the 2018 Nobel prizes in other categories would not be affected. The Foundation now expected the academy to “put all its efforts” into restoring its credibility, Heldin said, calling on the remaining members to show “greater openness towards the outside world” in future.
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