The Swedish Academy cited Vargas Llosa’s “cartography of the structures of power and his images of the individual’s resistance, revolt and defeat” in granting him the award.
Vargas Llosa, 74, is known for the political nature of his writing. He has authored more than 30 novels, plays and short stories. Some of his most prominent works include “Feast of the Goat,” “The War of the End of the World” and “Conversation in the Cathedral.” A political activist, Vargas Llosa unsuccessfully ran for president of his native Peru in 1990.
When he was notified by the Academy early Thursday morning, Vargas Llosa said he wondered if the call was a joke, saying, “I still don’t believe it, you know? I need to read it in the papers,” according to an interview on the Nobel Foundation website.
At a packed press conference held at the Cervantes Institute in New York City on Thursday afternoon, Vargas Llosa expressed his gratitude at receiving the award. “I think that, in this case, [the prize] is not only recognition of me as a writer, but also a commendation of the Spanish language — a very creative, energetic, poetic language,” he said.
Vargas Llosa, who rose to fame in Latin America in the 1960s and will remain at the University through the fall semester, is currently teaching CWR 345: Techniques of the Novel and LAS 401: Borges and Fiction. He previously taught at the University in 1992, and his literary papers reside in Firestone Library.
During the press conference, Vargas Llosa explained that recognition of his work began in the 1960s, when a group of doctors in Peru started a publishing firm, which provided an outlet for his short stories.
Director of the Latin American studies program Ruben Gallo called Vargas Llosa’s Nobel Prize a “very well deserved honor.”
“I can’t think of a person who deserves this award more in Latin America, because he’s such a multifaceted writer,” Gallo. “He’s written beautiful novels, he’s a born story teller … he has written essays, he has written memoirs, he has written political columns.”
Paul Muldoon, chair of the Lewis Center, said in a University statement that he was thrilled to hear news of the prize. “Everyone at Princeton is delighted to hear about Mario Vargas Llosa winning the Nobel Prize,” he said. “Our students have already had a great opportunity to work directly not only with a first-rate writer, of course, but a writer who’s been seen to take on social issues directly and decisively.”
In New York, Vargas Llosa acknowledged the political nature of his work. “Latin American literature deals with power,” he said. “This is inevitable. We in Latin America have not yet solved our basic problems like freedom ... tolerance and diversity.”
“[These problems] are social,” he continued. “They are civic. They are moral ... I think literature is an expression of life. You can’t eradicate politics from life.”
Though he is teaching at the University this fall, Vargas Llosa’s permanent home is Lima, Peru. Living in countries that have different primary languages has enriched his relationship with his own native Spanish, Vargas Llosa said in the interview posted on the Nobel Prize website.
“I think that I have understood better my own language in this constant confrontation — of the Spanish with the English, with the French, with the German,” he explained. “I think you become much more conscious of the nuances that each language has to express the same idea, same feelings.”
“It’s amazing,” said Claudia Solis-Roman ’11, who is in Vargas Llosa’s creative writing class. “I have a friend who’s been talking about [Vargas Llosa] as the author who hadn’t won a Nobel Prize but should have.”
Solis-Roman said she has enjoyed the class so far, partly because of the unique perspective Vargas Llosa brings to the table. “It’s a lot like sitting down with him and hearing the voice that comes across in his books,” she said. “It’s wonderful to hear him talk about his own heroes.”
Natalie Kitroeff ’11, who is in the same class, called Vargas Llosa “a truly great mind.”
“He is of such great importance in terms of Latin American literature and politics, and it is an honor to be in his class,” she said.
Gallo said that Vargas Llosa has been a “delight” to have in the Latin American studies program this semester, explaining that he was invited back to campus after delivering a particularly successful public lecture in 2008.
“Even before today, I was extremely moved,” Gallo said. “I keep thinking of the 50 or so students involved in his courses, and I really think taking a course with Vargas Llosa is going to change their lives.”
Vargas Llosa is the first South American to win the Nobel Prize since Gabriel Garcia Marquez in 1982 and the first Princetonian to win a Nobel Prize since economics professor Paul Krugman won the award for economics in 2008. Economics professor Eric Maskin also won the economics prize in 2007. Creative writing professor emerita Toni Morrison was the last American to receive the literature prize, in 1993.
The award will officially be presented Dec. 10 in Stockholm , Sweden and comes with a prize of 10 million kronor, the equivalent of roughly $1.5 million.
Vargos Llosa is scheduled to give a public lecture on culture on Oct. 11 at 7:30 p.m. in McCosh 10.
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