Nobel scandals leave prospect of awards in doubt

COPENHAGEN — For the first time since 1943, there’s a notable risk that no Nobel Prize in literature will be awarded this year.

And that’s not because the world’s authors, poets, essayists and other writers have been found wanting.

The painful, though not unprecedented possibility arises from sex abuse and financial crimes scandals involving the Swedish Academy, the body that chooses the Nobel literature winner.

The august academy has admitted that “unacceptable behavior in the form of unwanted intimacy” took place within its ranks, but its handling of unseemly allegations has shredded the body’s credibility, called into question its judgment and forced its first female leader to resign.

A debate over how to face up to its flaws also divided its 18 members — who are appointed for life — into hostile camps and prompted seven members to leave or dissociate themselves from the secretive group.

The latest defection, announced on Saturday, has left the prestigious institution with only 11 people to consider who should win the 2018 Nobel Prize in literature.

At its upcoming weekly meeting in Stockholm on Thursday, the Swedish Academy could decide to postpone or cancel awarding the prize this year — because it’s in no shape to pick a winner.

Anders Olsson, the permanent secretary of the academy, hinted at that scenario in remarks to the Swedish public week.

If the academy does go ahead and choose a winner for 2018, some experts say the laureate’s accomplishments could be tainted or overshadowed by a mess they had no hand in creating.

“It really depends on who gets it. That person needs to know what the academy has gone through and maybe respond to the crisis,” said Mads Rosendahl Thomsen, a literature professor with Denmark’s Aarhus University.

The world’s most prestigious prizes in science, medicine, literature and peacemaking have been withheld 49 times in all since the honors based on the will of Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel began in 1901.

No Nobel Prizes at all were awarded during the World War II years of 1940-42. The Nobel literature prize was not given out on seven occasions so far: 1914, 1918, 1935 and 1940-43.

In 1935, no literature candidate was deemed worthy of a Nobel, but winners were chosen in the other fields.

Rosendahl Thomsen said “it could be sensible” for the academy to postpone the 2018 literature prize until the internal issues are resolved.

“Generally speaking, the academy is an institution that thrives on tradition and opacity,” he said. “It must be modern, but keep some mystique around it at the same time.” broadcaster SR last