Literature is to provoke, doubts arouse about non-obvious things to speak, writes the Polish Nobel prize-winner Olga Tokarczuk. Your books are political, however, was not their intention.
The Polish author and psychologist Olga Tokarczuk has thrilled international audiences with their novels. For this they received on the 10. October, the Nobel prize retroactively for the year 2018. In her book, “restlessness”, which has especially impressed the Jury, has Tokarczuk with the desire to travel and the nomadic lifestyle of modern people. Changes in the Form of travel narratives, sometimes in mythological stories or philosophical considerations.
Olga Tokarczuk is also politically active. She is known as a women’s rights activist and advocate for sexual minorities. In the past years, she has reported often to the word, when it came to social and political changes in their homeland. At the time it is just on a reading tour in Germany with her novel “Jacob’s books” (2014).
Yesterday you have risen as a writer, Olga Tokarczuk in Potsdam in the car…
… presenting your new book in Germany. And I got out in Bielefeld, Germany as a Nobel laureate. And to be honest, I can’t believe it still. I can’t put together my name with the new term.
You have received the Nobel prize for literature for the book “restlessness”, in which you have written, that the strongest human muscle is the tongue. You have the feeling that your tongue is with the current government in Poland in the conflict? Culture Minister Piotr Gliński has said that he should now read, especially her book “Jacob’s books” to the end.
Worthy of a Nobel prize: “restlessness” by Olga Tokarczuk
That’s what he said? This is good. My books are not in the sense of “political”, I don’t have any political demands. You describe life. But if we look at the human life, creeps in the policy anywhere. The book “the song of The bats” told actually, from the madness of an old lady who can’t stand the killing of animals. And suddenly, in this new context, the opened in Poland, this book is strictly political. (It comes to the discussion of the new hunting laws in Poland, Anm. the editorial office.) That was not my intention. It should not be a political book.
But?
I write rather books to open people’s minds to new points of view, to show new perspectives. That what you see as obvious is not so obvious. You can consider a trivial Situation from a different angle, and suddenly other meanings and layers revealed. The literature is there. So that we can expand our awareness, develop the ability to interpret our own lives and to see what happens with us.
For example, the protagonist of your novel, the murders in order to protect the animals – so lens a crime seen commits – may not be guilty? As I watched, against what you fought, I had a Problem with that, your debt to acknowledge.
In actual sense, she is guilty, but this is my way to tell their story. So I Wake in you, the reader, doubt. For literature is there. To provoke, to awaken doubts, and not to talk about things that are obvious. Literature is for Thinking.
In order to force the Polish Minister of culture, to read them again, they had to get the Nobel prize. Would you consider meeting with Minister Gliński?
Of course! I have nothing against it. I didn’t feel particularly affected that he could not read my books. I don’t know that my books are suitable for everyone. It depends on the Temperament, literary taste, and certain habits. So I urge all to read Tokarczuk.
The Polish government is stoking Fears among the population towards sexual minorities. How is it that suddenly the most intimate sphere of man, the sexuality is in their books is very present – a gun, a political-social conflict field in Poland?
We live in a time of Paradigm shift. The religions to compromise us in front of our eyes. Either you are fundamentalist, or you are no longer able to accompany a human.
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The world is split in two halves. The one, the best idea would be to return to what once was and try to restore the old values, called Tradition. The others say: no! That is not enough! We must conceive the world in some way different. Because the old order destroyed the planet, the discrimination introduced, and so many of the inequalities brought. And now we are looking for an answer. But this is not a question of a writer…
A Writer? Polish Nobel Prize Winner For Literature!
You better ask the Pope. Or great philosophers! I tell stories and try to make the honest, so that people interested in that and have fun. But, above all, that they may see in their minds a little wider and uneasy. In order for the people to begin to question what was previously taken for granted.
The Interview was done in conjunction with the DW-partner portal wirtualna polska.
The interview was conducted by Michal Gostkiewicz.