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Swedish Academy member resigns over Nobel prize 

DPA

Stockholm, Oct 11 (DPA) A member of the Swedish Academy that awards the Nobel Prize for literature said Tuesday he was resigning, citing criticism of last year's decision to award Austrian author Elfriede Jelinek.

"The 2004 Nobel Prize to Elfriede Jelinek has destroyed the distinction's merit for the foreseeable future," Professor Knut Ahnlund wrote in Stockholm daily Svenska Dagbladet.

A member of the Academy since 1983, the 82-year-old Ahnlund said Jelinek's authorship was obsessed with a single theme and lacked "artistic structure".

"A general feature in Jelinek's authorship is the bloated volume that is in devastating contrast to the weakness regarding ideas and visions," Ahnlund said, adding his aversion for the sadomasochistic and pornographic themes she often explored.

Ahnlund has in recent years not been actively involved in the selection of Nobel laureates after a quarrel with some of the other 18 members, but questioned if the other members had read more than a fraction of Jelinek's work.

Saying the choice of Jelinek had caused "irreparable damage for all progressive forces", Ahnlund concluded: "After this I can no longer remain a formal member of the Swedish Academy. I regard myself as of now as an outsider."

Indo-Asian News Service