However,
Mr Jenkins does feel that the award has been
given on artistic criteria alone. "His
dramatic and literary achievement is head
and shoulders above any other British writer.
"He is far and away the most interesting,
the best, the most powerful and most original
of English playwrights."
The Nobel committee however does have a history
of acknowledging writers who stand against
common political notions and the face of power.
Previous winners include Soviet dissident
Alexander Solzhenitsyn, outspoken German writer
Guenter Grass and Wole Soyinka, a caustic
critic of Nigeria's military regime.
Some feel that he was selected only because
of his political agenda. There is the view
that the Nobel literature prize often goes
to someone whose political stance is found
to be sympathetic at a given moment,"
said Alan Jenkins, deputy editor of the Times
Literary Supplement.
"He was chosen to honour his entire body
of work in the over 50-year span of his career,"
she told BBC news. Pinter would be acting
in Samuel Beckett's play Krapp's Last Tape
as part of the English Stage Company's 50th
anniversary celebrations next year.
Ian
Rickson, artistic director of London's Royal
Court Theatre, has added his tributes Pinter's
influence in world literature is extraordinary,"
he said. "His immersion in his art and
his commitment to justice is immense."
