Literature prize to be awarded following last year's debate

STOCKHOLM, Sweden -- The Swedish Academy said it would announce the 2005 Nobel Prize in Literature on Thursday as members of the prestigious institution traded blows over last year's winner, Austrian feminist writer Elfriede Jelinek.\nAcademy member Knut Ahnlund launched a rare and scathing attack on Jelinek's writing Tuesday, saying giving her the prize caused irreparable damage to the award's reputation.\nAhnlund, 82, who has not actively participated in the academy's work since 1996, said he would now quit his lifetime appointment to the panel.\n"Last year's Nobel prize has not only done irreparable damage to all progressive forces, it has also confused the general view of literature as an art," Ahnlund wrote in the Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet. "After this, I cannot even formally remain in the Swedish Academy. As of now, I consider myself an outsider."\nCalling Jelinek's writing "a mass of text that appears shoveled together without trace of artistic structure," Ahnlund questioned whether the academy members had read even a fraction of her work.\nIn last year's decision, the academy cited the "musical flow of voices and countervoices," in Jelinek's writing. Most of her works are known for jolting readers with their frank descriptions of sexuality, pathos and conflict between men and women.\nThe 18-member Swedish Academy's permanent secretary, Horace Engdahl, dismissed suggestions that Ahnlund's defection would affect this year's award, pointing out that Ahnlund has not taken part in the academy's work since 1996.\n"Since then his chair has been vacant, with the exception of three or four casual visits, mostly on holidays," Engdahl wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press.\nHe added that the academy does not explain its decisions beyond what is in the prize citation, and does not respond to criticism from people who dislike its picks.\nTwo other members of the Swedish Academy, Kerstin Ekman and Lars Gyllensten, left in 1989 in protest against the academy's failure to express support for Salman Rushdie following the fatwa, or religious edict, issued by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.\nTheir seats remain vacant, as a member can only be removed by death or a formal decision by the academy.\nThe controversy erupted as the Swedish Academy announced it would present this year's winner Thursday in the Swedish capital, ending a weeklong wait.\nThe academy, which has awarded the literature prize since 1901, surprised many observers when it did not announce the prize last week. The rest of this year's Nobel Prizes have already been announced.\nThursday is Yom Kippur, a day observant Jews spend in fasting and prayer. Among the favorites for this year's $1.3 million prize is the Jewish-American author Philip Roth. Others include Joyce Carol Oates, Margaret Atwood of Canada and Nuruddin Farah of Somalia.