William Golding (1911--1993) and the Nobel Prize for literature
William Golding
One of the most significant English writers of the 1950s. His novels are referred to as fables or allegories that explore, moral and religious themes, Paying special attention to the problems of evil in human beings.
• As a rule, it is only at the end, or towards the end of the novel, that the characters reach a certain selfdiscovery and realize, retrospectively, that evil is not outside, but rather inside them.
William Golding's Works
1934年：（Poems）《诗集》 1954年：（Lord of the Flies）《苍蝇王》 1955年：（The Inheritors）《继承者》 1956年：（Pincher Martin）《品彻·马丁》 1958年：（The Brass Butterfly）《军营蝴蝶》 1959年：（Free Fall）《自由落体》 1964年：（The Spire）《尖顶教堂》 1965年：《The Hot Gates》 1971年：（The Scorpion God）《蝎神》 1979年：（Darkness Visible）《黑暗之眼》 1982年：（A Moving Target）《移动目标》 1984年：（The Paper Men）《纸人》 1985年：（An Egyptian Journal ）《埃及日记》
Life of William Golding
1911, born in Cornwall His father was a schoolmaster His mother was a suffragette( 妇女参政权论者)
1921-30, educated at Marlborough Grammar School 1930, at Brasenose College, Oxford Brought up to be a scientist but became devoted to literature 1935, published a volume of poems 1939, got married with Ann Brookfield 1940, joined the Royal Navy and spent six years afloat After the war he returned to teaching, and began to write again 1988, knighted by Elizabeth II and died in 1993
Features of William Golding's Work
• Many times in his novels, the characters go through a particular development. For the most part, they solve problems inside themselves--some kind of inner discrepancy.
Features of William Golding's Work
• Exploration of "the darkness of man's heart", deep spiritual and ethical questions.
• "The two signs of man are a capacity to kill and a belief in God." • Morality is not innate but has to be learned by means of
education, or religion. Otherwise, human beings turn into savages, since moral principles are the basis of civilized behaviour and civilized world. Without keeping to them, the evil nature, that is common to all human beings, will come to the surface and the mankind will make for destruction.
William Golding & the Nobel Prize for literature
1983，Golding was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature、
Prize motivation:
"for his novels which, with the perspicuity of realistic narrative art and the diversity and universality of myth, illuminate the human condition in the world of today"
他的小说用明晰的的现实主义的叙述艺术和多样的带普遍意义的神话， 阐了当今世界人类的普遍状况。
William Golding & the Nobel Prize for literature