Kenzaburo Oe
Kenzaburo Oe at Japanisches Kulturinstitut Köln/Cologne (Germany), April 11, 2008 In this Japanese name, the family name is "Ōe". Kenzaburō Ōe (大江 健三郎, Ōe Kenzaburō?, born January 31, 1935) is a Japanese author and a major figure in contemporary Japanese literature. His works, strongly influenced by French and American literature and literary theory, deal with political, social and philosophical issues including nuclear weapons, nuclear power, social non-conformism and existentialism. Ōe was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1994 for creating "an imagined world, where life and myth condense to form a disconcerting picture of the human predicament today".