Kenzaburō Ōe was a Japanese writer and a major figure in contemporary Japanese literature. His novels, short stories and essays, 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 1994 Nobel Prize in Literature for creating "an imagined world, where life and myth condense to form a disconcerting picture of the human predicament today". The Nobel Prize in Literature 1994, announced October 13, 1994. Kenzaburo Oe, “who with poetic force creates an imagined world, where life and myth condense to form a disconcerting picture of the human predicament today”. Kenzaburo Oe: born 1935, Uchiko, Japan. Wiki link Data: the Nobel Foundation (CC0).