The Swedish Academy, which awards the Nobel Prize for Literature, selected an expert in the ancient Scandinavian languages as a new member of its body on Friday, in a move to regain its place after a sex scandal that forced it to withhold the award this year.
Mats Malm, a professor of literature at the University of Gothenburg, became the third new member to be appointed this month in the 18-member body to fill all vacant seats, including two members who resigned because of the scandal.
Founded 232 years ago by the King of Sweden, the Swedish Academy protects the Swedish language and chooses the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature since 1901.
Other Swedish bodies choose the winners in the other fields, while a Norwegian commission chooses the winner of the peace prize.
This year's award was banned following rape charges against French photographer Jean-Claude Arnault, who ran a cultural institution that received money from the academy.
Arnault was sentenced to two years in prison for rape this year.
In addition to the two members who resigned because of the scandal, one of them Arnaud's wife Katrina Frostenson, four others commented on their participation.
The president of the Nobel Foundation, which awards but does not choose winners, said the Swedish Academy could lose its role in awarding the Arts Prize if it did not regain its legitimacy after the scandal.
