Nobel Prize in Literature 2023 updates: Norwegian Jon Fosse wins award
All the updates about the announcement of this year’s winner of the prestigious literary award.
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- Norwegian author Jon Fosse is the winner of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Literature for his “innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable”.
- In the words of Swedish industrialist and awards founder Alfred Nobel, the prestigious prize should go “to the person who, in the field of literature, produced the most outstanding work in an idealistic direction”.
- Since the Nobel Prizes were established in 1901, the Swedish Academy has awarded 119 individuals for their literary work; only 17 of them were women.
- Each year, six Nobel Prizes are awarded to recognise individuals’ outstanding contributions to the fields of chemistry, psychology or medicine, physics, literature, peace and – in what was an addition in later years – economics.
Our live coverage is coming to an end
We are about to wrap up our coverage, so here’s a reminder of what happened today:
- The Swedish Academy awarded Jon Fosse with the 2023 Nobel Prize in literature.
- The Norwegian author was recognised for his “innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable”, the jury said.
- One of his country’s most-performed dramatists, Fosse has written some 40 plays as well as novels, short stories, children’s books, poetry and essays.
- This was the fourth Nobel Prize to be awarded this week; on Friday the long-awaited Nobel Prize for peace will be announced.
‘I write about humanity’
Fosse’s work has been translated into about 50 languages.
According to his Norwegian publisher, Samlaget, his plays have been staged more than a thousand times around the world.
“You don’t read my books for the plots,” he told the Financial Times in 2018.
“I don’t write about characters in the traditional sense of the word. I write about humanity,” Fosse told French newspaper Le Monde in 2003.
Playwriting was ‘made for me’
Fosse grew up in a family which followed a strict form of Lutheranism and rebelled by playing in a band and declaring himself an atheist. He ended up converting to Catholicism in 2013.
After studying literature, he made his debut in 1983 with the novel Red, Black which moves back and forth in time and between perspectives.
His latest book, Septology, a semi-autobiographical magnum opus, seven parts spread across three volumes about a man who meets another version of himself, runs to 1,250 pages without a single full stop.
The third volume was shortlisted for the 2022 International Booker Prize.
Struggling to make ends meet as an author in the early 1990s, Fosse was asked to write the start of a play.
“It was the first time I had ever tried my hand at this kind of work, and it was the biggest surprise of my life as a writer,” he once said in an interview with a French theatre website. “I knew, I felt, that this kind of writing was made for me,” he added.
He enjoyed the form so much he wrote the entire play, entitled Someone is Going to Come.
From poetry to children’s books
More on why the Swedish Academy have chosen Fosse.
“His immense oeuvre written in Norwegian Nynorsk (one of Norway’s written forms of languages) and spanning a variety of genres consists of a wealth of plays, novels, poetry collections, essays, children’s books and translations,” the jury said.
“While he is today one of the most widely performed playwrights in the world, he has also become increasingly recognised for his prose.”
The last 10 winners of the Nobel Prize
2023: Jon Fosse (Norway)
2022: Annie Ernaux (France)
2021: Abdulrazak Gurnah (Tanzania, Britain)
2020: Louise Gluck (US)
2019: Peter Handke (Austria)
2018: Olga Tokarczuk (Poland)
2017: Kazuo Ishiguro (Britain)
2016: Bob Dylan (US)
2015: Svetlana Alexievich (Belarus)
2014: Patrick Modiano (France)
‘Another Northern European!’
Adile Aslan, professor of English literature and scholar in residence at Georgetown University in Doha, says the choice of Fosse confirms once again the lack of inclusivity of the Nobel Prize.
“Another Northern European!” Aslan told Al Jazeera.
“Due to political pressures, the Nobel Prize tries to be more inclusive in recent years, but it needs fundamental changes in its makeup in order to bring about real changes that would include the rest of the world where the majority of people live,” Aslan said.
What was Fosse doing when he heard of his win?
Driving in the countryside.
That’s according to Mats Malm, permanent secretary of the academy, who called Fosse to inform him of the win.
The dramatist promised to drive home carefully.
Fosse is the fourth Norwegian writer to get the Nobel
The previous three were:
- Bjornstjerne Bjornson, in 1903
- Knut Hamsun, in 1920
- Sigrid Undset, in 1928
Recognition of non-Anglophone author ‘very significant’
Ruth Cruickshank, associate professor in French and Comparative Literature and Culture at Royal Holloway, University of London, has hailed Fosse’s win.
“It is very significant that the Nobel have gone for another non-Anglophone author, continuing to recognise the importance of the circulation of non-Anglophone literature in translation,” Cruickshank told Al Jazeera.
She added the recognition would be good news for publishing houses supporting non-Anglophone literature.
“That his work spans novels, poetry and drama is also key. Like Ernaux, last year, this year’s laureate demonstrates the power of literature to figure the unsayable,” Cruickshank said.
What to know about the winner
Here are a few facts about Fosse and his work:
- He was born on 29 September, 1959, in Norway’s Haugesund.
- Fosse has written some 40 plays as well as novels, short stories, children’s books, poetry and essays.
- He debuted with the novel Raudt, svart 1983, which touched on the theme of suicide and set the tone for his later work.
- Other notable works include the novels Stengd gitar and Skuggar (2007), and the short novel Morgon og kveld.
- In the words of the Academy, “in his radical reduction of language and dramatic action, he expresses the most powerful human emotions of anxiety and powerlessness in the simplest everyday terms”.
This year’s literature laureate Jon Fosse writes novels heavily pared down to a style that has come to be known as ‘Fosse minimalism’.
This can be seen in his second novel ‘Stengd gitar’ (1985), when Fosse presents us with a harrowing variation on one of his major themes, the… pic.twitter.com/5v1fQ6C6CJ
— The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) October 5, 2023
Fosse says he is ‘overwhelmed, and somewhat frightened’
We have the first reaction by the winner himself.
“I am overwhelmed, and somewhat frightened,” Fosse said in a statement to Reuters after his win.
“I see this as an award to the literature that first and foremost aims to be literature, without other considerations.”
‘Voice to the unsayable’
Born in 1959 in Norway, Jon Fosse has been recognised by the Swedish Academy “for his innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable”.
And the winner is…
Jon Fosse!
Almost there
We are five minutes away and the Swedish Academy is full of journalists ready to take notes!
As we wait, here are a few quick facts:
- 115 Nobel Prizes in Literature have been awarded since 1901.
- 4 literature prizes have been shared between two persons.
- 17 women have been awarded the literature prize so far.
Sneak peek: The Swedish Academy is getting ready
The Swedish Academy is gearing up for the big moment and shares some behind-the-scenes pictures.
Sneak peek! We're setting up for the 2023 Nobel Prize in Literature.
In just a few minutes, this year's prize will be revealed. We'll be streaming the news live on our social channels and website.#NobelPrize pic.twitter.com/ZbPt4FNHpm
— The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) October 5, 2023
Who are the possible winners?
The Swedish Academy is tight-lipped on the list of nominees – so tight that, according to the Nobel Prizes’ rules, the names can’t be released for 50 years.
This doesn’t mean that names are not floating around and predictions are not being made.
Odds are high for Can Xue of China; Japan’s Haruki Murakami; and Mircea Cartarescu of Romania.
We’ll find out soon!
Expert’s take: ‘Hypocritical inclusivity’
Daniele Giglioli, professor of comparative literature at the University of Trento in Italy, believes the Nobel Prize in literature is highly politicised and puts too much emphasis on the winners’ personas and ideologies.
“There is an ominous shift of attention from the value of authors’ works – their creation of imaginary worlds to the composition of beautiful verses – to their personas,” Giglioli told Al Jazeera.
He also argued that winners tend to be authors aligned with Western values.
“It’s a very hypocritical inclusivity,” Giglioli said.
“No Russian author who is not a fierce critic of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin would ever win the prize today, regardless of their quality.”
Who else will win a Nobel this week?
The highly anticipated Nobel Peace Prize will be announced on Friday, followed by the one for economics on Monday.
Some experts argue that the peace prize is the most important award globally – yet, it is also one of the most contentious, with some of the past winner picks drawing heavy criticism.
“It has made so many surprising and bad judgement awards that many find it ridiculous,” Fredrik Heffermehl, Norwegian lawyer and founder of the Nobel Peace Prize Watch, told Al Jazeera.
Check out this video to understand more:
One hour to go!
Just a quick reminder that we are one hour away from the announcement!
The Swedish Academy is expected to announce who is this year’s winner of the Nobel Prize in literature at 11:00 GMT.
We have plenty of updates coming your way to keep you company until then.
Who has won a Nobel this week?
On Monday, Hungarian-born Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman of the US won the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for their research that led directly to the first mRNA vaccines to fight COVID-19, made by Pfizer and Moderna.
It was then was the turn of Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and Anne L’Huillier who on Tuesday won the prize in physics for “experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses of light for the study of electron dynamics in matter”.
On Wednesday, scientists Moungi Bawendi, Louis Brus and Alexei Ekimov were awarded the prize in chemistry “for the discovery and synthesis of quantum dots”, which illuminate computer monitors and television screens and can be used by doctors to map tumours.
A tale of awards, and controversies
The academy has long faced criticism for awarding too many male European and North American writers.
The literature prize went to 119 individuals between 1901 and 2022; only 17 of these were women, with just six being born in Africa. The latest African laureate was Tanzania-born, UK-based writer, Abdulrazak Gurnah, who won the award in 2021.
The Swedish Academy was also rocked by sex abuse allegations.
In 2018, the academy postponed the announcement of the prize in the wake of a sexual assault and harassment scandal involving Jean-Claude Arnault, husband of then academy board member Katarina Frostenson.
To add to the controversy, the pair was accused of misusing academy funds. A slew of resignations and expulsions followed the claims of misconduct.
Who won the literary prize last year?
Her more than 20 books, many of which have been used as school texts in France for decades, offer readers a subtle and insightful window into the social life of modern France.
“When she with great courage and clinical acuity reveals the agony of the experience of class, describing shame, humiliation, jealousy or inability to see who you are, she has achieved something admirable and enduring,” the academy said, explaining the reason for awarding Ernaux.
What did Nobel actually say in his will?
Here are a few extracts:
- “All of my remaining realisable assets are to be disbursed as follows: the capital, converted to safe securities by my executors, is to constitute a fund, the interest on which is to be distributed annually as prizes to those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind.
- “It is my express wish that when awarding the prizes, no consideration be given to nationality, but that the prize be awarded to the worthiest person, whether or not they are Scandinavian”.