Jon Fosse has won the Nobel Prize in Literature, worth one million Swedish crowns - about 86,182 euros at the exchange rate - and considered the most important literary award in the world. Mats Malm, permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, was in charge of making the announcement this Thursday, October 5 at 1:00 p.m. local time.
The jury highlighted "his innovative plays and his prose, which gives voice to the unspeakable." The institution added that "the human condition is the central theme of his work, regardless of genre, and presents everyday situations that are instantly recognizable in our own lives."
He has also highlighted "a style known as 'Fosse minimalism'" and which consists of very reduced novels, such as Stengd gitar (1985), which tells the story of a twenty-year-old single mother to whom the doors of her life are closed. your apartment when you go to take out the trash. The problem? Her baby has stayed inside her and she needs to go for help but she can't do it because she can't abandon her child. "It's a heartbreaking variation on one of his main themes, the critical moment of irresolution."
Born in 1959, in Haugesund, Norway, Jon Olav Fosse was one of the favorites to win the award, in addition to the Chinese author Can Xue, the Russian Liudmila Ulítskaya and the British Salman Rushdie. Malm explained to the press that the author was driving north of Bergen when he received the news.
Fosse's works have been translated into more than forty languages and his plays have been performed on stages around the world. Among the distinctions that she has achieved throughout her career, the National Order of Merit of France in 2007 stands out.
Known above all for his narrative and theatrical work, the Norwegian writer has also cultivated essays, poetry and children's literature. He debuted in the world of letters in 1983 with the novel Rojo, negro, and since then he has not separated from his pen.
Nórdica Libros has just published Mañana y siempre, one of his most important and accessible works, in co-edition with De Conatus, the label that usually publishes his books. It is a short novel that reflects on life and death and whose protagonist is Johannes, from his birth to the grave.
In Spain, the translations of Septology have also seen the light in four volumes: The Other Name I, The Other Name II, I is Another and A New Name, all of them published with De Conatus. This same publisher is also behind the Trilogy volume, while Ediciones Colihue has an edition of La noche canta sus songs and other theatrical works.
To date, 116 Nobel Prizes have been awarded in this category and eleven of them have gone to writers in the Spanish language. Of these more than a hundred awards, only 17 have been for women, such as the French Annie Ernaux, winner in 2022. Previously, this event was received by the Tanzanian Abdulrazak Gurnah (2021), the American Louise Glück (2020), the Austrian Peter Handke (2019), the Polish Olga Tokarczuk (2018) and the British Kazuo Ishiguro (2017).
The 2018 prize was awarded the following year, as the Nobel Prize in Literature had to be suspended due to a major scandal, which caused the resignation of several members of the jury. This is the case of Jean-Claude Arnault, husband of an academic, who abused his power, raped and harassed several women, obtained funds from the Nobel Foundation, leaked names of winners and allegedly enriched himself by betting on the winning horse.
Following tradition, the Nobel Prize in Literature is always announced on the first or second Thursday of October. This week the Medicine Award was awarded to Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman for the development of messenger RNA vaccines, key to mitigating the impact of the pandemic; that of Physics, to Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and Anne l'Huilier for the advances that allow studying the dynamics of electrons in matter; and Chemistry, to Moungi G. Bawendi, Louis E. Brus and Alexei I. Ekimov, authors of the discovery and synthesis of quantum dots. In the next few days the winners of Peace (Friday the 6th) and Economy (Monday the 9th) will be announced.
All of them will receive the award in a ceremony that will be held, as every year, on December 10 in Stockholm (Sweden), coinciding with the date on which Alfred Nobel died.
Many people wonder how the candidate selection process works. First of all, it is important to know that nominations for this award can only be made by qualified people. In the case of Literature, this would mean members of the Swedish Academy and other academies, institutions and societies that are similar in construction and purpose; literature and linguistics professors in universities and colleges; previous winners of the Nobel Prize in literature; presidents of those societies of authors that are representative of literary production in their respective countries.
