Nobel Prize in Literature: who will win the highest literary distinction?

Every year at this time, the literary world is confronted with a great unknown from Sweden. Known is the secret handled by the committee responsible for distinguishing the author who will raise the prize Nobel Prize in LiteratureThis is why it is not a novelty that less than a week after its announcement, the end appears – once again – particularly open. However, some risk that this time the winner will be a non-Western writer.

There are several reasons to assume this: with the exception of the British Kazuo Ishiguro, who was born in Japan and won the Nobel Prize in 2017, the winners of the past nine years have been European or North American, from Bob dylan a Peter Handke or the American poet who was decorated last year, Lucky Louise. An image that in a way contradicts the well-known thoughtful and inclusive criteria of the Swedish academy.

“I think they want to find a genius from a place that has been marginalized until now. You could call it positive colonialism, ”he said. Jonas Thente, literary critic of the Swedish newspaper Today’s news, referring to Nigerian Chimamanda Danger Adichie. Others are betting on the announcement to be made on October 7 by the South Korean Ko One, the Kenyan Ngugi wa Thiong’o and the Chinese dissident Can Xueapart from the indian Vikram set, the Portuguese-speaking Mozambican Mia Couto and the Chinese opponent Liao Yiwu.

In full questioning of postcolonialism, the American Caribbean is also mentioned Jamaica Kincaid and the French from the island of Guadeloupe Maryse CondéAFP news agency reported. We also should not underestimate the possibility that the academy will somehow speak out against recent events in Afghanistan, choosing to present the award to a writer who denounces Islamic fundamentalism, such as the ‘Indo-British. Salman rushdie or even French Michel Houellebecq.

Will the Argentinian writer have a chance this time Caesar Aira, whose name has sounded among the candidates of the last editions? We have to go back to 2010 to remember the Peruvians Mario Vargas Llosa, the last pen in Latin America to receive this award.

Japanese keeps appearing on the list of candidates Haruki Murakami, always cited and never rewarded, while in Europe, the Russian Ludmila Ulitskaya, hungarian Nadas stone, noted Houellebecq and Albanian Ishmael Kadaré They come back as favorites, like the Canadiens Anne Carson and Marguerite Atwood and the Americans Joyce Carol Oates and Jeanne Didion. Thomas pynchon He is another eternal candidate, although his last book dates from 2013.

For those responsible for the Nobel, which is celebrating 120 years of existence this year, the epidemiological scenario still prevents the conditions for holding its traditional gala in Stockholm like every December 10, which is why he decided that both the Nobel Prize for Literature as The 2021 physics, chemistry, economics and medicine receive the award in their home country and not in the Swedish capital as always, except last year and WWII. In the case of the Peace Prize, which is awarded by Norway, there is still a small chance that it will be delivered with your own hands in Oslo.

The laureates of the Nobel Prize for Literature over the past ten years are: Lucky Louise (United States) in 2020; Peter Handke (Austria) in 2019; Olga Tokarczuk (Poland) in 2018; Kazuo Ishiguro (Great Britain) in 2017; Bob dylan (United States) in 2016; Svetlana Alexievich (Belarus) in 2015; Patrick modiano (France) in 2014; Alice munro (Canada) in 2013; You that (China) in 2012 and Thomas Transtromer (Sweden) in 2011.

With information from Telam

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