“The Greatest Norwegian” The famous Norwegian playwright and prose writer Jun Fosse, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, received the Nobel Prize in Literature 10/05/2023, 16:54

Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature took place On 5 October at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm. This year the prize fund was increased from 10 million Swedish krona to 11 million, or $1 million.

Norwegian writer Jun Fosse received the prize “for innovative plays and prose that express the inexpressible,” according to Mats Malm, Permanent Secretary of the Nobel Committee.

The Nobel Prize is awarded for all the works of an author. The 64-year-old author’s works include the Septology novel series, Alyss on Fire, Melancholia and Radiance.

“His extensive body of work, spanning a wide range of genres, includes nearly 40 plays and numerous novels, poetry collections, essays, children’s books and translations. Fosse combines the roots of his Norwegian roots in language and nature with the artistic techniques of modernism,” said Anders Olsson, Chairman of the Nobel Committee on Literature.

Before Fosse, three Norwegian writers had won the Nobel Prize in Literature since its inception in 1901: Bjornstjerne Bjornson (1903), Knut Hamsun (1920) and Sigrid Undset (1928). Thus, 95 years have passed since the award was last given to a representative from Norway.

“The greatest Norwegian of our time”

Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre congratulated the author on his Twitter page.

“June Fosse won the Nobel Prize in Literature! A great recognition of unique writing that moves and excites people around the world. “Congratulations and pride to all of Norway today,” the politician wrote.

Norwegian Minister of Culture and Equality Lubna Jaffer, famous publisher Edmund Ostigard and the author’s senior manager Erna Solberg also congratulated the author.

“This is a historic award and an incredible group of recipients that he is a part of. His works have already touched people all over the world. This will encourage more people to read his literature. This award undoubtedly makes Jon Fosse one of the greatest Norwegians of our time,” Solberg said in a comment on the portal. V.G..

Minimalism and global recognition

In 1983, Fosse published his first novel, “Red, Black,” and in 1994 he wrote the play “And We Will Never Part.” His novels are largely written in a style known as “Fossean minimalism”. The author admitted in 2018: Financial TimesSomeone who knows that his novels can be difficult for many people to perceive.

“I try to write about the mystery of life. “I’m not looking for a simple answer, I want to leave a mystery,” Fosse said. “But I’ve never tried to write complex.” “I always try to write as simply as possible and hopefully as deeply as possible.”

Fosse became famous in Europe in 1999 with the first performance of his play “Someone Will Come” in Paris. He began writing plays when he was about 30 years old and has since produced nearly 40 plays. Many of them have been staged in New York, including I Am the Wind and Death Variations, about a couple coming to terms with the death of their daughter. Fosse’s books have been translated into more than 50 languages, and his plays have been performed in more than 1 thousand theaters around the world.

Fosse’s latest novel, A New Name: Septology VI-VII, illuminates an old man’s relationship with God. Last year this work was nominated for the Man Booker International Prize. Many of Fosse’s works have been published by British publisher Fitzcarraldo Editions, which has worked with many Nobel Prize winners, including 2022 winner Annie Ernault.

Fosse is also known as a teacher. Among his former students is the Norwegian writer Karl Ove Knausgaard, who is expected to win the Nobel Prize.

Who did Fosse beat?

Before the award winner was announced, the leader among the candidates on the betting companies’ sites was 70-year-old Chinese woman Can Xue; experts predicted his chances of winning at 8/1 odds. The author was previously nominated for the Man Booker International Prize for her novel Love in the New Millennium, translated by Anneliese Finegan Vasmoen, and her short story collection I Live in a Slum, translated by Karen Gernant and Chen Zeping.

Her novel, Love in the New Millennium, written in an experimental and abstract style, is similar in definition to Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale. According to the subject of the work, a group of women live in a world under constant surveillance. Critics describe the story as both dark and funny.

Following Can Xue at 12/1 was 74-year-old Japanese author Haruki Murakami (multiple award nominee), who wrote the novels The Norwegian Forest, Kafka on the Shore and 1Q84.