Nobel Prize in literature awarded to Norwegian author Jon Fosse

He writes in the least common of the two official versions of Norwegian

By Reuters

Published: Thu 5 Oct 2023, 3:08 PM

Last updated: Thu 5 Oct 2023, 3:19 PM

Norwegian author and dramatist Jon Fosse won the 2023 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable," the award-giving body said on Thursday. The prize is awarded by the Swedish Academy and is worth 11 million Swedish crowns (about $1 million).

Established in the will of Swedish dynamite inventor and businessman Alfred Nobel, the prizes for achievements in literature, science and peace have been awarded since 1901, becoming a career pinnacle in the fields. The economics prize is a later addition established by the Swedish central bank.

Alongside the peace prize, literature has often drawn the most attention, and controversy, thrusting lesser known authors into the global spotlight as well as lifting book sales for well-established literary super stars.

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Over the years, the literature prize has also picked winners well beyond the novelist tradition, including playwrights, historians, philosophers and poets, even breaking new ground with the award to singer-songwriter Bob Dylan in 2016.

Winning the Nobel prize for literature is both overwhelming and scary, Norwegian playwright and novelist Jon Fosse told Reuters following the announcement on Thursday.

"I am overwhelmed, and somewhat frightened. I see this as an award to the literature that first and foremost aims to be literature, without other considerations," Fosse, who is also a poet, said in a statement.

Fosse, 64, who writes in the least common of the two official versions of Norwegian, said he regarded the award as a recognition of this language and the movement promoting it, and that he ultimately owed the prize to the language itself.

Known as "new Norwegian" and used by only about 10% of the country's population, Fosse's version of the language was developed in the 19th century with rural dialects at its base, making it an alternative to the dominant use of Danish that followed from a 400-year union with Denmark.

In addition to more than two dozen plays, the prolific writer has also published novels, essays, collections of poetry and a string of children's books over a period of four decades.

According to his publisher, Fosse's work has been translated into more than 40 languages, and there have been more than 1,000 different productions of his plays.

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