Nobel Prize in Literature 2020 Speculation

[Ludus]

I would be thrilled if Tahar Ben Jelloun won this year! I read This Blinding Absence of Light and The Sand Child last year, and was amazed by his atmospheric and poetic prose.

My favorite would be Ernesto Cardenal. if he hand't fuckin died on january

I guess chilean Raúl Zurita could still be an out-of-the-blue winner, but if he dies then I'm really out of options. There's just not a lot of great writers left in Latin América. Well, there are some, but none of them have the international attention needed. Many years will pass until we have a new latin american laureate... Padura, maybe?

I really don't know if the academy could give the prize to Han Kang, I mean, could the Nobel turn itself into the Alternative Booker International? It could affect their decision, given that Olga won thanks in part to the international attention the Booker gave to her. If a south korean should win, it might be Ko Un. The Handke affair shows that the academy doesn't really care about the scandals in a writer's life if the writing is good. That should bring Un's poetry to the table again, right?

It would be nice if Nadas or Laszlo won this year, but 2018 and 2019 where for central european writers, and maybe the academy will like to mix things up a bit. I would prefer Laszlo, and dreaming is not a sin! So he will remain in my favorites list

Lydia Davis and Anne Carson, I think, are very similar in their ethos. They are both very methodical, bot "cult" writers in "marginal" genres. Both would make terrific news for poetry and short story readers alike, but the mere existence of Alice Munro might hurt their chances.

And I'll add Thiongo and Saadawi to the mix, because I'm a superstitious guy and that stupid article in El País said someone from Africa could win!

Ko Un
Raúl Zurita
Leonardo Padura
Ngugi wa Thiongo
Nawal El Saadawi
Tahar Ben Jelloun
Lydia Davis / Anne Carson
Laszlo Krasznahorkai

 

[redhead]

Thanks for the suggestion, Bartleby. Maybe I'll have better luck with the plays/scenes. Will let you know.

I agree with Bartleby! Although I do want to add that I don’t think his most famous play, Someone is Going to Come, is the best place to start. It was his first play and I think it shows. Maybe it works better on the stage? (Btw, Bartleby, do you have a link to that trailer? I’d love to see it.)

Btw, for prose, I think Trilogy or Morning and Evening are probably the best places to start. They’re written in a style similar to Melancholy II, but I find it works much better in context. What can seem grating and self-indulgent when quoted as a passage can come across as rhythmic and poetic when you read the rest.

 

[Septularisen]

Good morning everybody,
Nice to see you all back for this 2020 Nobel Prize speculation forum.

So, for the beginning I'm just very surprise that no one here give the name of Ludmila OULITSKAIA? I see this writer win the prize, if not this year, then with in the next 5 years.

And exactly the same for the Chinese writer YAN Lianke...

If the SA choose an African writer, then I see one of the writer of the "new generation" so maybe: José Eduardo AGUALUSA, Mia COUTO or PEPETELA.
If they choose a novel and poetry writer, then it would be Tahar BEN JELLOUN or Abdellatif LAABI.

And why not a "surprise" winner: Richard FORD? Leonard NOLENS? Claudio MAGRIS? Vladimir SOROKINE? Jon Kalman STEFANSSON? Horacio CASTELLANOS MOYA? Carlos LISCANO, John BANVILLE?...

Finally, I know that the Japonese writer has not very much "fans" in this forum, but... I still continue to say that MURAKAMI Haurki will really deserve the prize, and I continue to be one of his fans...

For this year my short list will be :
Ludmila OULITSKAIA
Laszlo KRASZNAHORKAI
Claudio MAGRIS
YAN Lianke
MURAKAMI Haruki

 

[Septularisen]

I'm also not a specialist in African poetry but I know two poets from South Africa who are translated in my country - Breyten Breytenbach and Antjie Krog.

Just for the records : Breyten BREYTENBACH is a French citizen since... 1982!

 

[Americanreader]

I would love to see Yan Lianke win. I read his Four Books, and was immediately converted. He walks a great line between being darkly funny and unbelievably sad in the book. Also, people could see it as a "correction" for the Mo Yan win in 2012 (although I really like him and think he deserved it personally) I think 8 years is well enough removed to give it to another Chinese writer. As I previously stated, I'd also love to see an Ngugi, Couto, or Laabi win. If they return to Africa. Septularisen, is there a good entry into Ulitskaya's work? I read her novel Sonechka, but it didn't wow me.

 

[Septularisen]

I usually just lurk here for good recommendations (thank you), but I may as well share a short list of who I think has a good chance at the Nobel this year—
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o (now or never)
Nawal El Saadawi
Tahar Ben Jelloun
Duong Thu Huong
F. Sionil José

Why not? But Francisco SIONIL JOSE is 95 year old, and Nawal El SAADAWI 88...

 

[redhead]

I would love to see Yan Lianke win. I read his Four Books, and was immediately converted. He walks a great line between being darkly funny and unbelievably sad in the book. Also, people could see it as a "correction" for the Mo Yan win in 2012 (although I really like him and think he deserved it personally) I think 8 years is well enough removed to give it to another Chinese writer. As I previously stated, I'd also love to see an Ngugi, Couto, or Laabi win. If they return to Africa. Septularisen, is there a good entry into Ulitskaya's work? I read her novel Sonechka, but it didn't wow me.

What did you like about Four Books? I’ve read Serve the People and Dream of Ding Village and wasn’t too impressed.

 

[Septularisen]

I guess chilean Raúl Zurita could still be an out-of-the-blue winner, but if he dies then I'm really out of options. There's just not a lot of great writers left in Latin América.

Cesar AIRA, Carlos LISCANO, Horacio CASTELLANOS MOYA?...

 

[Americanreader]

I really enjoyed its extremely dark sense of humor (a character waters wheat with his own blood and it grows as big as corn). I also really admire how once the characters start starving it swerves into a much more somber tone. I feel like its difficult to really thread that needle. I also really enjoyed how he manages to skewer the Anti rightist movement and its emphasis on getting these men and women to commit to the state, but it soon devolves into how to make their reeducation camp "the most productive one". He gets great comic mileage out of this arbitrary reward system that can allow prisoners to leave as "reeducated". It combines 4 different "books" as the title suggests including a sort of biblical early chapter about "the child" who runs the camp, and late chapter that takes the form of a philosophical text, and two longer middle narratives of a a book one of the characters writes in secret, and another that is used to inform on other prisoners. I really enjoyed its focus on the day to day camp experience of the men and women. On the whole, I think it just worked really well as a satire. That's what I liked most about it. I can't speak to his other works yet, but I'd highly recommend this one.

 

[redhead]

I really enjoyed its extremely dark sense of humor (a character waters wheat with his own blood and it grows as big as corn). I also really admire how once the characters start starving it swerves into a much more somber tone. I feel like its difficult to really thread that needle. I also really enjoyed how he manages to skewer the Anti rightist movement and its emphasis on getting these men and women to commit to the state, but it soon devolves into how to make their reeducation camp "the most productive one". He gets great comic mileage out of this arbitrary reward system that can allow prisoners to leave as "reeducated". It combines 4 different "books" as the title suggests including a sort of biblical early chapter about "the child" who runs the camp, and late chapter that takes the form of a philosophical text, and two longer middle narratives of a a book one of the characters writes in secret, and another that is used to inform on other prisoners. I really enjoyed its focus on the day to day camp experience of the men and women. On the whole, I think it just worked really well as a satire. That's what I liked most about it. I can't speak to his other works yet, but I'd highly recommend this one.

Thanks for the synopsis! It certainly sounds like an interesting book from your post. After a few few lukewarm encounters with Lianke, I’m sold on this novel

 

[hayden]

Why not? But Francisco SIONIL JOSE is 95 year old, and Nawal El SAADAWI 88...

True, but as long as they're alive I think they both have a decent chance. My main fear against F. Sionil Jose is that if they wanted him to get the award he probably would have won 20 or so years ago, but I can't help but feel he deserves it. He's a fantastic, unique, and influential writer with a worldwide audience and a tremendous bibliography behind him, yet somehow he's still not particularly 'mainstream'. He seems to check off all the boxes. Not to mention Southeast Asia has never had a Nobel laureate in literature, which I can't help would be in his favour (along with Duong Thu Huong). As for Nawal El Saadawi, she's one of those rare people (along with Churchill and Elie Wiesel) that I believe has mostly likely been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize as well as literature (although I believe she has a much better chance at winning for the later), and has probably been in discussion within those circles for many years. If they're leaning towards an African laureate, I think it would be silly to count her out (no matter her age). And although it doesn't give her a leg up on Thiong'o, she's another writer who has been imprisoned for her writings. She's one of those incredible overachievers that I don't think anyone would be disappointed to see get a Nobel, and I think she has an incredibly good chance of winning this year.

 

[hayden]

Ko Un

I assume Ko Un was a serious contender from 2011-2016, maybe even a runner-up in some years, and although I'm quite fond of his work (especially his recent Maninbo selection), I can't see him having a chance anymore. Handke's one thing, but to award Ko Un would cause an entirely different size of storm.

I guess chilean Raúl Zurita could still be an out-of-the-blue winner, but if he dies then I'm really out of options. There's just not a lot of great writers left in Latin América. Well, there are some, but none of them have the international attention needed. Many years will pass until we have a new latin american laureate... Padura, maybe?

Zurita might have a decent shot, but I wouldn't say you're out of options if he dies. I haven't seen her mentioned, but I wouldn't write Brazilian Adélia Prado off either. Sadly, Latin America has definitely lost a lot of worthy contenders in the past decade.

 

[Liam]

My personal favorite this or any other year would be the Estonian poet Jaan Kaplinski.

However, I think this will be a very political year for the Nobel: with everything going on around the world right now I would not be in the least surprised to see someone like Alice Walker win the 2020 prize.

A self-proclaimed bisexual black feminist who is also an activist, they would really hit the jackpot with her if they wanted to make a statement. Some things might work against her, like the recent accusations of anti-Semitism, but as we've seen with Handke, the Academy does not shy away from strongly expressed political opinions.

 

[redhead]

I didn't think Ko Un had a shot last year, and Handke hasn't changed my opinion on that. If anything, after the public response last year, which the SA clearly hadn't fully expected, I doubt they'll go for anyone as controversial as him (or someone on a similar level as Handke).

Edit: Also, Yoko Tawada's only got one book out now. From the library, it looked like she might've been on the shortlist last year, so I thought I'd point it out.

 

[Johnny]

This thread is really getting going now! Great to see and to be honest lots of names I am not familiar with so looking forward to learning some more on all these writers. My biggest concern is that this award becomes a political one, I was full of admiration for the Committee last year, whether you appreciate Handke or not (I do and was delighted he won) it was a brave move. I’d hate to see the day an inferior writer wins to tick the politically correct box, not saying the writers mentioned here are ( like I say I don’t know a lot of them) but hopefully the quality of someone’s literature remains the critical point. The Nobel prize for literature and the Nobel Peace prize are not the same thing.

 

[redhead]

This thread is really getting going now!

I'm kind of surprised how quickly activity in this thread has picked up. The past few years they've usually been a bit slow until Mid-August.

And it looks like there’s quite a few Houellebecq titles checked out now—8 I think.

 

[Camillo]

Just for the records : Breyten BREYTENBACH is a French citizen since... 1982!

Thank you for pointing out this. I had in mind his nationality.

 

[Johnny]

Yes, agree but it’s great, must be something to do with Covid. Houellebecq, now there would be a controversial winner!

 

[Verkhovensky]

I would be happy if Kadare won. His ouvre is definitely Nobel-worthy and it would be really nice for a writer in a rare language, with only 7.5 million speakers to win. It would show that you don't need to write in a language with rich literary history in order to write good literature.

 

[Daniel del Real]

I guess chilean Raúl Zurita could still be an out-of-the-blue winner, but if he dies then I'm really out of options. There's just not a lot of great writers left in Latin América. Well, there are some, but none of them have the international attention needed. Many years will pass until we have a new latin american laureate... Padura, maybe?

I keep hearing great things about Zurita, who besides from a few poems I haven't properly read. Cardenal was also one of my beloved poets, but I always knew he didn't have the right sponsorship for a prize like the Nobel. My biggest annoyance was him never winning the Cervantes (hard to believe the mediocre Sergio Ramírez did).
I agree the panorama for Latin America is currently quite weak. Yes, Aira and Padura are probably the two more "accessible" candidates and although I've enjoyed some of his works I cannot think any of them as Nobel winners.

If a south korean should win, it might be Ko Un. The Handke affair shows that the academy doesn't really care about the scandals in a writer's life if the writing is good. That should bring Un's poetry to the table again, right?

I'd love to see Ko Un win. Press & media will never be happy so let's bring another scandal endorsed by a solid literary career no one can deny.
If not, way way before Han Kang, we need to consider a great writer represented in Hwang Sok-Yong's persona.