Ben Jackson
Well-known member
I think the same thing too. I don't think Europe would have a Laureate in the next two years. I think Asia (Salim Barakat, Ogawa, Xue) or Latin America would get it.
Nobel Prize in Literature 2022
- Thread starter Stewart
- Start date
I think the same thing too. I don't think Europe would have a Laureate in the next two years. I think Asia (Salim Barakat, Ogawa, Xue) or Latin America would get it.
Papageno
Well-known member
I agree! Certainly, Annie Ernaux is a "political" writer in a sense that many, if not most, great writers are political, but I don't think that the Nobel committee has awarded her because how timely her politics are (I somehow find that the word "timely" is the name-of-the-game in the North American context, with critics obsessing over how timely one award or the other is), but because she would be timely last decade, and will be timely many years (les Années...!) from now as well... The Nobel committee is thinking "permanently relevant" rather than simply "timely."
HaveOneOnMe
Reader
I agree...but that's just it. Americans on Twitter aren't saying, oh, the issues she writes about are of international relevance right now. Look at Iran,look at X, look at Y. No, it's, Roe V Wade. Because that's all they're capable of looking at. Themselves and their country. Everything, no matter what, is a case of "...which brings us back to [US point of discussion]..."
To return to the original stipulation of Nobel's will, emphasis mine:
We don't know how they apply their interpretation of this alongside the usual "work in an ideal direction", so maybe alongside the usual lifetime achievement view of the award, they have, in their restructuring of the prize, went back to basics in considering the issues of the last year.
I've not bothered with Glück as I struggle with poetry, but I see the word 'individual in her citation, coming during a lockdown year, Gurnah in a year of hugely reported migration, and now Ernaux in a time where women's rights are at stake (US, Iran, etc).
Who knows. But maybe in 2023, when speculating, we can look to events of the year to help point to a winner whose life work circles those general concerns.
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Why? Tokarczuk and Handke won just after Ishiguro. Three European laureates in a row.
lucasdiniz
Reader
Latin America really needs one!
Ben Jackson
Well-known member
In accordance with what you said Stewart, I once stated in the Speculation Thread of how Olsson mentioned Gurnah as a writer whose work touches on what is happening in the world today: migration, experiences of refugees, and all that jazz. Now with Ernaux, her works address collective memory of women: abortion, adultery and extra-marital affairs, and the woman experiencing tremendous changes in society. I would say the female experience she draws up in her works might remind one of Doris Lessing, who was referred to as "epicist of female experience who beings divided civilization into scrutiny, " though I don't know if any of Lessing's work addressed abortion, as I've read only Golden Notebook.
So yeah, agree with your views 100% Stewart.
Seelig
Active member
Well, US culture is not the world culture, but constantly wants to be so, and North Americans tends to see themselves as the center. This is exactly the nerve: the debate is wider, the points of view multiple… individual voices and experiences (Ernaux) are relevant to stress that. “The center cannot hold”.
Ben Jackson
Well-known member
Yea, that's true, but we aren't going to call Ishiguro a European per say. Let us just say he's half Japanese and half British.
But his writing is mostly European (in topics, style etc.). And he writes in an European language.
namelesshere
Reader
Morbid Swither
Well-known member
Well, it was wonderful going on this journey with all of you! All I can say is Ernaux was my number one choice for 2020, I backed her in 2021, and, this year in the speculations thread, maintained: "In light of recent historical and cultural events, I do believe the importance and value of her work seems even more urgent that last year." Needless to say, I'm elated with this choice, but feeling a bit smug, lol.
Hamishe22
Well-known member
In my experience on the internet, Americans underrate the centrality of their culture in comparison to the reality of the world. Of course, I usually interact with leftists and liberals who try to be egalitarian, so my experience is definitely skewed. I get that you might find this unnerving, but it's just true.
Stevie B
Current Member
Impressive line up! I just have the two in the picture I already posted Cleaned Out and Shame. Unfortunately, I used to have a third, Simple Passion, but I have no idea where that one ended up.
Bartleby
Moderator
I agree that, perhaps, like in the past the Academy has had its different goals (awarding pioneer writers, authors from neglected places etc), they might be thinking of a conjunction of the social picture as a whole with, what's more important, as the SA members point out, the literary merit ("the only thing that matters", Ellen Mattson's words). We can only know what they're truly going for, tho, in 50 years time. But as we can see in the video below, and in the interviews in today's announcement, while they might have in mind social relevance, as it is inevitable, for literature is meant to make connections between people, you cannot write in a bubble, they are not interested in an author's identity or "personality", but the work they've produced.
TL;DR I don't think, by reading and hearing their own words, the SA is going for a reactionary approach here...
Unfortunately, it’s not just Americans. A considerable part of the world still continues to make American culture and politics or their relationship to American culture and politics the lens through which their own culture and politics are seen. In the Philippines, for example, a significant number of people are so well-versed in American politics, culture, economics, values, and that is the extent of their broader, “global” knowledge. The only instances wherein non-American erudition infiltrates people’s consciousness is by way of food or popular culture: Korean or Japanese pop culture and various cuisines.
Personally, I find it quite liberating and enriching to constantly re-orient myself towards cultures other than the American hegemony, particularly those in Asia. It also helps that I have other languages to latch onto, since relying too much on English usually means one is inevitably forced into the bubble of the American way of life and thinking.
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Patrick Murtha
Reader
Hey, I’m a…citizen of the United States of America (is that the acceptable descriptor?)…and I couldn’t agree more with what you say here. Of course, I live outside my own country by choice…
Patrick Murtha
Reader
You absolutely nail it here on “timely”. “Controversial” is another one. If those words can’t be applied, the US media is not going to be very interested. Look at Glück, she was an American laureate and the US media was like “So, what else have you got?”
Benny Profane
Well-known member
Clinic acuity? ?