The Nobel Prize in Literature

[nagisa]

were you there? I missed her lecture " The symbolic economy of the Nobel Prize and its role in the making of World Literature". I only watched her make a question about meritocracy or something later on to another lecturer.

I was, it was a rather interesting Bourdieusian analysis of how the symbolic capital of the prize is turned into economic capital by publishing houses and editors, mostly in developed countries, on a backdrop of a statistic analysis of where authors come from, what language they write in, and to what publishing houses they attach themselves to (or are transferred to after their death); and with a macro view of how the prize generates (for better or worse) a "world literature" with all the problems of ranking it that we know. Not entirely revolutionary, but interesting.
(An interesting tidbit: the Academy determined from the very beginning that a certain geographic "circulation" was necessary: after Prudhomme, the prize could not go right away to another French person...)

The later three talks were a bit less interesting (to us forum-users anyway; we've danced around these topics for years after all), and I actually slipped into a nap ?

 

[Leseratte]

All Nobel prize announcement dates for 2021:

Prize announcement dates

Prize announcement dates

www.nobelprize.org

 

[redhead]

Thursday 7 October, 13:00 CEST at the earliest

Looks like the Nobel Foundation let the SA off that shortened leash and is now letting them push back the award date if they want to?

 

[Bartleby]

perhaps the "at the earliest" refers to the time alone?
this date had been announced some time ago, I've even written it on my calendar. hope they don't change it to a later one.

 

[Bartleby]

From the recent symposium about the Nobel Prize in Literature, they've posted the final talk, with Anders Olsson (in German but with EN subtitles):

 

[Marba]

Not the literature prize, but the Nobel Peace Prize was also awarded to the written word as Filipino journalist Maria Ressa and Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov were awarded "for their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace. ".

 

[Uemarasan]

Not the literature prize, but the Nobel Peace Prize was also awarded to the written word as Filipino journalist Maria Ressa and Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov were awarded "for their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace. ".

Completely unexpected here. It’s a wonderful gift. Especially given the state of democracy and press freedom in this forgotten corner of the world.

 

[Bartleby]

The Pernambuco Academy of Letters will nominate a candidate for the most prestigious literary prize in the world: the Nobel Prize for Literature. The president of the house, Lourival Holanda, received an invitation from the Swedish Academy of Letters (ASL), responsible for choosing the winner of the award.

The immortal is part of a team of representatives of literature academies around the world and will not spoil his nomination. “Nor could it. The nominations must be kept in absolute secrecy”, he shares. The award ceremony takes place on December 10, in Stockholm, Sweden.

At least this Academy is doing it right... I hope their selection is a good one, although I can't think of a live Brazilian writer who could fit the bill...

Academia Pernambucana de Letras vai indicar Prêmio Nobel - Roberta Jungmann

A cerimônia de entrega do título ocorre em 10 de dezembro, em Estocolmo, na Suécia

robertajungmann.com.br

 

[Leseratte]

At least this Academy is doing it right... I hope their selection is a good one, although I can't think of a live Brazilian writer who could fit the bill...

Academia Pernambucana de Letras vai indicar Prêmio Nobel - Roberta Jungmann

A cerimônia de entrega do título ocorre em 10 de dezembro, em Estocolmo, na Suécia

robertajungmann.com.br

That's good news. I never even heard about The Pernambucan Academy. Let's hope there will be a fair choice without any lobbies or interferences.

 

[Benny Profane]

That's good news. I never even heard about The Pernambucan Academy. Let's hope there will be a fair choice without any lobbies or interferences.

I'd like to know who they will nominate and I'm still curious about it.
Would be Marcelino Freire (a prospective author) or Adélia Prado (a consecrated author)?
If Milton Hatoum taking himself seriously, he would be our candidate.
PS: Don't forget that pernambucanos are parochial.

 

[Leseratte]

I would hope for Lygia Fagundes Telles to be chosen. She is sort of our Alice Munro. And in 2023 she will be 100.
But Marcelino Freire and Milton Hatoun are strong candidates too, because of the uptodateness of their fiction.
Time to look for Pernambuco's literacy:

Cidade literária: descubra Recife a partir de seus livros

A capital pernambucana oferece diversas experiências que aproximam seus habitantes da literatura

super.abril.com.br

 

[DouglasM]

The frontrunner would probably be Adélia Prado, but I wouldn't be surprised to see a nomination for Chico Buarque (for his lyrics, not his novels), Milton Hatoum or Nélida Piñon - even Alberto Mussa or Bernardo Carvalho. This will be interesting.

 

[Benny Profane]

The frontrunner would probably be Adélia Prado, but I wouldn't be surprised to see a nomination for Chico Buarque (for his lyrics, not his novels), Milton Hatoum or Nélida Piñon - even Alberto Mussa or Bernardo Carvalho. This will be interesting.

I find Cristóvão Tezza is a good prospect too. But, as pernambucanos are parochial, Tezza wouldn't be a real name.
Chico Buarque, in my opinion, would be a nominated because he is a noble-pernambucano heritage.
Bernardo Carvalho is a good choice, but he is from São Paulo/Rio de Janeiro area.
Lygia Fagundes Telles? No way! She is 98 years old (99 years in April)!
Nélida Piñon? Yes!!! But she is 84 years old!
Alberto Mussa only wrote a good number of books! A serious contender.

And I wouldn't be surprised if Jarid Arraes was nominated.

I hope they don't spoil ammo for nothing.

 

[Leseratte]

One thing we can´t forget, guys. The academy isn´t going to read these authors in the original. Do you know if all of them were translated into English?

 

[DouglasM]

Alberto Mussa only wrote 5 books! This is too little for a candidate!

Actually he has at least a dozen published works among novels, short stories and non-fiction - mostly essays and studies on mythlogy, like the recently published A origem da espécie, in which he analyzes the presence of the mythical theft of fire in many cultures across all continents and ages. Besides, the fact that many of Mussa's books have been translated into other languages certainly helps him.

He wouldn't be on my list of priorities, though.

 

[Benny Profane]

Actually he has at least a dozen published works among novels, short stories and non-fiction - mostly essays and studies on mythlogy, like the recently published A origem da espécie, in which he analyzes the presence of the mythical theft of fire in many cultures across all continents and ages. Besides, the fact that many of Mussa's books have been translated into other languages certainly helps him.

He wouldn't be on my list of priorities, though.

You're right, Douglas! I fixed it.
Mussa published 12 books and a lot of separated short stories.

 

[Benny Profane]

One thing we can´t forget, guys. The academy isn´t going to read these authors in the original. Do you know if all of them were translated into English?

All of them.

 

[Morbid Swither]

Actually he has at least a dozen published works among novels, short stories and non-fiction - mostly essays and studies on mythlogy, like the recently published A origem da espécie, in which he analyzes the presence of the mythical theft of fire in many cultures across all continents and ages. Besides, the fact that many of Mussa's books have been translated into other languages certainly helps him.

He wouldn't be on my list of priorities, though.

I have not heard of Alberto Mussa, but the work of mythical fire-thefts sounds really interesting. My modest shelf dedicated to Brazilian literature has really grown since joining this forum. Currently reading The Sun on My Head (stories) and acquired The Girl In the Photograph as well as the Oxford Anthology of the Brazilian Short Story, which, maybe disappointingly, has a disproportionate amount of stories from Machado de Assis and Clarice Lispector, authors whom I already have their respective collected stories in fine translations to English.

 

[MichaelHW]

The overall percentage of Nobel prize laureates from Latin America is closer to 5%.
For the last 20 years the ratio is also 5% (Vargas Llosa being the sole Latin American winner).

However, this is not a fair assessment. How many Latin American writers were being considered during the last 20 years that deserved the prize as much as the actual laureates from that time period?

Another argument I don't wholly buy is that because a lot fewer women were nominated than men it means that fewer women should win. The Nobel prize is not a raffle in which all the nominated writers' names are placed in a bag and one name is pulled out at random to be the winner. As a joking example, suppose you have to choose a prize for best play and the candidates are Hamlet by Shakespeare and the best 99 plays written as homework by 8th graders from Topeka, Kansas during the year 2003. Does Hamlet have a 1% chance of winning?

In short, since 1965 or so (see below why I chose that date) in any year that one female nominee was of similar merit as the eventual male winner there was a willfully made choice to continue to enforce the biased status quo.

For reference, the 20 year period from 1926 to 1945 had a ratio of over 25% female winners. For the next 20 years, 1946 to 1965 there wasn't a single female winner. And for the 20 years after that, 1966 to 1985, there was ONE year in which a female writer won the prize (and she had to share it with a male writer). There were 4 female laureates between 1986 and 2005; however one academy member quit when the prize went to the last female winner of that period.

The last 20 year period from this chronology (2006 to 2025) is only three quarters in and there have already been six female winners. This is also a willfully chosen situation.

You are being unfair when it comes to female winners in the period BEFORE the 60s, the women's movement, the sexual revolution etc. Back then every institution was a boys only club, with a few exceptions. The only relevant argument is whether there is a long term trend in the right direction. There is one, but it is inadequate At least there have been Undset, Lagerløf, Lessing, Nadine Gordimer etc etc. At one point I think the pendulum will swing very strongly in favor of women, simply because they seem to be doing all the reading?

 

[JCamilo]

The same argument can be used to dismiss latin-american writers, you can have some grade school writer facing hamlet only because his name is José Carlos?

The nature of a prize that selects 1 in several around the world is to exclude people, not include, but we can easy spot prejudice bias, not because they are inherent to the nobel, but because they have historical bias. And yeah, north Hemisphere does have a prejudice against Africa and Latin America. We know why. And they also do against women, we know why. Portuguesa language? Check, the whole idea of civlization is born from the concept Portugual was inept, stupid to keep hold of the largest empire ever seen until then. Sort like, a left-over of Dark Ages. So, Portuguese culture is dismissed, not part of the Italian-french power.

And things are not better when we consider great writers can be hyper-flawed or a product of the political views of their time, but fact is, it is never bad when the ideal being pushed is to include a group that is cast out for a prejudice we know it exists. A handful of guys will probally miss their apotheosis to some girl because of this attempt to adjust? We can live with that. A handful of girls would keep missing their apotheosis to some guys because we would keep repeating some backyards prejudice? Nah, that is what is hard to live by.