Nobel Prize in Literature: Norwegian author Jon Fosse wins for giving 'voice to the unsayable'

The prize is awarded by the Swedish Academy and is worth 11 million Swedish crowns (about $1 million). A report by Reuters citing Fosse’s publisher said that his work has been translated into more than 40 languages, and there have been more than 1,000 different productions of his plays.

About Fosse’s work

The laureate in literature was born in 1959 in Haugesund on the Norwegian west coast, according to the Swedish Academy and his “immense œuvre is written in Norwegian Nynorsk and spans a variety of genres consisting of plays, novels, poetry collections, essays, children’s books and translations.”

The award-giving body also said that the Norwegian author is one of the most widely performed playwrights in the world and has become “increasingly recognised for his prose,” and noted that irrespective of the genre, the “human condition” has always been a central theme of Fosse’s body of work.

The 64-year-old’s work also has much in common with his great precursor in Norwegian Nynorsk literature, Tarjei Vesaas.

The Nobel laureate’s European breakthrough as a dramatist came with Claude Régy’s 1999 Paris production of his 1996 play ‘Nokon kjem til å komme’ (Someone Is Going to Come).

Fosse’s greatest achievement as a writer in prose which was described by Anders Olsson, chair of the Nobel literature committee, as “magnum opus” was “A New Name: Septology VI-VII”.

The Swedish academy has also noted that while Fosse “shares the negative outlook of his predecessors his gnostic vision cannot be said to result in a nihilistic contempt of the world.”

It added, “Indeed, there is great warmth and humour in his work, and a naïve vulnerability to his stark images of human experience.”

The Nobel prize body also noted that Fosse writes novels heavily pared down to a style that has come to be known as ‘Fosse minimalism,’ an example of which was seen in his second novel ‘Stengd gitar’ (1985) where he presents everyday situations that are instantly recognisable from our own lives.

'New Norwegian'

“Fosse blends a rootedness in the language and nature of his Norwegian background, with artistic techniques in the wake of modernism,” said Olsson.

He also combines strong local ties, both linguistic and geographic, with modernist artistic techniques, the Swedish academy has said.

Fosse writes in a language known as “new Norwegian” which is said to be the least common of the two official versions of Norwegian which is only used by 10 per cent of the country’s population.

While speaking to Reuters, the 64-year-old said that he regarded the award as a recognition of this language and the movement promoting it and he ultimately owed the prize to the language itself.

Notably, the version of the language that Fosse uses was developed in the 19th century with rural dialects at its base, according to Reuters.

‘Overwhelmed and somewhat frightened’

“I am overwhelmed, and somewhat frightened,” Fosse told Reuters, in a statement. “I see this as an award to the literature that first and foremost aims to be literature, without other considerations,” he added.

“I was surprised when they called, yet at the same time not. I have cautiously prepared myself for the possibility that this could happen in the past 10 years,” Fosse told Norwegian public broadcaster NRK.

“It was a great joy for me to get the phone call,” he added.

(With inputs from agencies)

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