Lit prize panel should look further afield

A writer in a minor European language is visible to it; so should writers world over be.

The award of the Nobel Prize in Literature to Norwegian author Jon Fosse may not have come as a surprise, as in the case of American poet Louise Gluck, who won the prize in 2020. Fosse’s name has been discussed as a potential winner in the past, though he was not a hot contender on the informal shortlists that appear in the run-up to the announcement of the prize. Fosse’s credentials for the prize may not be in doubt. In fact, no writer who gets the prize can be considered as not deserving it, except in the rare years when other considerations may have got the better of literary judgement. The surprise usually consists in the fact of many writers who may better deserve the prize not getting it. So, there are often doubts whether the winner is “the person who shall have produced in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction”, as Alfred Nobel wanted. 

The Nobel Committee awarded the prize to Fosse “for his innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable”. In his huge oeuvre, spanning a variety of genres, including plays, novels and poetry, he “blends a rootedness in the language and nature of his Norwegian background with artistic techniques in the wake of modernism,” according to the citation. He writes in Nynorsk or New Norwegian, a minority language in Norway. To gain the world’s attention while writing in a minor language is not easy, and the writer has to be outstanding. Fosse is versatile, his themes, style and perspectives are strikingly original, and he explores the mystery of the human condition, plumbing the depths of silence for meaning. He has been described as a modern Ibsen. 

But the odds before the announcement had favoured Chinese author Can Xue, Japanese Haruki Murakami, and Salman Rushdie, among some others, to win the prize. Can Xue had led the list. These writers and others, such as Kenya’s Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, have been perpetual favourites. But most prizes have gone to European or American writers. Of the 117 prize winners to date, 75 were Europeans. There were 15 from America. Most winners wrote in English, French or German. There has been only one each from India and China. Only 17 women have won it. Literary judgement is subjective and is influenced by personal taste, cultural factors, etc. It is claimed that there are procedural issues also with nominations. But these cannot fully explain the exclusion of most of the world from its top literary prize. There cannot be proportional representation in literary awards, but prizes should not invite persistent questions about fairness and commitment to the best standards.