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The Swedish Academy awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature to Norwegian playwright Jon Fosse on Thursday, October 5, highlighting his unparalleled contributions as a playwright whose works hold the distinction of being among the most frequently performed in Europe. The Academy decorated Jon Fosse “for his innovative plays and prose, which give voice to the unsayable.”
Awarded the esteemed Nobel Prize in Literature, Jon Fosse’s remarkable oeuvre encapsulates a universe where silence often speaks louder than words.
In the realm of contemporary European theater, few names resonate with the profundity and subtlety of Jon Fosse, the Norwegian playwright celebrated for his minimalistic style, reminiscent of the legendary Samuel Beckett.
Defining his work more by its form than content, the writer masterfully crafts an atmosphere where the unsaid eclipses the said. His artistry thrives on minimalistic aesthetics, utilizing straightforward language that communicates profundities through rhythm, cadence, and the power of silence.
Often paralleled to Beckett, Fosse’s significant contributions to literature include the critically acclaimed Boathouse (1989) and the two-part series Melancholy I and II (1995–1996). His reputation as a Nobel contender had been brewing in literary circles for several years.
The jury elucidated, “His immense oeuvre written in Norwegian Nynorsk (one of Norway’s written forms of languages) and spanning a variety of genres consists of a wealth of plays, novels, poetry collections, essays, children’s books, and translations.”
With the increasing global performances of his plays, Fosse has also been gaining recognition for his prose. The Nobel accolade comes with an honorarium of approximately $1 million.
The previous year witnessed the French feminist luminary Annie Ernaux receiving the award, celebrated for her nuanced novels on class and gender.
The official presentation of the Nobel Prize to Fosse will take place in Stockholm on December 10, presided over by King Carl XVI Gustaf, commemorating the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s passing in 1896.
Emerging from the fjords of western Norway, Jon Fosse’s literary journey has been an odyssey from strict Lutheranism through atheism to his eventual conversion to Catholicism in 2013. He made a remarkable debut with Red, Black in 1983, a novel renowned for its intricate temporal shifts and perspectives. His monumental Septology, a semi-autobiographical tour de force, spans across three volumes, narrating the encounter of a man with his alternate self, devoid of a single full stop.
Jon Fosse once stated in an interview, “It was the first time I had ever tried my hand at this kind of work, and it was the biggest surprise of my life as a writer. I knew, I felt, that this kind of writing was made for me.” His acclaim grew with plays such as Someone is Going to Come and And We’ll Never Be Parted. His works, translated into approximately 50 languages, showcase characters whose dialogues, though sparse, evoke profound meanings, reminiscent of an ever-evolving melody.
“You don’t read my books for the plots,” Jon Fosse also stated in a 2018 interview. The central theme of his works, as he divulged to the French newspaper Le Monde in 2003, revolves around capturing humanity, emphasizing the importance of the unsaid over the said.
In Norway, Jon Fosse’s genius stands unparalleled. Although occasionally likened to Norway’s national playwright, Henrik Ibsen, a closer comparison would perhaps be Samuel Beckett, an author Jon Fosse admires, even once describing him as “a painter for the theater rather than an actual author”.
With AFP.
