What do modern Nobel laureates in literature write about?

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

The Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded for 120 years. Over the years, it was awarded to Rudyard Kipling, Heinrich Senkevich, Rabindranath Tagore, Romain Rolland and many others, including our compatriots. The subject matter of the works changed from year to year, as the formulations of the reasons why writers and poets were awarded such a significant prize in the literary world changed.

What are the winners of the Nobel Prize in Literature writing about in recent years?

Mario Vargas Llosa, 2010

The works of the Peruvian prose writer and playwright are based on a protest against total injustice in society. Mario Vargas Llosa creates truly unique novels, novellas, plays and short stories in which the plot balances on the edge of reality and fiction. Here, each creation is distinguished by its special dynamics and, despite the bright political background, remains, first of all, an interesting literary work.

Tumas Tranströmer, 2011

The greatest Swedish poet of the 20th century wrote only 12 books of poetry and prose, which have been translated into 50 languages of the world. His poems are distinguished by incredible accuracy and brevity of formulation, but each line in them is filled with the deepest and voluminous meaning. In them, the poet touched, it seems, all spheres of life. They are about love and nature, about music and the subtleties of the human soul, about the universe in general and about his own view of the world in particular.

Mo Yan, 2012

The contemporary Chinese writer has won an award for "mind-blowing realism that combines folk tales with modernity." He easily mixes myths and legends with reality, but at the same time generously spices them with irony, paying special attention to human vices, studying the nature of cruelty and violence.

Alice Munro, 2013

The Canadian writer writes exclusively stories, and their action takes place most often in the countryside. Western critics call Alice Munroe as much a master of small forms as Anton Chekhov or James Joyce. But some Russian literary critics disagree with this, because they consider her works less vivid and imaginative. She writes about ordinary people, so her characters are very close, and their experiences are understandable to everyone.

Patrick Modiano, 2014

The works of the French writer and screenwriter are unique in that almost all of them are autobiographical or related to the occupation of France during the Second World War. Patrick Modiano is not trying to reconstruct the past, he seems to be exploring time and human destinies in the context of history.

Svetlana Aleksievich, 2015

The Belarusian writer writes about the past, using interviews with eyewitnesses of historical events or their relatives to create her works. She works in the genre of non-fiction. True, a few years ago the book “The Wonderful Deer of the Eternal Hunt” was published, which, for the most part, is not about history, but about love in its various manifestations.

Bob Dylan, 2016

The American author and performer was awarded such a high award not for individual literary works or poems, but for his songwriting. The images created by Bob Dylan were considered worthy of the Nobel Prize by critics, especially since his literary talent is undeniable, and the seriousness of the topics discussed is quite comparable to high poetry. He sings about life and about the processes taking place in society, sneers at politics and glorifies freedom, speaks of love and fills every line with the deepest meaning.

Kazuo Ishiguro, 2017

The Japanese-born British author has become one of the most popular and widely read contemporary writers today. In his works, he raises the issues of cultural adaptation and loneliness of a member of society who came from outside. He connects Eastern and Western cultures and explores time while wandering in the past.

Olga Navoya Tokarchuk, 2018

She writes poetry and prose, creates voluminous images, speaks in her works about the most important things, easily mixes real events with magical elements and tries to lift the veil of secrecy over the future. Olga Tokarchuk experiments with genres, combines historical prose with a detective story, divides the world into masculine and feminine, and tells each story with the smallest detail, making the reader feel completely immersed in the atmosphere and circumstances of the work.

Peter Handke, 2019

For a number of his harsh statements and judgments, the Austrian writer and playwright was called an ideological monster and criticized for the lack of intrigue and a fascinating plot in his works. But this did not stop him from becoming the owner of the Nobel Prize, which he was awarded for "influential work and linguistic ingenuity." By the way, Peter Handke himself believes that in his works the plot is a completely optional component, because he has words with which he can masterfully juggle, forcing the reader to watch the game incessantly.

Louise Gluck, 2020

American poet and essayist won the Unmistakable Poetic Voice Award. She writes about tenderness and love, is inspired by her own life and the surrounding reality, clothe Greek myths in rhyme, speaks about childhood and family, raises the eternal theme of fathers and children, raises philosophical questions and invites readers to try to find the right answers with her.