Among the laureates of the Nobel Prize for literature, writers from Western countries have always dominated. According to experts contacted by the AFP agency, the organizing Swedish Academy could therefore award the prestigious prize this year to an author who does not come from Europe or North America.
The academy will reveal the name of the winner awarded with a check for 11 million Swedish crowns, roughly 24 million Czech crowns, this Thursday.
For several years now, the avant-garde Chinese writer Chan Süe has been a favorite of literary critics, whose book Dance of the Dark Soul in the Czech translation of František Reismüller was published by the Verzone publishing house. The 71-year-old author is often compared to Franz Kafka for the surreal and gloomy atmosphere that pervades her novels and short stories. He writes experimental prose oscillating between utopia and dystopia. It gives the everyday a surreal touch.
Bookmaker Ladbrokes also ranks Chan Sue among those who have the best chance of winning this year’s Nobel Prize for Literature. The company posted odds of 7:2 for her to win, the highest of all.
According to Ladbrokes, Australian writer Gerald Murnane with odds of 12:1, Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami with odds of 14:1 or Argentinian César Aira, Greek Ersi Sotiropoulos, American Thomas Pynchon or Canadian Margaret Atwood, who can be bet on with odds of 16:1, also have a chance, according to Ladbrokes . Last year, punters also believed Chan Sue the most, but in the end the award went to Norwegian writer Jón Fosse. As of 2015, Ladbrokes predictions for the Nobel Prize in Literature have not come true.
They say it won’t be Rushdie
This year, “the selection of the winner will surprise the cultural elite”, believes Björn Wiman, editor of the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter. It was similar in 2021, when the Academy selected Abdulrazak Gurnah, a British writer born in Zanzibar, Tanzania, or in 2016, when singer-songwriter Bob Dylan succeeded.
Salman Rushdie survived an assassination attempt, but lost an eye. | Photo: Reuters
According to Wiman, the academy likes to resort to the unexpected choice. The editor can imagine that an author from the African continent or Latin America will win this year. “I think it will be a woman from a language area outside of Europe,” he guesses.
He himself would like the academy to honor Salman Rushdie, who became an even stronger symbol of free speech after the failed assassination attempt on him at a literary festival in 2022. Rushdie, who escaped with serious injuries and lost an eye, described the attack in a book this year called The Knife. It will soon be published by Paseka in a Czech translation by Martina Neradová. “However, the Academy would be criticized for choosing a man in the second half of his life,” argues Wiman, as to why, in his opinion, Rushdie will not receive the award.
The Nobel Prize for Literature has been predominantly Eurocentric since the beginning, with men clearly predominating among the winners. Out of a total of 120 laureates, only 17 were women.
According to Carin Franzén, professor of literature at Stockholm University, for example, Chinese literature is very extensive, but this is not reflected in the history of the Nobel Prize. So far, only two Chinese writers have won it, most recently Mo Jen in 2012. From the Arab world, the jury has so far awarded the only writer, the Egyptian novelist Nagíb Mahfouz in 1988.
Bettors have also been giving Haruki Murakami high chances of winning the Nobel Prize for literature for years. | Photo: Reuters
Times are changing
One of the reasons for the uneven representation may be insufficient knowledge of foreign literature on the part of members of the Swedish Academy, believes Victor Malm, head of the culture section of the Swedish newspaper Expressen. Malm believes that this year’s prestigious honor will go to author Jamaica Kincaid from the Caribbean, Antigua, who also has American citizenship.
The Swedish Academy has always consulted literary experts about the selection. From 2021, it systematically applies this approach to languages that its members do not speak, reports the AFP agency. “Of course, it’s not the same as being able to read in the original language,” admits Lina Kalmteg, literary journalist for Swedish Radio SR. According to her, it rarely happens that the academy would consider candidates whose works have not been translated into Swedish.
According to Aftonbladet’s literary critic Rasmus Landström, the considerable Eurocentrism of the prize, which is considered a world standard, is due to the fact that Western culture has historically placed itself above others. “But I think that is no longer the case today,” states the critic.
Johan Hilton from the newspaper Göteborgs-Posten, on the other hand, believes that the academics will choose someone from Central or Eastern Europe this year. But he thinks that it will not be anyone from Russia or a critic of the Kremlin. “That would be politically impenetrable,” he believes.
As every year, the names of other adepts repeatedly appear in the speculation about the possible winner. Among them are the Hungarian László Krasznahorkai, the Romanian postmodernist Mircea Cartarescu, the Kenyan Ngugi wa Thiong’o, the French Michel Houellebecq, the American Don DeLillo or the Canadian poet Anne Carson.
Of the Czech writers, only Jaroslav Seifert received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1984.