The 2023 Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded on Thursday to Norwegian playwright Jon Fosse, whose plays are among the most performed in the world.
The Swedish Academy recognized the 64-year-old writer “for his innovative plays and prose that gave voice to the unspeakable,” citing Septologists, a seven-chapter, three-volume novel. So far only the first volume has been translated into French under the title L’autre nom; the other two are to follow in the coming years.
Born on September 29, 1959 in Haugesund, Norway, Jon Fosse is a jack of all trades who is not easily accessible to the general public. A novelist, poet and children’s book author, he is one of the living playwrights whose plays are among the most performed in the world.
“I was surprised when they called, but at the same time not too much,” he reacted to Norwegian public broadcaster NRK.
“I have been cautiously preparing for the last decade that this could happen. But believe me, I didn’t expect to get the prize today, even if there was a chance,” he said on the phone.
Since his name had been circulating in literary circles for around ten years, his Norwegian publisher Samlaget had prepared a press release before the Nobel Prize was announced.
“I am overwhelmed and grateful,” said Jon Fosse. “I see this as an award for literature that wants to be literature above all, without any consideration.”
When he heard the news on Thursday, “he drove in the countryside towards the fjord north of Bergen in Norway,” said Swedish Academy permanent secretary Mats Malm.
Fosse gained recognition as a playwright on the European stage with his 1996 play “Someone Will Come,” staged by Claude Régy in Paris in 1999. His novel The Boathouse (1989) brought him critical acclaim.
“Immense work”
He grew up in a pietistic environment with a Quaker grandfather who was both a pacifist and a leftist. A pietism that the young Jon Fosse turned away from, preferring to call himself an atheist and play guitar in the group Rocking Chair, before finally converting to the Catholic faith late in life, in 2013.
After studying literature, he made his debut in 1983 with Rouge, Noir, a novel in which a young man settles scores with Pietism, a Protestant movement that emphasizes personal piety. The style, characterized by numerous projections over time and changing points of view, becomes his trademark.
“His tremendous work, written in Nynorsk [l’une des formes écrites de la langue norvégienne] “The film encompasses a variety of genres and includes a variety of plays, novels, poetry collections, essays, children’s books and translations,” appreciated the jury. Nynorsk or “New Norwegian” is an official language, but is a minority language in Norway. It is spoken by around 10% of the population. It was founded in the 19th century and is based on rural dialects.
Like his famous predecessor in Nynorsk literature, Tarjei Vessas, Fosse combines strong local ties, both linguistic and geographical, with modernist artistic techniques, according to the jury.
“It’s his ability to evoke something […] “The loss of orientation and the way in which it can paradoxically provide access to a deeper experience close to divinity shows that Fosse is considered an innovator,” said Anders Olsson, President of the Nobel Committee for Literature.
He frees himself from the classical rules, ignores the action reduced to a strict minimum and uses a simple and reduced language in which the key to understanding lies in the rhythm, the musicality and the pauses.
His work, reminiscent of that of Nobel laureate Samuel Beckett, whom he greatly admires, shares the pessimistic vision of his predecessors, including Thomas Bernhard and Georg Trakl, according to Jon Fosse’s biography published by the academy. Without sinking into nihilism.
“There is great warmth and great humor in his work,” the academy states. “And his powerful images of human experience are characterized by a naive vulnerability.”
Septologian, his latest masterpiece, which brought even more attention to his work from the Nobel Committee, uses a man’s encounter with another version of himself to raise existential questions with, as always, economical and unpredictable punctuation.
The last time a Norwegian was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature was in 1928, when writer Sigrid Undset won it. Jon Fosse is the fourth Norwegian to receive the prestigious award.
Last year the prize went to Annie Ernaux, the French author of a work that tells the emancipation of a woman of humble origins who became a feminist icon.