Jon Fosse has been given the 2023 Nobel Prize in Literature for “his innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable,” the Swedish Academy said on Thursday in Stockholm.
Fosse, 64, was born on Norway’s west coast. Around 40 plays make up his work, including numerous novels, poems, essays, children’s books, and translations. The committee praised the author’s aesthetic, which has become known as “Fosse minimalism.”
Fosse presents everyday situations that are instantly recognizable in our own lives. His radical reduction of language and dramatic action expresses the most powerful human emotions of anxiety and powerlessness in the simplest terms,” the committee said.
Fosse, seen as a long-time contender for the prize and among this year’s favourites in the betting odds, said he was “overwhelmed and somewhat frightened” by the award.
“I see this as an award to the literature that first and foremost aims to be literature, without other considerations,” he said in a statement.
Jon Fosse- An Introduction
Jon Fosse, who was born in 1959 on the west coast of Norway, is one of the most well-known and frequently performed playwrights. His writing includes plays, novels, poetry collections, essays, children’s books, and translations, among other genres. Since the 1983 publication of his first book, “Raudt’, svart” (Red, Black), his works have been translated into more than 40 other languages.
In 1994, “Og aldri skal vi skiljast” (And We’ll Never Be Parted), Fosse’s first play, was performed and published. His other published works include novels, short tales, poems, children’s books, essays, and plays.
His most famous work, “Septology,” a collection of seven works, tells the tale of an elderly painter who is a widower and lives alone as he struggles to come to terms with the reality of religion, identity, art, and family life.
The 800-page book “Septology” has received appreciation for its formal innovation. Periods and other types of punctuation are rarely used in Fosse’s reflective style, which gives his philosophical interrogation an incantatory flow.
Nobel Prize 2023
The fourth prize to be given this week is the Nobel Prize in Literature. The recipients of the 2023 Chemistry Nobel Prize are Moungi G. Bawendi, Louis E. Brus, and Alexei I. Ekimov.
Prior to that, the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Frenchman Pierre Agostini, Hungarian-Austrian Ferenc Krausz, and Franco-Swedish Anne L’Huillier. On Monday and Tuesday, Hungarian scientist Katalin Kariko and her American colleague Drew Weissman received the Nobel Prize in Medicine.
