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Reflections on the puddle of life

Nobel or not nobel, is that the question?

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by
TheFifthElement
, 01-13-2009 at 05:02 AM (1366 Views)
I've often wondered about prizes, accolades in literature; how it is decided when a writer or artist has done enough to distinguish themselves as a cut above their peers. To me literature is subjective, and it often troubles me when I read in threads comments like 'I'd like to have a serious discussion so lets make an effort not to mention Harry Potter', and the ease with which some people dismiss other peoples' preferences as sub-standard. But at the same time I'm working towards being a writer and I want to write to the best of my ability. This places me between two camps. For one, I think reading any and all literature can teach us something, but on the other hand if you want to learn to be the best, it pays to learn from the best. Hmm.

So I thought I'd start at the top, the pinnacle of pinnacles, the Nobel Prize for literature, and select a number of Nobel prize winners to add to my (ok, already extensive) reading list for this year. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I'd already read a number of them (highlighted in bold on the list), and I've selected a few to add to my list this year (highlighted in blue - some of them were on my list anyway).

2008 - Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio
2007 - Doris Lessing
2006 - Orhan Pamuk
2005 - Harold Pinter
2004 - Elfriede Jelinek
2003 - J. M. Coetzee
2002 - Imre Kertész
2001 - V. S. Naipaul
2000 - Gao Xingjian
1999 - Günter Grass
1998 - José Saramago
1997 - Dario Fo
1996 - Wislawa Szymborska
1995 - Seamus Heaney
1994 - Kenzaburo Oe
1993 - Toni Morrison
1992 - Derek Walcott
1991 - Nadine Gordimer
1990 - Octavio Paz
1989 - Camilo José Cela
1988 - Naguib Mahfouz
1987 - Joseph Brodsky
1986 - Wole Soyinka
1985 - Claude Simon
1984 - Jaroslav Seifert
1983 - William Golding
1982 - Gabriel García Márquez
1981 - Elias Canetti
1980 - Czeslaw Milosz
1979 - Odysseus Elytis
1978 - Isaac Bashevis Singer
1977 - Vicente Aleixandre
1976 - Saul Bellow
1975 - Eugenio Montale
1974 - Eyvind Johnson, Harry Martinson
1973 - Patrick White
1972 - Heinrich Böll
1971 - Pablo Neruda
1970 - Alexandr Solzhenitsyn
1969 - Samuel Beckett
1968 - Yasunari Kawabata
1967 - Miguel Angel Asturias
1966 - Shmuel Agnon, Nelly Sachs
1965 - Mikhail Sholokhov
1964 - Jean-Paul Sartre
1963 - Giorgos Seferis
1962 - John Steinbeck
1961 - Ivo Andric
1960 - Saint-John Perse
1959 - Salvatore Quasimodo
1958 - Boris Pasternak
1957 - Albert Camus
1956 - Juan Ramón Jiménez
1955 - Halldór Laxness
1954 - Ernest Hemingway
1953 - Winston Churchill
1952 - François Mauriac
1951 - Pär Lagerkvist
1950 - Bertrand Russell
1949 - William Faulkner
1948 - T.S. Eliot
1947 - André Gide
1946 - Hermann Hesse
1945 - Gabriela Mistral
1944 - Johannes V. Jensen
1943 - The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section
1942 - The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section
1941 - The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section
1940 - The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section
1939 - Frans Eemil Sillanpää
1938 - Pearl Buck
1937 - Roger Martin du Gard
1936 - Eugene O'Neill
1935 - The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section
1934 - Luigi Pirandello
1933 - Ivan Bunin
1932 - John Galsworthy
1931 - Erik Axel Karlfeldt
1930 - Sinclair Lewis
1929 - Thomas Mann
1928 - Sigrid Undset
1927 - Henri Bergson
1926 - Grazia Deledda
1925 - George Bernard Shaw
1924 - Wladyslaw Reymont
1923 - William Butler Yeats
1922 - Jacinto Benavente
1921 - Anatole France
1920 - Knut Hamsun
1919 - Carl Spitteler
1918 - The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section
1917 - Karl Gjellerup, Henrik Pontoppidan
1916 - Verner von Heidenstam
1915 - Romain Rolland
1914 - The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section
1913 - Rabindranath Tagore
1912 - Gerhart Hauptmann
1911 - Maurice Maeterlinck
1910 - Paul Heyse
1909 - Selma Lagerlöf
1908 - Rudolf Eucken
1907 - Rudyard Kipling
1906 - Giosuè Carducci
1905 - Henryk Sienkiewicz
1904 - Frédéric Mistral, José Echegaray
1903 - Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson
1902 - Theodor Mommsen
1901 - Sully Prudhomme

I'm currently reading As I Lay Dying by Faulkner which is an interesting read. Of the prize winners I've read Halldor Laxness, Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, Yasunari Kawabata and Bertrand Russell really stood out for me.

Well, that's my provisional list anyway. Anyone have any recommendations?
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Comments

  1. PrinceMyshkin's Avatar
    Yes, I DO have a suggestion: the next book that catches your eye when you are yet again at one or the other of your favourite bookstores, the opening sentence or paragraph of which intrigues you!

    Doris Lessing had interesting things to say in the foreward to a reissue of her The Golden Notebook about how she chooses what to read. When I taught in the Creative Writing Department at UBC one of the prescribed courses was called (if I remember correctly) "Directed Reading," in which a list of the mandatory Biggies was provided and all the students were expected to read those books and discuss them in tutorial or workshop. I fought strenuously to have that course removed as a mandatory one on the grounds that the more wayward our reading, the more diverse our experiences, the more likely we were to turn out to be unique or idiosyncratic or interesting as writers...

    The writer with a native talent learns, I believe, whether he or she sets out to do so or not: she learns from catching sight of that day's headline in the newspaper, from the bumf on the back of cereal boxes, from snatches of conversation overheard here and there...
  2. TheFifthElement's Avatar
    hehehe, that's how J M Coetzee ended up on my list. I read the opening chapter of The Slow Man and wanted to read on. But first I must finish As I Lay Dying, then Man in the Dark and return them before getting even more books on the shelf! Phew!
  3. applepie's Avatar
    I like your idea of where to look for reading material. Not certain why it never crossed my mind to look at even recent prize winners for ideas of new books:) I may have to take a look at some of the writings of authors from the last decade or so.
  4. Virgil's Avatar
    Eh, these literary prizes are way over rated, but I guess they're necessary.
  5. kiz_paws's Avatar
    You made some great points, Fifth!

    As for that list, oh my lawd, would I have a time getting through it! I am glad you posted it, very interesting indeed.
  6. TheFifthElement's Avatar
    It's a long list isn't it kiz! No chance of getting through them all but a good place to pick a selection of authors from. Laxness is excellent, I bet you'd like him.

    Virge, I don't disagree with you. I find it hard to see how the subjective judgement of a body of work can result in these kind of accolades. It's not measurable like science is it? And I bet none of those writers wrote thinking 'I'm going to get a Nobel Prize' but probably they were thinking they wanted to be the best writers they could be, and cared about what they wrote.