" Overwhelmed and grateful " Jon Fosse won the 2023 Nobel Prize in Literature. The Norwegian author " for his innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable" has produced a wide variety of works. Spanning a variety of genres, the 64-year-old has written plays, poetry collections, essays children's books and translations.
Born in 1959 in Haugesund on Norway's west coast, Fosse writes in Norwegian Nynorsk: one of the two languages, the other being Bokmal. Sharing much in common with his great precursor in Norwegian Nysork literature Tarjei Vesaas, the author combines strong local color with modernist artistic techniques.
WORKS
Since his 1983 Fiction debut, Fosse has written prose, poetry, essays, short stories, children's books, and over 40 plays, with more than a thousand productions performed and translated into 50 languages. He made his name as a novelist with ' Red, Black' in 1983. Fosse's breakthrough as a dramatist came with the 1999 production of his play ' Nokon kjem til a komme' ('Someone is Going to Come '(2002). He went on to win international acclaim for his next play, 'And We'll Never be Parted' in 1994. Today, he is one of the most widely performed playwrights in the world. His work ' A New Name: Septology VI-VII' was a finalist for the International Booker Prize in 2022. He is often compared with Norway's national playwright Henrick Ibsen, and in 2010 won the International Ibsen Award, one of the theatre world's most prestigious prizes.
FOSSE MINIMALISM
Fosse's style of writing novels has come to be known as ' Fosse's Minimalism'. This is so because he presents everyday situations instantly recognisable from our lives. ' Stengd gitar' (1985) is one such example. He has cited Irish writer Samuel Beckett, the 1969 Nobel Laureate as an influence on his minimalist style. He describes him as his icon, calling him ' a painter for the theatre rather than an actual author'. He delivers his message in silence. His characters don't talk much and what they say is often repetitive. The words are hanging in the air often without punctuation.
Fosse's latest novel, ' A Shining', will be published in English. Translated by Damion Searls, who also translated ' Septology', it will be published on October 31. It is only 75 pages long, made up of short, simple sentences. Somehow, it is a rewriting of Dante's 'Divine Comedy' told in First Person.
SOME FACTS:
1) The Nobel Prize in Literature 2022 was awarded to Annie Ernaux.
2) Previous Nobel Laureates include Toni Morrison, Kazuo Ishiguro and Rabindranath Tagore. The youngest Nobel Laureate was Rudyard Kipling, who was 41 years old when he was awarded in 1907.
3) Bjornstjerne Bjornson received the prize in 1903, Knut Hamsun was awarded it in 1920 and Sigrid Undset in 1928. It has been 95 years since the last time a Norwegian author received the Nobel Prize for literature.
4) The Nobel Prize carries a cash prize of 11 million Swedish kronor left by its creator, Alfred Nobel.
5) Fosse's latest book, ' Septology', a semi-autobiographical magnum opus runs to 1,250 pages without a single full stop.