STOCKHOLM, Oct 8, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – After several years of scandals and
wildcard picks, the Swedish Academy will on Thursday crown the 2020 Nobel
Literature Prize laureate, with literary experts hedging their bets due to
the unpredictability of the exercise.
Ahead of the announcement due at 1:00 pm (1100 GMT), betting sites like
Ladbrokes and Betsson have French Guadeloupean author Maryse Conde, Canadian
and Russian novelists Margaret Atwood and Lyudmila Ulitskaya, as well as
Japanese writer Haruki Murakami, as the names to beat.
Speculation in Stockholm’s literary circles meanwhile covers a long list
of names, including Caribbean-American author Jamaica Kincaid, Canadian poet
Anne Carson, Kenyan writer Ngugi wa Thiong’o, and Hungary’s Peter Nadas and
Laszlo Krasznahorkai.
The Academy has a history of throwing curve balls with its picks — as in
2016 when it honoured US rock legend Bob Dylan.
Last year’s choice of Austrian novelist Peter Handke also unleashed a
flood of criticism, leaving many wondering how it could award a writer known
for supporting Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic in the Balkan wars and
playing down his army’s atrocities.
That pick was made even more puzzling by the fact that the literary
institution was expected to avoid ruffling any feathers, as it recovered from
a devastating, drawn-out scandal after the husband of one of its members was
jailed for rape.
The scandal, which erupted in 2017 forced it to postpone the 2018 prize —
a first in 70 years.
– Dusted off candidates? –
The Academy defended its choice of Handke as one based solely on literary
merit.
The culture editor of Sweden’s biggest daily Bjorn Wiman called the choice
of Handke “terribly bad”, adding: “If the Academy knows what is good for
them, they’ll choose Jamaica Kincaid” this year.
Writing about themes like colonialism, racism and gender, “her stance on
various moral and political issues are absolutely worth listening to today”,
he told AFP.
However, if last year’s choice is anything to go by, the Academy may also
“dust off some old candidate” from years ago, “the same way they did with
Handke”.
That could include such names as Peter Nadas of Hungary, Albania’s Ismael
Kadare and Romania’s Mircea Cartarescu.
Some of the “usual suspects” for the prize are Joyce Carol Oates and
Marilynne Robinson of the US, Israel’s David Grossman, and South Korean poet
Ko Un.
Lisa Irenius, culture editor for Svenska Dagbladet, and Ida Olmedal,
culture editor for newspaper Sydsvenskan, meanwhile told news agency TT that
Ko Un seemed like the only potentially scandalous name, referring to
allegations of sexual misconduct levied at the poet in the wake of the #MeToo
movement.
– Mysterious ways –
The Swedish Academy often seems to shun bestselling mainstream authors,
opting to shine its spotlight on lesser-known names.
“If you’re sitting on all this prize money to award, and you have all this
attention that you can bestow, then of course you might think… that it’s
more fun to give it to someone who’s not already in the limelight,” Madelaine
Levy, literature critic at Svenska Dagbladet, told AFP.
She agreed Kincaid could be a potential winner, calling her an
“unbelievably musical writer who’s easy to love”.
But at the end of the day, she noted, “almost all countries have some
unbelievably strong writers worthy of a Nobel prize.
“The Academy has surprised everyone many, many times. They work in
mysterious ways,” she concluded.
The Nobel Prize comes with a medal and a prize sum of 10 million Swedish
kronor (about $1.1 million, 950,000 euros).
Normally, winners receive their Nobel from King Carl XVI Gustaf at a
formal ceremony in Stockholm on December 10, but the pandemic means it has
been replaced with a televised ceremony showing the laureates receiving their
awards in their home countries.
According to Anna Tullberg at public broadcaster Sveriges Radio, the
unusual circumstances could be the perfect occasion to honour American
novelist Thomas Pynchon, who famously shuns the limelight.
“A cancelled award ceremony and a cancelled banquet. Well there won’t be a
better time to give the award to this very reclusive author,” Tullberg said.