Kazuo Ishiguro won the Nobel Prize in 2017, as he “in novels of great emotional force, has uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world.” What is this Prize, to whom has it been awarded, and what does it signify?
Alfred Nobel was from a family of Swedish engineers and inventors who made his fortune in making dynamite. In a first draft of his will he left money for prizes in chemistry, physics, medicine, and peace, and in the final version he stipulated that one be for “the person who shall have produced in the field of literature the most outstanding work of an idealistic tendency.” The economics award was introduced in the 1960s. Nobel elected the Swedish Academy to choose the winners, who were to debate what the “idealistic tendency” meant and apply it to the candidates. A former permanent secretary of the Academy interpreted it as “literary excellence…in a direction towards an ideal.”
The process for choosing the winner, which happened for the first time in 1901, is as follows: in the prior year, the committee, which consists of six members of the Academy, asks hundreds of professors, Nobel laureates, and other literary luminaries for their nominations. The committee receives about a hundred different names, most of them ones that have been proposed before. Deliberations have to be finished by November 15th. Nominees cannot be awarded posthumously, though if a nominee dies before receiving the prize, such as Erik Axel Karlfeldt in 1931, it may still be awarded. The awards may not be appealed.
A Boston Review article explains, “Some writers have won because they had strong supporters inside the Academy; others have faced over-my-dead-body opposition at the decisive stage. Arthur Lundkvist, a prominent Academician, championed Pablo Neruda, whom he also translated, and vigorously opposed Graham Greene. Neruda won in 1971, while Greene never received the prize, despite being nominated repeatedly.” Professor Juan Bravo sees the Nobel Prize for Literature having evolved over time, with the first era characterized by the awarding to more diplomatic, low-profile choices, and an openness to broader choices not occurring until the 1920s. In 1964 Jean-Paul Sartre rejected the Prize, which Bravo thinks made it more “introverted.” In the 1990s, it became much more global with the Mexican author Octavio Paz’s win, but overall in the 20th century, 80% of the winners were from the United States, Canada, or Europe. Until 1990 93% of the winners were men. Toni Morrison was the first Black woman to receive the Prize, which occurred in 1993. The Prize was not awarded to anyone in 1914, 1918, 1935, 1940, 1941, 1942, and 1943.
The Prize consists of a gold medal, a diploma that is a unique work of art, and a sum of money.
