The Beginning—
In
less than two months Gentle Reader, we will learn who this years Nobel Laureate
in Literature will be. Following is a list of eighty-six (86) writers listed
for this year’s speculation list. These eighty-six writers were chosen for a
myriad of reasons; however, at no point do I cement or affirm with any
certainty that any of the listed writers will receive the award. I have chosen
the authors based off personal taste, and careful consideration, after doing
research and reviewing of their work (on a limited basis) and believe they have
no more or less of a chance than any other writer listed or otherwise. One of
the greatest joys about the Nobel Prize for Literature is that we learn at
these times great writers, who previously were overlooked, or unknown to us,
either thanks to the award or thanks in large part to the speculation. The
following list is merely an attempt at bringing a great plethora of writers to
a greater attention; there is nothing quite as enjoyable as discovering a new
writer and wishing to readily consume their works with vigorous and otherwise
ravenous glee. In this, I thank the Nobel Prize for Literature.
The
following list Gentle Reader is categorized in the usual format: Continent and
or geographical region, then sub-categorized into country/origin, then country
of exile (if applicable), and literary language (if applicable).
For
example:
Europe
[ Continent Category ]
Tua
Forsström [ writer ] – Finland [ country ] (Swedish Language) [ language as applicable ]
(Please
Note Gentle Reader, Tua Forsström is being used merely as an example; in years
past she was included on the Nobel Prize for Literature speculation list.
However, she was recently elected to the Swedish Academy to Chair No. 18.)
It
should be made clear now though Gentle Reader, how the list is organized and
categorized is in no way a reflection of national interest or biases. They
organized in this manner, so the list would be easier to traverse, read, and
offer a unique perspective of each writer. As previously mentioned, and I
profusely continue to state: the Nobel Prize’s—be it Literature, Chemistry,
Physics, Peace, Medicine, or Economics—are not the Olympics. The awards and the
laureates are selected by individual merit in their fields, not by national
petitions or lobbying. Further elucidation is also needs to be mentioned: this
list is personal; there is only one English language writer on the list, and
that is for diversity purposes; I have not included any writer from North
America (United States or Canada, which is my home) as I am under the thorough
understanding these writers are given more than adequate attention for other
speculative lists and media sources. This is reflecting my desire to focus on
the unknown, obscure, and underappreciated, and the underdog—after all, every
underdog requires its champion.
As
always, my Dear Gentle Readers, I look forward to your comments, your
recommendations, and to engage you in lively and stimulating conversation, as
we patiently wait for this year’s announcement of the Nobel Prize for
Literature.
Thank-you
& Please Enjoy,
M.
Mary
_________________________________________________________________________________
Africa –
Tierno Monénembo – Guinea – Tierno Monénembo is one
of Guinea’s most renowned writers, but also one of the most important French
language writers to emerge from the post-colonial Francophone controlled
regions of Africa. Monénembo’s work is particularly informed of the blight of
the African intellectuals, who find their home in disarray after colonialism,
and seek opportunities abroad, and the difficulties they encounter in life in
other countries. Tierno Monénembo has taken a particular interest in historical
narratives, often detailing the lives of the Fula People, where documented the
extraordinary life of Addi Bâ, a Fula resistance fighter during the Second
World War, who the Nazi’s deemed ‘the black terrorist.’ Tierno Monénembo
remains persistently concerned with the colonial and post-colonial histories of
the African continent and seeks to elevate the intellectual standings of the
continent, to a broader audience, through a process of continual codification
of memory, in historical, personal, and anthropological scope. Through the
preoccupation of the past, one is able to gain an understanding of the
trajectory of the future. Yet continually the same mistakes are perpetrated
repeatedly; the same crimes, the same violence, the same political uncertainty,
the same oppressive atmospheres, with different perpetrators. After the Rwandan
Genocide of nineteen ninety-four, Tierno Monénembo became one of writers tasked
with reviewing and writing about the event. This act would change his
perspective on the concept of writing, as many of the writers chosen for the
project, either were firsthand witnesses of the atrocities, or where
third-party witnesses, who sought to attempt to understand the horror which had
taken place. In this, Tierno Monénembo, was a third-party witness, attempting
to understand the societal break down of order, and make sense of the senseless
violence that had taken place, and inevitably swayed back to the wounds of
colonialism, which had finally become to raw and rotten to ignore any longer.
In this, Tierno Monénembo works to survey the African continent in a mired of
contexts, from colonial to post-colonial, and the dawning hope of a new world,
a better world, riddled with the basic idealism and principles of humanity.
Wilma
Stockenström – South Africa – Is one of the most important
Afrikaans language writers currently at work in contemporary South African
Literature. Wilma Stockenström is a playwright, poet, translator, casual
novelist, as well as an actress. Stockenström’s first love before turning to a
writer was theatre. She studied the theatrical studies at university and acted
on stage, before retiring to the wings to pick up the pen and draft works of
literary construct. She drafted a couple of one-act plays, before turning to
poetry. Stockenström’s poetry is noted for being unadorned, lacking poetic
fashions, and disregarding trivial musicality. In lieu of otherwise frivolous
styles of the time, Wilma Stockenström wrote her
poetry in sober, solemn, and straightforward manner, coupled with ironic
precision. Along with eschewing the haughty airs of poor and conventional
poetry; Wilma Stockenström shifted the perspective from the intrapersonal,
self-centered and absorbed ‘I,’ narrative; to one that provided commentary on
the human condition; exploring the external; the interpersonal; and the
engagement with the environment. In this, Wilma Stockenström maintains the same
poetic predilections as the late Polish poet and Nobel Laureate, Wislwa
Szymborska who eschewed the confessional narcissistic narratives of previous
generations, in favour of ironic observations of the human condition. In the
English language, Wilma Stockenström gained attention through her fragmentary
and poetic novel: “The Expedition to the Baobab Tree.”
Mia
Couto – Mozambique – Since his debut Mia Couto has been a growing and
influential African writer. His contradictory perspectives often reflect his
heritage: his mother and father were Portuguese immigrants to Mozambique, and
Couto himself considers himself a: “white African.” He delves into the
post-colonial and independence, realities of Mozambique as a citizen rather
than a third person observer. His work is riddled with magical realism which is
reflected of Mozambique’s pre-colonial history, with its legends, folklore and
unique culture. Mia Couto is called the smuggler writer, for his literary style
which takeswords and phrases from different languages and cultures and blending
them into his own unique literary mosaic. This world play has been praised by
many, as it creates a unique linguistic experience, which is seen immediately
in sentences, as well as offers a unique lyrical quality to the prose. His
creation of myths, legends, riddles and ‘improverbs,’ as well as portmanteau
words, is a blend of languages and cultures. His unique linguistic
experimentation is often praised as one of the greatest merits of his literary work;
but surely there is something lost in translation. Over the past years, Mia
Couto’s international literary recognition has grown; from winning the Latin
American Prize over a decade ago; to receiving the Camões Prize; and the Neustadt
International Prize for Literature.
Antjie Krog – South Africa – The contemporary South
African poet, literary theorist, and academic; has been described by Joan
Hambidge, as as the Pablo Neruda of Afrikaans poetry. Krog herself, published
her first collection of poetry at the tender age of seventeen, and two years
later published her second collection of poetry, and throughout the following
decades, would continue to write and publish numerous volumes of poetry. The
poetry of Antjie Krog contemplates and discusses powerful themes, ranging from
gender politics, identity, race, salvation, and of course apartheid. Her work
can take a slight personal and almost autobiographical tone in discussing the
changes of age, time, and gender and its effects on an individual’s identity.
Identity in her work often goes beyond gender as well, and encompasses a
strange desire to change her race beyond the won endowed to her by birth. In
this, Antjie Krog presents a unique and political conscious perspective of a
poet, observing a strange society at work, one influx of change, of resentment
and in need of reconciliation. Krog’s work moves beyond just poetry as well and
encompasses finely tuned prose forms. The first and most famous work of prose
is: “Country of My Skull,” which recounts the Truth and Reconciliation
Commission instituted, to bring closure and truth, to the previous
discrimination, racism, and political abuse caused by apartheid in the southern
African state. The second prose work presents a postmodern blend of different
forms: prose, personal narrative, poetry, interviews, and journalistic
reportage to craft a deconstructuralist narrative, recounting the evolution of
South African society away from apartheid, as well as the erosion of Afrikaans
language and culture in South African society, in favour of a strange
vernacular English. Afrikaans as a language, was the language of the oppressor,
the racist, the separatist, the great divider of the country, and yet remains
within its borders.
José Eduardo Agualusa – Angola – Along with Mia
Couto, José Eduardo Agualusa is one of the most successful and read Portuguese
language voices ringing from the post-colonial African continent. Where Mia
Couto from Mozambique won the Neustadt International Prize for Literature in
two-thousand and fourteen, José Eduardo Agualusa went on to receive the
International Dublin Literary Award in two-thousand and seventeen. Both Mia
Couto and José Eduardo Agualusa are influenced by the histories of their
respective nations. Yet, both have a particular relationship to their
respective nation’s historical narratives, as their perspective is tinted by
the notion of being the outsider, the colonial, the conqueror. Mia Couto
explores the historical through the infusion of folktales, traditions, and
ceremony, with an anthropologist’s curiosity, as well as the magical realism of
the exotic, to depict a world which cautiously remains in flux between the
grounded certainty, and the flights of imaginative fancy. José Eduardo Agualusa
maintains a historical approach to his literary narratives, firmly grounded in
the context provided, but maintains its own imaginative flights. Take for
example Agualusa’s celeberated novel: “A General Theory of Oblivion,” about a
woman who grows increasingly concerned about the Angolan War of Independence.
As Angola begins to shake the yoke of colonial rule off, she becomes
increasingly paranoid of her future. Instead of fleeing to Portugal, the expat
barricades and entombs herself in her apartment for nearly three decades. Her
only contact with outside world is through the conversations she hears from her
neighbors, the world viewed from her window, and the radio which eventually
dies. She distills her experiences, observations, and eavesdropping down into
diaries, before documenting them on the walls; all through the historical
context of Angola being torn by colonialism, and the influence of other
exacting nations: Soviet Union, United States, and the insurgency of South
African fighters. José Eduardo Agualusa other novels carry the same
preoccupation and concern with the social and political context of Angola and
the African continent in the world. Its historical destitution are never far,
and the atrocities, reprehensible cruelties, and the prior mistakes are often left
behind; through the inventiveness of the imagination, as characters seek to
become chameleons, changing colour, lives, and pasts to greet a new era, and a
new world without concern for the previous episodes. This is the world of José
Eduardo Agualusa, one of histographic understanding, while presenting
imaginative and postmodern irony, to liven it up, and when necessary add
allegorical elements of forewarning and foreshadowing of impending disaster, be
it ecological or human.
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o – Kenya – Every year you can
always expected to see the usual candidates listed as potential possibilities
for the Nobel Prize for Literature, and Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o is no exception; but
he is an interesting writer. Thiong'o is considered a prime and perfect canidate
for the prize for a few reasons. The first being: he’s an African national
writer. Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o hails from Kenya, and this makes him desirable as the
Nobel Prize for Literature has underrepresented African literature. The second
reason is: he’s a socially conscious and aware writer, in which his work often
probes and discusses the political situation affecting Kenya, and he was
persecuted and arrested as consequence for this. Despite the attempts at
suppressing his work, the author found it revitalized and revolutionized his
commitments to literature and culture. The third reason is: Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
writes in a traditional or tribal language of Africa, specifically: Gikuyu.
Thiong'o did not start drafting his work in Gikuyu until his stint in prison,
and since then he has continued to preserve the tribal language in his work and
in modern literature; then translating it into English. For this reasons Ngũgĩ
wa Thiong'o is often considered an appropriate and worthy writer. Though
awarding Thiong'o would be considered an obvious choice, it would be a
deserving decision, based on the author’s preservation of a tribal language,
the desire to reinstate African memory as well as tackling social and political
themes, within the African context in a post-colonial world.
Ben Okri – Nigeria – Since his debut, Ben Orki was
noted as being one of the most leading and acclaimed literary voices to come
out of Africa (specifically Nigeria) as a new post-colonial voice. His third
novel won the Booker Prize, and at the time Orki was the youngest writer to
ever receive the award (Eleanor Catton now holds claim over the title). He has
been favorably compared to Salmin Rushdie and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, for his
use of magical realism in his novels. Orki however, disagrees with the term
magical realism applied to his work, as he points out the category is easily
applied by critics who are too lazy to offer any original analysis, and so it
would best lump into the work of other post-colonial writers, for others to
note similarities and see likeminded authors. When others attempted to apply
postmodernist theory to his work about the post-colonial situation in Africa
and Nigeria, Orki once again rejected the claim stating he wrote without
postmodernist skepticism and did discuss legitimate and concrete realities and
truths within his work. Beyond his fiction where spirits communicate with the
living, and the dream logic of the unconscious is ever present; Orki’s
non-fiction is more noted for his political leanings and reflections on
witnessing the Nigerian civil war as a child, and reflecting on the sometimes
shaky ground post-colonial Africa chooses to operate and act; proving the
writer is not just a story teller, but also an active participant in the social
concerns of his own nation but also the continental destiny of Africa.
Ivan Vladislavic – South Africa – For the longest
time, the South African writer Ivan Vladislavic was unknown on the global stage
of literature. The shadow of J.M. Coetzee was also known for eclipsing all
authors who hailed from the country, with the exception of Nadine Gordimer, who
had preceded him in winning the Nobel Prize for Literature, securing her status
as equal. Where other South African writers concern themselves with the nations
troubled past of segregation, discrimination, and blatant racism; Ivan
Vladislavic takes an otherwise unique and surreal take of the landscape, the
world, and the human condition, exploring the possibilities of literature in
its relation communicating the human experience both in the personal and in the
universal context. His one novel or short story collection or digression on the
concept of memory, landscape, and people: “Portrait with Keys,” is not unified
by an overarching narrative, story, or plot. Rather the work is composed of
numerous fragments, prose snippets, vignettes, scenes, and stories concerning
Johannesburg through ghosts and gardens, memories, habit, concepts of home,
journeys undertaken, wandering observations, changing perceptions, falling and
stealing, as well as friendships and mortality. It’s a pastiche novel painting
a portrait of a city, through its side streets, and its unique characteristics
and populace. It should come as no surprise then that Ivan Vladislavic is
renowned for his shorter proses, where there has been a steady increase in
translation over the past few years. His shorter prose provides a surreal,
postmodern, and postructuralist perspective of the world, one which rejects
societal and human attempts at instituting either order or control, an echoing
sentiment of the strange paradox of the human condition: despite our unity in
on the most atomized level, we are all still inherently different. In this a
critic or a reader may find an allegory or metaphorical element providing
inclinations to the discussion of apartheid in South Africa, while all the same
the work transcends the national and seeks to make sense of the more
philosophical, existential and ethereal components of the human context, while
ultimately being unable to measure it. The short story, and further
fragmentation of form, is therefore a perfect literary style for an author
whose decries and sighs at the continual need for order, and harmonic responses
to the natural, instinctual and by nature chaotic world.
Pepetela – Angola – Pepetela is one of those many
paradoxical writers of Africa. His heritage comes from colonialism and the
colonizing country—in this case Portugal—but he was born Angolan and identifies
as such. He identified so much as an Angolan, he was a participant in the MPLA
(The People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola), where he documented and
promote Angolan culture and studies. As Pepetela became more entangled with the
MPLA, he began to actively take part in their armed resistance against the
ruling Portuguese government. This would
prove the inspiration for his first wave of published works: the war
narrative. In these first books,
Pepetela wrote about the active resistance for an independent Angola, but then
discussed the disillusionment of independence and post-colonialism afterwards.
Mid-way through his literary career, and after leaving his work in the new
Angolan government, Pepetela began working on historical novels which
documented Angola’s history, including its colonization. With the turn of the millennium,
Pepetela’s gaze has shifted towards a more satirical perspective; specifically,
with his anti-detective novels staring: Jamie Bunda (a slight parody of James
Bond). The novels mock and offer the authors critique of Angola’s
underdevelopment, as well as the United States foreign policy. Yet these later
decades of the author’s career have also seen his writing broaden beyond
Angola, and even go into science fiction tropes, as he grapples with the ever-present
thoughts and concerns of global climate catastrophe, which lurks around the
corner.
Athol Fugard – South Africa – At eighty-eight years
old, Athol Fugard has certainly reached the end of his long career, which has
been honored and decorated with the title of being South Africa’s most
prominent and important playwrights. Early on in his playwrighting career,
Athol Fugard’s work carried political elements criticizing the Apartheid Regime
of South Africa, and its segregation of people based on ethnicity and the
pigment of their skin. His early works continued to blend both cultures and
ethnicities on the stage, which he wrote, directed and acted on. His alignment
and association with anti-apartheid figures, became the largest influences on
his otherwise politically motivated plays, which provided social critiques by using
satire, disillusioned monologues, and the abrupt social taboo of allowing both
white and black actors share the same stage. In order to avoid political
persecution, Fugard often had his plays staged beyond the borders of South
Africa, or in underground theatre’s. By the nineteen-eighties, Athol Fugard was
regarded as one of the most revolutionary, active, and important playwrights in
the English language, alongside: Harold Pinter, Caryl Churchill, and Tom Stoppard.
As a dramatist, Athol Fugard, utilized his characters with imagistic and
symbolist predilections, to insinuate macro political elements. Moving away
from plot, story, narrative, and character development, Fugard sought to employ
greater abstract notions of text, image, and symbolism to provide commentary on
political concerns; Athol Fugard became less and less like a traditional
playwright and dramatist, and more experimental, exploring the realms of
possibility and potential of the drama format, allowing his work to become more
expressive, impressionistic, as well as shapeless. His later works continue in
this same fashion, with preoccupations towards personal matters, such as
intimate history, memory, and autobiography; as well as tropes into the
post-apartheid landscape of South Africa.
Northern Africa
& Middle East –
Leila Abouzeid – Morocco – For Leila Abouzeid,
language is both identity (in both personal and cultural context), as well as
political statement. Where other Moroccan writers write in the colonial French,
Abouzeid writes in Arabic, detesting the French language as a reminder of
Morocco’s colonial past, and the oppressive doctrine imposed on the Northern
African country’s populace. Throughout her career as a radio and television
journalist, Leila Abouzeid spoke and worked in the Arabic language, rejecting
the French language left behind, which had become the literary and business
language of Morocco—the language, which allowed the nation to interact with the
west, and Europe. If French was reserved for the business and interacting with
more cosmopolitan powers; Arabic was reserved for the everyday, the
commonplace, and the home. As a radio journalist, Leila Abouzeid translated
film scripts into Arabic, and would often do dramatic readings over her
broadcasts in Arabic, which certainly reached the listening public clearly, without
pretense. These broadcasts would have ideally resonated with those listening in
on a historical, cultural, and social context. As with her broadcast journalist
works, Leila Abouzied wrote exclusively in Arabic once again rejecting the
French language, which has been employed by other Moroccan writers who have
found success throughout the world, due to their use of language and its
accessibility into more European markets. As a writer Leila Abouzeid’s literary
themes have taken a feminine perspective on themes such as language, identity,
politics, society, relationships, the meaning of independence and history. Her
debut and famous novel “The Year of The Elephant,” tackled themes of family
conflict and divorce, but this time through the lens of the female perspective,
and asked questions regarding the traditional cultural values versus the
progressive attitudes of modernity. Her semi-autobiographical novels: “Return
to Childhood,” and “The Last Chapter,” deal with the family upheaval and
personal convictions and condemnation of the ideals of seeking and supporting
the notion of an independent Morocco; as well as the female conflict regarding
identity defined by the notion of Morocco independence, and framed further by
the narrative of traditional Islamic values and the modern perspective. Leila
Abouzeid is a curator of language and perspective, as she sustains and promotes
the Arabic language in Morocco as the true language of the nation, while also
recounting and detailing the complex and fluid idea of what it means to be a
woman in the nation.
Adunis
– Syria – Adunis is one of the most important and influential poets at work
today. His influence on Arabic language poetry during the Second Half of the
Twentieth century, was considered a Modernist Revolution, and is comparable to
T.S. Eliot’s influence on Anglophone poetry in the early Twentieth Century.
There can be no doubt as to why Adunis is referred to as the most influential
and important poet and figure of Arabic literature; despite the condemnations
of Islamic religious leaders, extremists, and political dictators of the
region, who have threatened his life, burned his books, and banned his work.
Adunis’s work goes beyond poetry, as the poet is a recognized translator—he is
famously stated to have translated Tomas Tranströmer poetry into Arabic and
accompanied the poet on a tour through the region; but he has also released
literary criticism. He edited a multi-volume anthology of Arabic poetry which
covers millennials of historical poetry of the Arabic language. Despite his
literary endeavors, Adunis has been critical of the politicization of the
Islamic doctrine and religion. This of course has caused controversy throughout
the Middle East, where Islamic politicization is on the rise; but much like
many other writers of the region, Adunis believes in the separation of
theological and spiritual from political and public ideologies and service.
Removing the political context and connotations from Adunis, his poetry and his
influence on the poetics of the region and the Arabic language is far reaching
and extraordinary. The influence can still be felt today, as poets pick up the
pen to resist, to create, and to change their world. The fact that Adunis has
been denied the Nobel Prize for Literature this long is a cause for concern.
Now having reached his nineties, if the Swedish Academy decides or neglects not
to award the poet the Nobel Prize for Literature in the immediate future, it
will become doubtful they ever will. This being said, Adunis is a unique case.
Even without the Nobel Seal of approval, the poet will be sure to outlast many
of his contemporizes, as future generations will study, admire, and emulate his
work. To award, Adunis any literary award now, is merely to acknowledge his
literary powers and absolute authority as a distinguished writer; it would not
necessarily be overdue recognition.
David Grossman – Israel – There can be no denying
the favoured author to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature was always the
late Amos Oz. Amos Oz was usually favoured for his mild political and often
liberal leaning thought within the Middle East political conundrum; even though
it was often relayed in sobering, solemn tones. Second, to Amos Oz, has always
been David Grossman, who politically speaking—is the representative of the
Israeli left-leaning cultural and intellectual side of the spectrum, noted for
his peace activism—which is far more involved then Amos Oz was, who published
articles, gave lectures, and provided interviews, but one would not go so far
as to state he participated in peace activism. The on-going dispute between
Israel and Palestine, as a subject has often been carefully avoided David
Grossman’s work, until the death of his son in two-thousand and six, during the
Lebanon War. Afterwards, Grossman would publish his novel: “To the End of the
Land,” recounting the emotional strains families experience as their loved ones
are deployed during combat, especially during the mandatory military
conscription utilized by Israel. The novel was political as it was personal.
David Grossman has been one of the most renowned Israeli authors on the global
stage. In two-thousand and seventeen, he won the Booker International Prize,
for his novel: “A Horse Walks into a Bar,” where he was shortlisted alongside
his contemporary colleague Amos Oz. David Grossman remains a poignant writer of
the Jewish experience in the region, but also of the insurmountable grief
families experience when their loved ones are sent off on military service, and
the superstitious rituals they perform to ward them from harm. Despite his
literary renowned, David Grossman is no stranger to skirmishes with authorities
due to his political activism, and in two-thousand and ten was beaten by police
during protests along the West Bank. Beyond the dirty affairs of politics, and
geopolitical disputes, David Grossman is a phenomenal and serious writer, with
striking literary tastes, humanistic eye, and a solemn perspective of the human
notion in the world continually divided.
Nawal El Saadawi – Egypt – Now in her eighties,
Nawal El Saadawi is as combative as ever, which certainly is a testament to her
earning the title: “the Simon de Beauvoir of the Arab World.” Saadawi is a medical
doctor by training but views herself as a writer first and a doctor and
activist of women’s rights in the Arabic world second; she specifically
protests female genitalia mutilation (which she suffered firsthand). As a
doctor Nawal El Saadawi witnessed firsthand the oppression of women through
patriarchal cultural norms, class division, and the ripples of imperialism;
which would help shape the themes of her prose works, her non-fiction, and her
political activism, in which she would decry the remnants of colonial rule, the
religious approved oppression of women; and the abuse of women at the hands of
men. It is not Saadawi’s fierce and open opinions and criticisms against the
government, against religious and cultural conventions, which make her feared,
but the fact she encourages all citizens to question the conventions, doctrines
and orders of the government or theological clerics. Despite her vast literary,
medical and public service/activism career(s), Nawal El Saadawi is still
heavily underrepresented in the English language. Despite the lack of
representation, is growing as a literary and political force in her native
Egypt, where she hosts young people in her apartment, to hold discussion about
politics, as well as continue to lobby and actively oppose oppression of women
in the Arabic world. For the Egyptian Government, Nawal El Saadawi is slightly
untouchable, for her appeal, her attention, and recognition on the international
world; but her vicious criticism never overlooked or ignored and is perhaps
mildly tolerated.
Elias Khoury – Lebanon –Khoury is well-known and
renowned Lebanese playwright, novelist, and public intellectual. Like many
Middle Eastern writers, Khoury is a politically involved writer, one who
continually seeks political reform in a democratic vein. Despite this though,
politics of the Middle East region are contentious, and there is no simple
black and white solution. He was praised along with other writers (including
Adunis) for protesting a holocaust denial conference in Beirut; but when the
Israeli government praised his open condemnation of the conference, it shot
back against their vile treatment of Palestine and the Palestinians. Politics
in the region is not a graceful linear waltz; rather it’s a polka through a
field of land mines, always attempting to evade a strike or an explosion, while
being sure to return the fire. Khoury’s novels tackle these same subjects, with
his same objective and critical eye. His novels tackle political subject
matter, but not in pontificating more high-handed form, which is preferred by
western readers. Rather, Khoury presents the ambiguities of the political
situations, going beyond simple context of “good guys,” versus, “bad guys,”—he
fundamentally questions the behavior of people during these situations, and
seeks to present an objective portrait via the use of internal monologues,
discussions and objective opinions presented by his characters. This makes
Khoury a difficult writer to propagate and use for propaganda purposes, as he
rebukes such concepts in favour of facts and a well-rounded narrative to
present a fully fleshed throughout perspective. Elias Khoury is at once
controversial as he is admirable.
Boualem Sansal – Algeria – Writing carries many
purposes, and writers carry this function out through their own personal
reasonings. Some writers write for enjoyment, others write for more rational
purposes, and others as Samuel Beckett stated best: aren’t good for anything
else. Some, however, like Boualem Sansal write out of intellectual integrity,
as well as protest, and dissidence against the sheer disregard, and collapse of
the basic civic due processes of society, which becomes infected by fantasies
of grandeur, dissatisfaction with other sects, races, religions, people, and
other homicidal/genocidal inclinations, which are fueled by hatred; which they
quickly retort they do not foster, nor promote. As an author Boualem Sansal, is
deemed an author who is exiled within his own country. In Algeria, his works
are banned from publication and distribution, so it should go without saying
they are indefinitely not deemed appropriate for public consumption. The reason
for this is simple, his work is highly critical of the current political
maneuvering of the Algerian government to set aside all political sovereignty,
as well as moral and intellectual integrity, in embracing, and fostering
Islamic fundamentalism, a movement which Boualem Sansal has adamantly worked to
undermining and dissuading against. His work is noted for using political and
historical allegories to reflect the current of Algeria, and the Northern
African Continent. Despite the disregard in which his home country treats him,
he is still considered one of the most profound and important writers of the
French language, and of the French language on the African Continent.
Bahaa Taher – Egypt – Bahaa Taher was once
considered Egypt/Cairo’s literary secret; after all the government once banned
him from publishing his works and voicing his opinion. He was fired from his
job, where he helped found the Cairo Radio Cultural Program, where he would
come into contact with Naguib Mahfouz, and help produce radio drama’s for Greek
theatre to Beckett’s comedies; as well as narrated stories. All because Taher
had left leaning view points and political views, which were in direct conflict
with the ruling government of the day. After years of living off minimal salary
and giving up his dreams to publish, Bahaa Taher would leave Egypt, and travel
to find work as a translator, where he eventually ended up in Geneva,
Switzerland working as a translator for the United Nations. Now he has returned
to Egypt, and has found a welcoming response since his exile. Yet, the situation
at home has improved, which the author laments. His work however deals with the
complications of Egypt and the Arabic world, with a humanistic touch; he does
not delve into the political situation with simplistic measures. Rather, Taher
views the situation historical and precedent set more than just political or
religious.
Ibrahim al-Koni – Libya – Ibrahim al-Koni is one of
the most prolific, and well-known Arabic language writers of contemporary
Arabic Literature. Ibrahim al-Koni has published upwards of over eighty
literary works including novels, short stories, poems and essays. Ibrahim al-Koni
was born in the southwestern district of Libya known as Fezzan and was raised
on the traditions of the Tuareg people. The Tuareg people are nomadic desert
pastoralists, whose range of territory stretches through vast territories of
the African continent; including Libya, Niger, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria and
many more. The oral storytelling traditions of the Tuareg people have been
represented in Ibrahim al-Koni’s work, often leading him to be referred to as a
magical realist by some; while others call him a Sufi fabulist for his poetic
novels. Despite being raised among nomadic traditions and customs, al-Koni
would go on to study at the former Maxim Gorky Literature Institute in the
Soviet Union, despite only learning to read or write at the age of twelve.
After his studies he worked as a journalist in Moscow and Warsaw; and has since
become one of the most prolific contemporary Arabic language writers at work
today. Ibrahim al-Koni’s unique cultural upbringing with its’ folktales,
traditions, customs and conventions have been the well of inspiration which has
formed his work and perspective.
Abdallah Zrika – Morocco – Abdallah Zrika is one of
the most profound poetic voices of Morocco. In Middle Eastern Literature,
poetry holds a special and unique place in literary favour. Iran for example
takes great pride in their poets of old, whose poetry is still recited by the
young and the old alike. Poetry becomes an aspect of the everyday, an infusion
of language and perspective, harmoniously unifying populaces through a singular
vision of form, language, and devotion to higher pursuits. Abdallah Zrika
embodies this in his poetic contributions to Moroccan poetry. First published
in the nineteen-seventies, Abdallah Zrika, gained notoriety and recognition
with the youth of Morocco, his poetry representing their ideals of life,
freedom: freedom to live, and freedom to express oneself. Abdallah Zrika’s
poetry immediately gained notice of the authorities, and was censored, and
deemed immorally morally dangerous. Subsequently Zirka spent two years in
prison for his ‘morally dangerous,’ poetic work. Once released Abdallah Zrika
continued on his poetic career, becoming one of Morocco’s best kept literary
secrets, with continual translations appearing in French, but overlooked by the
English language market. His poetry is noted for its spontaneity, which remains
striking and revolutionary in Arabic literary circles. Abdallah Zrika treats
the human condition, with a metaphysical and existential, he portrays and deals
with the human being as an organic being within the universe, a mere component
that builds up its unique mosaic matter. Human beings are not depicted as
heavenly beings, ricocheting through the celestial spheres. Rather, the human
being is much like the animals, the insects, or the birds—and in turn they are
all given equal turn, song, perspective, and voice through the everyday,
echoing through a grand universe, which takes neither note or notice of the
beings beneath its star studded sky. It is here Abdallah Zrika makes sense of the
world, and the human condition, by rooting down to the needle point of the
exactness of being.
Shahrnush Parsipur – Iran – with the election of Jila Mossaed to the Swedish Academy two years ago, the
Swedish Academy had a member on its council who could read Persian language,
but also someone who would be able to provide linguistic and cultural
perspective on literature from Iran, and other regions which share the
language. Just as Göran Malmqvist was the Swedish Academy’s sinologist, and
whose perspective and opinion on Chinese culture, language, and literature
would be highly respected and sought after; so too will Jila Mossaed’s. As a
member of the Swedish Academy, Mossaed, has the privilege to nominate
candidates for the Nobel Prize for Literature, and it would be reasonable to
presume that she will nominate writers from her native language and culture,
who she respects and admires. As Iranian and Persian language literature has
shown over the past century, women writers are often the most outspoken, formidable,
and ferocious writers, such as the poet: Simin Behbahani, the Lioness of
Iranian Literature, who challenged the social and political status quo of Iran,
and Shahrnush Parsipur is no different. Parsipur, takes an equal adversarial
approach to literature, to inspire social and political changes in perspective
and decorum of Iranian society. Shahrnush Parsipur’s literary work explores the
divide of women in Iranian society, and the conditions that they are subjected
to. Her characters continually express openly their disregard for their place
in society; they unabashedly sexual oppression, domination; ridicule the
virtues of chastity; and resist the social and political demands of society
against them. Her writings have not come without controversy. Twice she was
imprisoned for her novel “Women Without Men.” Her prison memoirs were published
to great acclaim and received international translation and recognition
following, allowing the writer to move into exile, where she has stayed, while
remaining an active vocal critic of the patriarchal social restraints of her
homeland. Shahrnush Parsipur, is by all accounts one of those foreceful
hurricane forces of literature that demands social, political, and ideological
changes.
Europe –
Annie
Ernaux – France – When Svetlana Alexievich won the Nobel Prize for Literature
in 2015, many saw the award as an inclination that Nobel Prize and the Swedish
Academy acknowledging and broadening the diverse landscape of what is
considered literature, as Alexievich’s work is a hybrid of journalistic
reportage and historical narrative; but rather than just providing the ‘facts,
‘of the matter, Alexievich carts and traces the individual in the nebulous
expanse of history. Yet, diaries, memories, private narratives, autobiography,
and what is called: “autofiction,’ is difficult to analyze through the higher
lens of literary pursuits. Rather they are viewed as self-indulgent,
narcissistic narratives, soliciting scandal through histrionic chronicles. Annie
Ernaux, on the contrary is a writer of deeply personal affected narratives,
memoirs, and otherwise noted for her ‘autobiographical fiction.’ Ernaux leaves
cheap indulgences, cliché, and kitschy confessional sentiments aside, in favour
of sociological narratives, utilizing the otherwise personal and private to
provide an anchor, and narrative force to the cartographical act of tracing and
observing otherwise more external macro social, political and societal changes.
The work of Annie Ernaux is instead an examination of the external through the
lens of the private, and personal, which happens to give the socioeconomic and
political changes a shape, form, and narrative structure, in order to make it
more personable, palpable, and tangible. Her work carefully examines the
changing climate, atmosphere, pressure, and conventions of society, while also
providing a unique analytical critique. Ernaux takes her own personal and
private predictions in order to provide a human and personal touch to the
greater workings of society and history. The humanization of such moments
removes it from the dusted case of academia, and places it into a realm that is
palpable and engaging. Annie Ernaux creates empathetic, as well as sympathetic
narratives, built on distressing facts, but measured with a restrained vision,
and a preoccupation with grander and more social concerns. This macro and
external perspective is what is endearing about Annie Ernaux, she supersedes notions
of self-indulgence, and confessional pitfalls of less capable writers; and
instead fixates and focuses on a need to protest or actively voice change,
through her sharply observed writings. Her work is a social and historical time
capsule, bet fit with personal memorabilia, opinions, perceptions, and
fine-tuned observations.
László
Krasznahorkai – Hungary – The Hungarian monk of The Apocalypse, gained
immediate recognition and notoriety when his infamously long, dense, difficult,
and mammoth novels began to appear in English translation. Even before his
works were translated, they had a reputation in European literary scenes. The
sentences of Krasznahorkai have always gained attention from readers and
critics; those serpentine black rivers of ink and text, continue on and on for
pages, soldered together with comas, semicolons, and colons. When a period does
make an appearance its merely a break, not a finite end. László Krasznahorkai’s
work is marred with a dread and unease; an otherwise disquieting atmosphere.
The landscape of Krasznahorkai’s narratives take place in a strange Kafkaesque
landscape: rural Soviet collective farms, poor communities, ruins of
desperation, bars of neither character nor charm, or desolate artistic
retreats. From there, like some aged underground Rockstar prophet, Krasznahorkai
provides the narrative of those who call such places home. In this same
fashion, the youthful, educated and hipster academics picked up the Hungarian
writer, as some literary fashion, trading his books like postmodern currency.
His works stuck home for them; he was dark, strange, and desolate; a writer
completely different then what constitutes as contemporary American Literature,
with its usual brand of bread and butter of family dramas, narratives, and
otherwise rehashing postmortem novels parading themselves as postmodern greats.
László Krasznahorkai provides a reprieve from the otherwise stagnant literary
scene of the Americas; with his bleak landscapes, despair ridden characters,
and bleak humour flows endlessly through the slow-moving lava text. On a
personal note, my reading experience with László Krasznahorkai, is one based
off respect, but lukewarm all the same. His work requires the level of care,
patience, tolerance, and marathonic resilience and tenacity, which I do not
have. There is respect in what he can do, what he has done, his discipline to
his form, his unrelentless singular spirit and dedication to his style,
preoccupation, and themes, it’s still not a literary work which I find easy or
enjoyable in consumption. One cannot deny his work for being masterful in
craft, monumental in form, and foreboding in deliverance, he is uncompromising,
which is also what endears him to his readers.
László Krasznahorkai is a giant of global letters and international
literature, his shadow is eclipsing, and undeniable. The talents of his work
blister and push forward. Denying, Krasznahorkai his place on the literary stage
is inappropriate, if not impossible. The Nobel Prize for Literature would not
be a surprise for the author, and this point one is merely discussing when not
if—though caution should warranted against speaking with such certain
conviction. The Swedish Academy has proven, they do not like to appear stagnant
or complacent, or predictable.
Olga
Sedakova – Russia – Being referred to as “Confessional Christian Poet,” may be
viewed as a hinderance, or being perceived in a negative fashion. Its an image
that carries the pious halo, whose concern is self-righteous pontificating
decrees, rather then the meaningful, complex, and often ironic poetic
observations of the human condition. The very same human condition that is
denied the doting hand of any celestial or holy being. In this denial the world
spins through its circular wheel of absurdity and dread; with occasional
intermissions of relief. Despite being called a “Confessional Christian Poet,” Olga
Sedakova is not pious or theologically concerned; nor she is a wailing mad
lunatic, confessing and airing her private details and personal predilections
to the reading public. Rather, Sedakova is a pinnacle of astute moral
integrity, one based around the most instinctual Christian beliefs and ideals,
which is not always apparent in churches—this is most exemplified when Sedakova
criticized the Russian Orthodox Church’s intolerance towards other Christian
faiths. While on the flipside she exchanged poetic correspondence with the late
Pope John Paul II. Olga Sedakova’s poetry is noted for its neoclassical forms,
and highly theological perspective with regards to faith and the human
condition, and the striving goal to reach the divine ideal. Though these poetic
preoccupations have gathered her praise and acclaim; during the Soviet Era, her
poems were deemed unsuitable and censored or barred from publication, meaning Sedakova
was forced to participate in the Samizdat Movement of underground Soviet
Literary scenes; but it was not until after the fall and collapse of the Red
Empire, did Olga Sedakova finely gain greater recognition and circulation
amongst readers and critics, both home and abroad. Olga Sedakova’s poetry is
stark, parred down, and yet carry the economic values of earnest expression.
Her poetry not only recounts or documents the human experience, but also the
goal to achieve the ideal as theorized in the theological concepts of the
divine. Olga Sedakova is both a poet of reality, but also of the progressive
possibility; the spirit, yearning and pursuit of the superlative.
Fleur
Jaeggy – Switzerland (Italian language) – Fleur Jaeggy is the literary queen of
dry-ice. Her pen becomes a stainless-steel scalpel etching and dissecting her
characters and society at large, through continued minuet observations,
revealing at its core a system failed and rotting in its own nihilistic
debauchery. Everyday life in Jaeggy’s world is but a thin layer of ice waiting
to give way; and beneath the cold translucent sheet of frost lies the misery,
the drudgery, the mundane tragedies, and the ever-present violence and insanity
of the human psyche. It is in this cold and uninhabitable place, one completely
deprived of joy, does Fleur Jaeggy sketch her shadowy characters. These
characters live squandered and unfortunate existences—that is if one can call
their perilous predilections living at all. They exist only to drift through
the sewage strewn river of their life, until the reprieve of death. Their
perspective on the matter is the same as their author: dry, cold, and precise.
They act with restrained emotion, presenting the world with a rational
demeanor, all the while they are consumed in the violet flames of their psyche,
prone to fits of rage and passion, all the while never slipping into such
pantomime. Instead they calculate their outburst with measured approaches—such
as concealing their suicide, by ensuring the gun shot corresponds with the
ringing of the church bell. Their violent appetites are sated when they watch
manor houses burn for the sheer hell of it. They maintain one aspiration early
on: they want to die. One could never call Fleur Jaeggy idealistic; in lieu she
depicts the world in frigid naturalistic expression. The biographical elements
of Fleur Jaeggy are scarce. She was born in Switzerland, though her literary
language is Italian (with her home now Italy)—though her literary works call
back to the mountains and dark valleys of Switzerland. She is noted for
solitary and reclusive nature, rarely consenting to interviews and evading
questions during them. Beyond her literary preoccupations, she is also a
translator of Thomas De Quincy and Marcel Schwob. Jaeggy’s literary style is a
marriage of different forms. Her novels are known to possess qualities of an
essay, and to have a language like that of a prose poem. Her short stories are
often given similar recognition with regards to its blend of poetic language,
essayist analysis and prose narrative. Despite being overlooked, and grossly
underappreciated, Fleur Jaeggy is an astonishing and monumental writer. Her
work is biting and perhaps mistakenly nihilistic, but her observations and
dry-icy cartographical analysis of the depravity of existence is both endearing
and admirable, as it refuses to look at the world through priggish moral high
handing. It’s an existential vivisection of the depravity to seek universal
meaning, only to be driven mad or violent by the inherent meaninglessness.
Jon
Fosse – Norway – Before retiring from writing for the theatre to focus on prose
writing, Jon Fosse was (and is) one of the most produced and performed living
playwright in the world. As a dramatist, Jon Fosse had written over twenty
plays, and been hailed as the heir of Henrik Ibsen; but also, Samuel Beckett,
and to a minor extent, Harold Pinter. Despite the comparisons and the review of
dramatic heritage, Jon Fosse writes in contrary to the other three. Fosse is
not a naturalist in the fashion of Ibsen. His work is not a detailed portrait
of the individual, as they maneuver through their day to day lives, fit with
their own tribulations and predications; thwarted dreams and aspirations, which
empathetically connect them to the audience, who sit just beyond the stages
end. Nor is Fosse a absurdist, writing in the shadow of Beckett’s mantel. His
characters are not veiled modern clowns, performing pantomime routines mocking
the absurd cruelty of life as it circles the meaninglessness. Fosse also lacks
the comedic menace of Pinter, as well as explicit foray into political
discourse. Jon Fosse is his own writer, one of subtle complexities. His work is
noted for its minimalist structure and perspective (recalling both Beckett and
Pinter) but lacks the absurd and underlying menacing nuances of the two.
Fosse’s plays are not realist in tradition either; rather they take place in
strange and hallucinogenic worlds, where time and reality and are shifting
concepts, and of little concern to the characters interaction with each other
and themselves on a more spiritual and emotional level. Longing and lacking for
an ideal, of which they cannot quite articulate coherently. Fosse’s dialogue is
noted for its simple but poetic structure, filled with long pauses and
permeating silence. Jon Fosse’s prose follows the same structure as his plays. His
novels are noted for their long-winded sentences and sparse dialogue. Honest
communication between characters is never possible. They speak to each other in
clipped fragments, as if they are only partially concerned with the
conversation, and more engaged with another thought or idea, unrelated to the
immediate. Past the minimalist prose; the sparse dialogue; the thinly conceived
characters; and otherwise fishbone thick plots; is the eerie sense of
theological metaphor and mysticism; as if the deprived and grey world calls out
for divine intervention, which never comes. Recent prose publications such as
his “Trilogy,” (‘Wakefulness,” “Olav’s Dream,” and “Weariness,”) recounts the
tale of the Alse and Alida, who carry a biblical allegory of predestined doom
and undying love; calls to mind a stark retelling of Mary and Joseph, and the
unborn Christ. Jon Fosse is a remarkable first-class literary writer. Fosse’s
prose is salt and peppered with repetition, images, dialogue, and metaphor that
creates a lapsing tide, which rhythmically pulls the reader under, lulling them
into exploring the existential uncertainty of the characters. Readers of Jon
Fosse’s work will note that they do not read or view his work for their plots
or their narratives; but rather to be taken in by the eb and flow of the
rhythmic linguistic experience.
Sirkka
Turkka – Finland – Sirkka Turkka is a renowned Finish poet. Sirkka Turkka’s
poetry pays attention towards nature and animals. Themes of nature and animals
is a common theme within Finnish literature, both contemporary and late. These
writers writes about the respect and beautify of the natural landscape of their
nation; and give praise to their animal neighbours, companions, and fierce
predators. Sirkka Turkka’s poetry is noted for its explicit warm treatment and
fondness of animals—loyal, trusting, and selfless companions, whose instincts
are never muddled by the emotional irrationality of human beings. Their
thoughts may be simple, but they do have their philosophical ponderings, their
witticism, and their own idiosyncrasies. Their flaws are always forgivable. As
a poet, Sirkka Turkka serenades these companions with a gentle touch, a caring
eye, and an unyielding spirit that is singular in its compassionate treatment.
Turkka began being published as a poet at the age of thirty-four, which some
may consider a late age for a writer to begin embarking on a literary career. Regardless
the maturity of her already developed themes, pierce predilections, and poetic
voice were immediately praised. The poetry of Sirkka Turkka is noted for
carrying the heart of the storyteller; employing simple language Turkka is able
to digress and recount the stories she tells through poetry. Sirkka Turkka is
by no means an erudite orator, pontificating from the grand marble stages or balconies.
Instead her poetry is warm, intimate, and inviting—reminiscent of previous
Nobel Laureate: Wisława Szymborska; and the crystalline reflections of Nobel
Laureate: Tomas Tranströmer. The deceptive simplicity of Sirkka Turkka’s poetry
is its most endearing quality, as it tackles often powerful questions regarding
life, meaning, memory, aging and death. Sirkka Turkka won the biennial Tranströmer
Prize in two-thousand and sixteen, and as it stands, she is the only Finnish
author the receive the award. Previous winners include the Danish poet, Inger
Christensen; and German poet Durs Grünbein. The most recent winner of the
Tranströmer
Prize is, the American poet, Louise Glück. On a side and sad note Gentle
Reader, it has come to my attention that Sirkka Turkka has become unwell over
the past year. I am not sure what is the cause of the digression, be it aging
or another medica condition; but it makes wonder ponder how this impacts her
chances for the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Pierre
Michon – France – Pierre Michon is one of those quiet writers of French
Literature. He does not capture the controversy of Michel Houellebecq or Virginie
Despentes; he does not exhume the private, personal, or sensitive like
Christine Angot and turn into some tabloid literary feature; he doesn’t quite
have the obsessive brooding preoccupations of Patrick Modiano; or the expansive
explorative eye as J.M.G Le Clezio. Rather, Pierre Michon, quietly sits back
and writes otherwise strange or obscure novels that never make a headline; but
gain cult notoriety amongst his readers. His prose is both dense as it is
intense, despite his work generally being relatively short in comparison to
other notorious dense writers such as: Laszlo Krasznahorkai or Peter Nadas. Any
sensation of discouragement or weariness felt towards his work should be
dissuaded. Michon is not necessarily a poetic babbling blowhard, challenging
but not without reward. Though his work carries poetic symphonic qualities, it
is not necessarily pontificating pretense, which seeks to alienate the reader. Patience
is still required, as Pierre Michon is generally speaking barely interested in
narratives, story arches, or plot. Instead, his work carries the concern for
the subject itself—be it lost and forgotten saints, abbots, and monks; or the
strange workings of the heart, portrayed amongst the background and context of
Paleolithic cave art, echoing through time. Michon is not a warm writer either.
His work carries a cold clinician’s eye, with a voice echoing through the
marble amphitheatre, into the obsidian catacombs below. Pierre Michon’s work
carries little regarding empathy, but an increasingly obsessive attitude
towards his immediate subject, be it tangible or cerebral; memory driven, or
fictious. Despite the otherwise contrary nature of the author and his work, it
has not halted or reduced his career, as he has been granted with numerous
literary prizes including the Franz Kafka Prize in two-thousand and nineteen,
which only shows his growing appeal and recognition on a international stage.
Pierre Michon has always maintained one preccoupation with his literary work:
the preoccupation of the microcosmic in relation to macro elements and
events.
Jaan
Kaplinski – Estonia – Kaplinski’s career began in the Golden Sixties of
Estonian Literature, where he was known as a rebellious poet; but not a flow
blown dissident writer. Jaan Kaplinski gathered appreciation for his humanistic
perspective found in his poems. Kaplinski’s influences are culturally and
linguistically eclectic; from Celtic mythology and language; to Chinese
philosophy and Buddhist thought. Kaplinski’s poetry is noted to change, evolve,
and reflect his varied interests. In doing so Jaan Kaplinski eschews hermetic
poetry formats, schools and traditions. In lieu he utilizes his broad interests
and themes to formulate a mosaic of endless human destinies reflected in
nature, philosophical discussion, political discourse, historical events, and
fable like narratives. Though most well-known for being the star of Estonian
Modernist poetry, and a industriously productive poet at that; Jaan Kaplinski
begun writing prose later in his career. His prose takes a wide spectrum
perspective, in the same fashion as his poetry. It ranges from autobiographical
works, to essays, prose poems, and even science fiction, whereby Kaplinski casts
a critical eye on human civilization, and our communal pride. Jaan Kaplinski is
a unique poet, one whose humanistic voice brings influences from a multitude of
different languages and cultures, and continual seeks to understand humanities
destiny in correlation with the natural world; the same one in which humanity seeks
to conquer, subdue and form to its whims.
Drajo
Jančar – Slovenia – Drajo Jančar is Slovenia’s most prominent contemporary
writer. The themes of Jančar’s works come from the early modernist traditions.
His novels are characterized by the individuals struggle against oppressive
institutions: prisons, psychiatric hospitals, military barracks and galleys or
ships – or an oppressive society in the form of a dictatorship or a
totalitarian regime. However despite the heaviness of these themes, he is known
for his laconic and highly ironic writing style; often utilizing tragicomic
events, to lighten the mood and twist the novel into different directions. Most
of his novel take place in historical era settings (presumably twentieth
century) Eastern Europe, as a metaphor for the human condition. Even though
Drajo Jančar is a novelist and short story writer, he is also known for his
essays and political engagements and civic commentaries.
Lyudmila
Petrushevskaya – Russia – The stories of Lyudmila Petrushevskaya carry the
atmosphere of fairytales. They are dark pearls strung along on an onyx coloured
chain; each one a glistening, gleaming, inky tear of unfortunate events, and circumstances;
depicting desperate individuals. During the Soviet Era, Petrushevskaya was
prohibited from publishing her stories and novels. Her works were and are not
political in nature; they do not encourage revolt, or rebellion; they do not
inspire dissidence. Her work never showed any inclination or predication
towards political machinations. Rather, Lyudmila Petrushevskaya was proscribed
from publishing due to her work ‘blackening reality.’ In other words, her short
stories and novels did not adhere or prescribe to the socialist realism and
propaganda requirements of the Soviet System. Petrushevskaya did the complete
opposite; she described the reality of Soviet life: unhappy marriages,
childhood poverty, disparity in wealth, and inhumane living conditions. There
was no praise and no ideological fanaticism; no proletariat toiling away for
the greater good, though there were workers toiling (then drinking), but it was
to make the minimal wage they were provided for the few grahams of bread they
could have to go with the other inexpensive accommodations of their life, under
the Soviet System. The inspiration for the narratives of Lyudmila
Petrushevskaya come from the people of Russia, especially the women, who are
keener and more interested in talking about life, gossiping about their
neighbors, and venting their frustrations. These women become the modern Soviet
Homers, who ride the subway or the buses, sit in cafes, and on park benches. From
them, Lyudmila Petrushevskaya concocts a witch’s brew, and present their
narratives in her finely shaped, dark pearls of fairytales. Now days,
Petrushevskaya has become a somewhat Saintly figure—or Minerva—to the Russian
women, who view her as a medium, who has given material form, and voice to the
marital discord of the Soviet Union to uncomfortable democracy, which is a
reflection of their own broken marriages and divorces. All the while Lyudmila
Petrushevskaya never digresses to political commentary. Though her popularity
may still be on the rise, her apolitical position is still able to ruffle
feathers, with her frank stories, novels and plays, where she discusses,
depicts, and contemplates the absurd and often tragic realities of the former
Soviet Union and how it has spilled over into the new Russia. Throughout it
all, Lyudmila Petrushevskaya does not just merely describe or objectively
listen—she offers solace with biting irony.
Durs
Grünbein – Germany – Few writers are referred to as having herald from the
former “East Germany,’—and if they are, it usually a mere footnote in their
biography. For Durs Grünbein, East Germany, was the incubator for his poetic
upbringing, preoccupation, and literary treatise. Born in 1962, the poet grew
up in the former state, and under the regime, which provided him great
influence in his early political, social, and literary influence; by the time
he had begun to publish, the state was already in deep decay. Despite being a
East German poet, it was renunciation that brought Durs Grünbein
his immediate poetic and literary achievement, providing him the
environment to envision and participate in a new Germany; a reunited Germany. Grünbein
was not overwhelmed by the immediacy of the changing times and events, but
rather one who changed with the times, and adapted to the opportunities now on
offer. Since his initial debut in the late eighties, Durs Grünbein was noted
for being of the most invigorated, and powerful new voices in the German
literary scene, especially in the field of poetry. His poetry marked a changing
wind in German language poetry, one that breathed new life of a complete German
whole, rather then the segregated camps of frail and crumbing concrete. Durs
Grünbein’s poetry is noted for going beyond the autobiographical and personal,
and instead turns it eyes towards more stately, historical and external
aesthetics. He tries on different styles and forms like suits, while giving
respect to the classics, though never impeded or constrained by their dogmatic
principles. Grünbein’s early poetry was noted for its deadpan expressions,
ironic perceptions, and bitter sarcasm. Over time these earlier themes were
replaced by classical styles, complete with austere restraints; which then once
again abandoned for a measured and aged version of his earlier work, now
fermented into a tonic of playful severity, and abstaining from the sarcasm and
cynicism beforehand. Beyond poetry, Durs Grünbein is an accomplished essayist,
whose subjects and themes range as electrically as his poetry; though they
blend memoir or autobiography, with further concerns with politics, history,
aesthetics, science, medicine, ethics, or antiquity.
Magdalena
Tulli – Poland – The literary family tree of Magdalena Tulli houses the apples
of: Bruno Schulz, Daniil Kharms, Franz Kafka, and Jorge Luis Borges. The roots
firmly anchor this tree deep into the earth. The apples are often warped,
surreal, and carry the tinge of cynical bitterness, riddled with the absurd,
and at times the surreal. When one drops and begins the slow process of decay,
one can spy in its fermenting juices and rotting peels, a world ending. A city
of steel, brick, and glass collapses. The sky once distant now encases in
closure. The sidewalks crack; while the roads warp. The seeds remain as
postmodern jewels, offering inclinations of the fragmented realities,
narratives, and stories beneath the last material, which has yet to decay. The
world of Magdalena Tulli is continually in a state of postmodern creation and
maintenance; disrepair and repair. Her novel “Dreams and Stones,” recounts the
creation myth, through the postmodern lens, and creates a narrative that has
neither narrator, character(s), story, narrative, or plot; but rather recounts
through the objective perspective of some distant and haphazard voice, in the
most poetic documentary tone, the creation of a city, being either created or
rebuilt through the wishes and dreams of the populace. The novel is
characterized in a polarizing fashion. Some have described it a work of poetic
prose (or prose poem); while Magdalena Tuli maintains with singular certainty
that it is a novel. It has been called a critique of the traditional creation
myth, as well as dissertation on the apocalypse. Others have deemed it an
allegorical rendering of the rebuilding of Warsaw, after the Second World War.
The author offers no elucidation to either claim, and instead promotes the
interpretation readers and critics entertain. These metafictional qualities,
first established in “Dreams and Stones,” would follow later on in her other
novels: “Moving Parts,” “Flaw,” and “In Red,” where gradually traditional elements
of novels were introduced, though always with postmodern twists, and often
playfully; until finally settling on the most conventional notion of a novel—at
least by Magdalena Tulli’s fashion. Her latest works, yet to be translated,
take a more autobiographical approach to her literary. They are introspective
journey’s, where Tulli traces the shadow of the Second World War and the
Holocausts impact on her mother, who had survived the concentration camps, but
carried the shadow into her life afterwards, and subsequently endowed it on to
her own daughter, who grappled with notions of guilt, grief, and death from an
early age. The works of Magdalena Tulli are true feats of a literary master
mind. Her production is little and slow, but the quality is world class. Her
literary language is dense, poetic, and lush. It riddles with vibrant images,
metaphors, and symbolism. She is able to deconstruct the world with surgical
precision, and in its ruin reconstruct yet another world of a completely
different shape and form. In Magdalena Tulli’s literary work perception creates
and shapes reality and defines how an individual interacts with it. Magdalena
Tulli is talented, as much as she is a literary genius. A truly remarkable
writer, who is deprived of the appreciation she deserves. However, the recent
Nobel no provided to Olga Tokarczuk will hinder Tulli’s chances in the
immediate future.
Şükrü
Erbaş – Turkey – Şükrü Erbaş is one of Turkey’s most beloved, celebrated, and
best-selling poets. His complete literary oeuvre spans over twenty collections
of poems and essays. The poetic inclinations of Erbaş initially concerned human
relationships, seen through the lens, and the details of the overlooked, and
ignored aspects of everyday life. These inclinations fermented and matured
overtime to take in broader subjects of society, individuals, and their
relationship to nature, maintaining the eye for the overlooked details, and
mistakenly overlooked portrait, and rebuttal against the mistaken emotionless
magnanimity of the natural worlds grandeur, compared to the progressive urban
landscape; the former of the two always eternal, and timeless. Şükrü Erbaş’s
poetic language is noted for its simplicity, in order to fend off preconceived
prejudices that uninitiated readers may have towards the poetic form, with its
concern for hermetic preoccupations, emotional resonance, and omission of
narrative structure. The use of lucid language will ensure readers are never
met with an air of pomp and pretense, whereby they can read the poems with the
intention of understanding, appreciation, and contemplation. The use of
everyday metaphors allows Şükrü Erbaş to bridge the poetic world and the real
world, with an imbued sense of symbiosis. This lucid and simple language has,
endeared himself to the reading public of Turkey, and allowed his poems to
touch all members of society, who approach his work with casual curiosity; and
when they have closed the clovers of his volumes, are gifted with a unique
poetic vision that at no point in time, pontificated from the ivory tower of
academia; but presented rather a natural soothing language, which could be
found at a park bench, café, or down the street.
Gyrðir
Elíasson – Iceland – Iceland is renowned for its ancient literary sagas. Tales
of heroism, romanticism, mythology and folklore, all wrapped up in historical
epicism. Gyrðir Elíasson could not be further from his literary predecessors.
Gyrðir Elíasson’s, work is physically noted for being short and condescend. His
work is noted for being precise in its language, using minimal words to achieve
macro impact. Despite being physically smaller in comparison to other
contemporary novels, Gyrðir Elíasson’s work is not myopic in its scope; rather
in its condescended format, Elíasson rivals and trumps other novelists who
require four hundred plus pages to make their point. Gyrðir Elíasson began
writing poetry and published his first collection: “Red and Black Suspenders,”
in nineteen-eighty-three, before moving to prose in nineteen-eighty seven with:
“The Walking Squirrel.” Despite finding acclaim with his novels and short
stories, Elíasson, refers to himself as a poet first, and a prose writer
second. His poetic leanings and debut are perhaps what makes his work
linguistically and lyrically dexterous. His ability to maximize minimal with
the greatest reward, showcases his early poetry, as well as the beautiful yet
simple language of his prose. His novels are known for depicting the mundane
invaded by an ethereal dream world, where the characters and narrators are
haunted or left confused by the surreal, supernatural or dream like logic which
has overtaken their life for the briefest of moments. Despite this, Elíasson
rejects being called a magical realist; and as he has matured as writer, his stories
have almost abandoned the earlier blend of dream and reality; and now almost
appear as motionless stories dealing with mundane concepts—but only on the
surface—as deep below lies a undercurrent of psychological probing and
existential pondering. With his acrobatic and poetic use of language, and his
ability condenses his narratives to manageable sizes, it is no wonder Gyrðir
Elíasson is noted as a grand stylist of contemporary Icelandic literature; as
well as a short story master. In two-thousand and eleven he was awarded the
Nordic Councils Literature Prize for his short story collection: “Milli
trjánna,” or “Between the Trees.” In these regards, Gyrðir Elíasson is much
like his epicist and saga writing literary predecessors, but rather then
detailing his sagas in volumes and large tomes, riddled with poetry and grand
narratives, his work is minute in detail, but grand in its hidden glacial
depth.
Henrik
Nordbrandt – Denmark – Before her death ten years ago, the late Inger
Christensen was considered serious contender for the Nobel Prize for
Literature. Christensen was a marvel of poetry, whose themes were universal
(death, love, fear, powerlessness), but discussed in a unique poetic format,
that was both readable, and displayed with acute philosophical perception.
Nobel Laureate, Herta Müller has praised and spoke warmly of the poet, whose
charisma and warm personality was enchanting. Yet time and waiting has proven
consequential once again, as Christensen would pass away without the Nobel nod.
A contemporary of Christensen, Henrik Nordbrandt, is considered a hallmark of
Danish poetry, with an exotic flavor. Nordbrandt studied Eastern languages when
he attended university, and since becoming a full-time writer has lived in the
Mediterranean (Greece, Turkey, and now Spain). His poems deal with emptiness,
love, yearning, absence, and death, among many others; but despite the solemn
nature of his themes, his poems are noted for taking a somewhat upbeat or
cheerful tone. It is with great thanks to, Bror Axel Dehn, that I’ve researched
Henrik Nordbrandt. Bror Axel Dehn describes Nordbrandt’s poetry as a marriage
between classical lyrical traditions with a almost childlike perspective.
Though he admitted, he has an ambivalent relationship towards, Nordbrandt, he
admitted that when the poet reaches his strong striking points, he often hits
the mark and tune with delicate grace and clear vision of poetic perspective.
Ersi
Sotiropoulos – Greece – Ersi Sotiropoulos is a personal favourite. She is a
critically acclaimed Greek poet and prose writer. Her novel “Zig Zag Through
The Bitter Orange Trees,” was praised as the best book of the decade at the
turn of the twenty-first century, and became the first novel to win both the
Greek State Prize for Literature, as well as the Book Critics Award.
Sotiropoulos is often described as an avant-garde writer, which may shock those
who are first introduced to her work. Her prose is clean, deprived of
unnecessary ornamentation, and it’s skillfully designed with jeweler’s eye for accessible
filigree. Yet below the surface of the bone bare prose, one begins to see her
experimental or avant-garde characteristics come through. Her short stories
depict the uncertain grounds of relationships; either between parent and child,
husband and wife, or brother and sister; as a reader, one is not entirely away
of how they reached such a sudden, or absurd, or violent climax; as if the
characters reasoning or rational are exaggerated or over reactionary for the
situation. Her recent work is noted for tracing the bankruptcy of the Greek
soul, as the financial crisis has emptied the wallets of its citizens, caused
political discourse and uncertainty, and drained moral character from the
state. “Eva,” employees the female psyche of the character Eva, to offer an
x-ray and diagnostic imaging of the complete collapse of Greece’s moral
infrastructure, its political institutions, and its citizens in crisis and
fear; as the financial crisis pillages and pilfers the Greek populace of hope,
stability, and places them on the edge of collapse and ruin. Her most recent
English translation is the fictionalized three-day sojourn in Paris, of the
Egyptian-Greek poet, Constantine P. Cavafy. Ersi Sotiropoulos had called,
Cavafy, a monumental Greek poet of the last century—perhaps even more important
than Nobel Laureates: Giorgos Seferis and Odysseas Elytis. The novel combines
fact and imagination, to create a sensual, erotic, and hallucinogenic narrative
of the three days Cavafy spent in Paris, which would inspire and mature his
poetic endeavors.
Leonard
Nolens – Belgium – When it comes to Flemish language poetry, Leonard Nolens
would be considered the most striking and distinguished contemporary
representative at work. Nolens entire oeuvre is described as encompassing and
uncompromising. His early work is noted for being experimental, hermetic, and
baroque inspired; while his later works are noted for eschewing his earlier
experimental forms, hermetic styles, and abandoning baroque influence, in
favour of a more somber and plain language. Despite striping his poetic style
of baroque ornamentation and experimental forms, in favour of a more
conversational and approachable language, Nolens poetry has not lost its desire
to host discussions on a range of subjects, though philosophical and profound
in nature. Apart from being a poet, Leonard Nolens is a noted memoirist (or
diarist). His recent collections of poetry have seen Nolens depart from the
singular ‘I,’ and move towards the interpersonal ‘we,’ in his poetry. His
recent collection of poetry: “Tell the Children We’re No Good,” is a collection
of poems which has been described as generational with the use of ‘we,’ and
personal with the salt and pepper of ‘I.’ In this collection of poems, Nolens
warningly reflects on his generation, but also casts a critical and honest eye
on its blunders. The shift from the singular to communal shows Leonard Nolens
desire to move beyond the personal to the collective with his discussions,
observations, and thoughts.
Claudio
Magris – Italy – Scholar, essayists and novelist, Claudio Magris is known for
his far-reaching historical novels. He is most well-known for his non-fiction
book “Danube,” which traces the disputed origins of the Danube River, to its
final destination. The travelogue/historical analysis traces, the cultural and
literary histories of the countries, in which the river passes through. It also
adds human elements and stories, into the book, through folktales and poignant
observations. Magris in the novel has an eye for details, which give each
visited town, and city its own personality. The language itself is poetic and
graceful flowing with the Danube’s course with ease. His novels are equally as
intense and philosophical in their discussions of the culture and history of
the twentieth century.
Kiki
Dimoula – Greece – Kiki Dimoula’s poetry reflects personal experience in a
historical context. Her poetic language is frank, honest, sharp, and sparse.
Yet it is known for its linguistic aerobatics, playful syntax, and emotive
powers deprived of sentimentality. Her poetry deals with national
disillusionment and state homelessness, as the homeland is no longer a
welcoming place but a military ruled ideological dictatorship. Her poetry
recounts faded memories, the onslaught of oblivion, and the progressively
corrosive touch of time, which disintegrates everything; as well as the modern
man’s attempts to escape his existential anxieties and insecurities of the
modern age. This comes from Dimoula’s own experience of living and viewing
Greece under the state of military dictatorship. Yet despite the arbitrary
historical context haunting the present, Dimoula’s poetry always offers a
glimpse of hope: fading memories make room for new ones; while lost or
destroyed photographs are replaced with others; a home goes beyond the roof or
the possessions and furnishings, it’s the people and the memories which count.
She’s a strong elegiac voice, which does not allow itself to be overtaken by
maudlin yearnings or nostalgic notions; it offers warning and hope, to those
who listen and to those who read.
Dag
Solstad – Norway – Like many young writers, Dag Solstad, began his literary
career with great controversy in his youth, by writing blatant political
narratives, which sympathized and even promoted Lenin-Marxist ideals. Sand and
time have the marvelous ability to smoothing out the coarse and pompous edges of
youth, and soon Dag Solstad would abandon his less then bashful political
themes for more philosophical and existential ruminations. His prose and his
work is considered some of the best of Norway, and the gold standard of
comparison. Solstad’s mature work is known for focusing on the existential
crisis’s of the everyday man who deals with abandonment, the passage of time,
the frustrations of life, and the attempts at creating meaning in another wise
meaningless world, deprived of any universal concepts or contexts of higher
sense of meaning beyond the ones in which the individual is responsible to give
it. Yet, what if the individual is incapable of giving their life meaning,
beyond the pointlessness of job and paycheque? Dag Solstad ponders and wonders
about these everyday existential individuals who continuously find themselves
abandoned and realizing their life has past and left them stranded on the
flotsam and jetsam of life’s shipwreck, adrift in a sea apathetic and
disinterested in their course of life. His work has been called philosophical,
political, and experimental—all of which does not matter to Solstad, whose
peculiar and particular breed of writing and ironic sense of realism,
continuous to provoke the imagination and ask questions about human destiny in
the world.
António
Lobo Antunes – Portugal – António Lobo Antunes is the Portuguese postmodernist
master of prose. His novels follow in a similar fashion of other postmodernist
writers such as: Samuel Beckett, Thomas Bernhard, and László Krasznahorkai.
Antunes’s work is known for being long and exhaustive. His novels are
especially well known for being difficult to read, as they the form of the
stream of consciousness monologue. The monologues which narrate his novels are
known to employee long and winding sentences, where they release their
vitriolic perspective on the reader. Generally, António Lobo Antunes’s novels
recount some historical reference or experience either with war of
oppression—reflecting both the authors experience, as a doctor in Algeria
during Portugal’s colonial wars, and his experience under Salazar’s
dictatorship. His novels are often described as an old man, who releases and
unburdens himself of his experiences of violence and death at any listeners or
person who has an ear to spare, and time to tolerantly pass, with a man on the
verge of madness, begging to relinquish his experiences of mankind at its
worst. This often violent and somber perspective comes from António Lobo
Antunes work as a doctor, both Portugal’s colonial wars, Angola’s war of
independence, as well as his later work as a psychiatrist. His prose is noted
to being influenced and reminiscent of William Faulkner, and his themes are
grand, while his format difficult but rewarding—that if you get past the vitriolic
onslaught of mankind at its worst.
Doris
Kareva – Estonia – Doris Kareva embodies the soul and spirit of the poet, as a
pearl. Her poetry is human, riddled with emotional brilliance and resonance,
its sole goal is to be felt and understood through the sensory and emotive
sensations. Doris Kareva is known for diving and plummeting to the deepest
aspects of the human experience, where she dredges up the fine sands of the
human heart, soul, spirit, and shadow. Her poems are noted for observing a strict
adherence to her personal form, one based on brevity and clarity, in an
otherwise condescend form. Her poetry is noted for its paradoxical movements,
by employing both vivid imagery, clear diction, while maintaining open
interpretation of meaning within her work, once again relying on the readers
emotional reaction to imbued or guide meaning. Despite varied interpretations
her poetry is open and willing to be read by all those who open its clam like
shell, to gaze at the wonders inside. Her poems are not historical chronicles
or epic in scope or vision; in fact they are quite contrary. Kareva’s poetry
has often been misclassified as feminine in nature or pertaining to the gender
specific guidelines of poetry; where (if we are to believe) male poets are preoccupied
with the political, the historical, the philosophical—the important
predications of the time; while women are to be more concerned with the nature
and issues of the domestic variety: writing poems of love, longing, unrequited
affections, and the evils of the heart. This notion is absurd, as it is
archaic. This idea is neither gender bias nor sexists; it’s simply outdated and
pretentious. Though Doris Kareva is noted for her poetry which excavates and
spelunk the arteries, catacombs and tunnels of the heart, and human emotions
and spirit, it is high quality. When one opens the oyster of Kareva’s poems,
they will find a pearl as stunning, ethereal and elusive as the dawn, in which
the sun has yet to slip above the horizon; it is there her poems glimmer with
boundless meanings and interpretations, each depending on the personal
characteristics of the beholder. Doris Kareva’s poetry is anything but anemic;
and certainly not reserved for the female sex. Its merit is just as strong as
the historical chronicle, and epic poems of anyone else. Her foothold in the
English language is also becoming more paramount. Bloodaxe Books recently
released a collection of selected poems titled: “Days of Grace,” in English
translation. The collection has been well received by critics and poetry
readers alike, who admire her ability to create a multitude of meanings through
a singular strength of vision, distilled with such economic clarity; as well as
her poems harmonic grace, and continuity in thought that expands throughout the
collection.
Pere
Gimferrer – Spain – Pere Gimferrer is one of Spain’s most critically acclaimed
and renowned poets, who also happens to write in both Spanish and Catalan.
Earlier on his poetic career, Gimferrer sought to move contemporary Spanish
language poetry away from the influences of Octavio Paz and Vicente Aleixandre,
who he often vindicated and looked upon with suspicion. Afterwards, Pere
Gimferrer began to write and publish in Catalan, and since then has alternated
between the two languages with brief forays into French and Italian as well. As
a poet, Pere Gimferrer has made a career of bring experimental tendencies back
to poetry, which were quickly abandoned in the Spanish literary language after
the Spanish Civil War. This preoccupation with ingenuity and formal
experimentation is a bit off putting. The consumption of poetry has since
dwindled steadily over the years, as readers have become less interested in
literature that seeks formal experimentation and linguistic ingenuity. Readers
instead prefer natural and graceful forms of literary expression, which do not
seek to speak with the cold chiseled marble certainty of a writer convinced of
their own intellect; but rather one who is able to provide with natural
expression and grace, the wonders and beauties of the world with clarity, and
sober thought.
Jón
Kalman Stefánsson – Iceland – Iceland is a small nation residing in the
Atlantic Ocean, who’s closest neighbours include: the Faroe Islands and
Greenland; while further on Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom
(specifically Scotland). Despite being small, Iceland is regarded as one of the
most literary in the world. Icelandic authors are also no strangers in finding
success in translation, and are often noted for its powerful literary talents,
such as the lyricist turned prose writer: Sjon. Jón Kalman Stefánsson is a dark
horse of Iceland letters. His novels carry unique and often foreboding titles:
“Heaven and Hell,” and “About The Size of the Universe.” The novels of Jón
Kalman Stefánsson beckon forth the Medieval Iceland Saga’s of the past. They
trace the profound exploration of life, love, desire, and of course death, all
in the rugged, harsh, and breathtaking landscape of Iceland, a land of fire and
ice. Jón Kalman Stefánsson has been nominated for the Booker International
Prize, as well as the Nordic Council’s Literature Prize on four different
occasions. He is an author who with a profound simplicity remains concerned
with the human condition’s primeval nature, which lurks beneath our societal
image of ourselves; there lurks the carnal and primal urges, hankering for
release, through the unabashed and raw need for desire. All of this is
recounted through the deceptive simplicity of prose, detailed with a poet’s
acumen to mine right to the heart of the matter, with a keen philosophical eye,
continually observing the wayward wills and oppression of the human
condition. Jón Kalman Stefánsson, came
to more prominent attention last year, when he was considered one of the
nominees for the revolutionary ‘New Academy Literature Prize,’ which sought to
fill the void left behind by the absent Nobel Prize for Literature. Since then
Jón Kalman Stefánsson, has been mulled and ruminated on as a possible,
contender—but no more than any other writer.
Zsuzsa
Takács – Hungary – the “doyenne of contemporary Hungarian Poetry,” as described
by World Literature Today; though Zsuzsa Takács is often overlooked by
comparision to other contemporary and widely translated Hungarian writers:
László Krasznahorkai and Péter Nadas, who are noted for their dense, philosophical,
and at times apocalyptic works, which are deemed the highest caliber of serious
literature. Despite this, Zsuzsa Takács has been a quiet voice, but striking
voice within the wings, her poetry striking, forceful and sharp. Since her
initial debut in the nineteen-seventies, Takács poetic voice was already
developed, with motifs that would reoccur continually: urban landscape items:
trams, streets, and promenades along the waterfront. Takács, poetic themes
range from transformation and metamorphosis to love and death; all the while
wrapped up in her signature ironic humour, with its misunderstandings, and
double-entendres. Zsuzsa Takács is a unique poet in Hungary. She followed the
Postwar Poet, who in returned gave their blessings and praise, to her early
poetic work. She had the privilege of observing her country’s metamorphosis
since her debut, from one ideology to another—from the stifiling political
atmosphere of the Soviet Union, complete with ideological constraints, and
demands; to the independent nation of Hungary, which now moves towards a
stronger more ‘ultra-nationalistic,’ perspective, in contemporary politics. In
her early poems, she discussed homelessness as a state of existence, and then
remarked on the claustrophobic realities of: apartments, rooms, and hospital
wards. Zsuzsa Takács most recent collections of poems showcase her own literary
transfigurations, where alongside the poems, the writer had also included works
of prose (short stories or prose poems), in which she comments on the poetry of
others, and her own. Zsuzsa Takács is a
Hungarian treasure, one who is waiting for greater English introductions.
Éric
Chevillard – France – Postmodern literature has become a literary cliché. when
it first became a literary movement, postmodern literature sought to move away
modernist perspective, and instead of hiding or celebrating the universal
ideals held by prior modernist writers, and instead sought to exemplify and
celebrate the artificial measures of literature. Often these writers utilized
metafictional narratives, or strong authorial voices, or eschew narration, plot
and story in favour of long digressive treatises on the inability of literature
to capture a unified perspective of reality. If modernists were idealists;
postmodernists were by satirists. Éric Chevillard is no different, as he is
considered one of the great postmodernist writers of the French language. A practitioner of the experimentalist
literary form, Éric Vuillard uses multiple postmodern stylistic techniques in
which to dissect and celebrate the artifice of literature and the novel. In his
novel “The Author and Me,” Chevillard seeks to dissuade the notion that any narration
or narrative voice is simply an act of ventriloquism of the author, and instead
tries to clarify through a lengthy monologue of a narrator how they are
completely different from the author. Though there is no denying that Éric
Chevillard is an extraordinary stylist and experimentalist, whose literary
merit cannot be overlooked, his work risks coming across as cold, unappealing,
and certainly absorbed with its own grandiose narcissism and echoing histrionics.
Mircea
Cartarescu – Romania – Mircea Cartarescu, is one of the most critically
acclaimed and well-known Romanian writers, currently at work today. He is a
respected poet and prose writer, who began his literary endeavors as a
rebellious poet, belonging to the ‘Blue Jean Generation.’ Yet, since begin his
literary career, Cartarescu has moved beyond his youthful literary beginnings
of the eighties and has become a revered Romanian postmodernist master. His
first prose work was a collection of five short stories called “Nostalgia,”
which already began to show the developing themes and styles of Cartarescus
later works. His most well-known and praised work however is his ‘Orbitor,’
trilogy, which had taken fourteen years to compose, and spans more than a
thousand pages. The trilogy is noted for its attention to detail, fine-tuned
language, and hallucinogenic prose. “Blinding: Volume 1, the Left Wing,” is the
only part of the trilogy currently translated into English, and is a massive
novel to get through; but the prose is sensual, vivid, surreal, engrossing and
a true delight to read; though one should take their time to read it, to savour
it, and its audacious romp through history, memories (envisioned, embellished,
and honest), and the mythical city of Bucharest.
Adam
Zagajewski – Poland – Zagajewski is a compatriot of Czesław Miłosz and Wisława
Szymborska, a Neustadt International Prize for Literature Laureate, and one of
Poland’s most famous poets; both post-war and post-cold war. Adam Zagajewski
began his literary career, in the late sixties, early seventies, as he became
one of the most influential members of “The 1968 Generation,” (or New Wave) of
poets. His early poems and collections, such as: “Slaughterhouses,” were noted
for their socio-political critiques; after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the
collapse of the former Soviet Union, Zagajewski’s poetry has become more
philosophical and existential, then politically observational. History is a
major part in Adam Zagajewski’s work, as he often displays how history embeds
itself in the everyday and common place, in the most subtle of ways. In this
regard, history and historical accounts and facts, are not grand epics or
chronicles, they are understated events which haunt the present with such a
lightness of touch they overlooked and missed. His themes however are universal
as much as they common place, but with historical contexts, philosophical
ponderings, and an ever present existential desire to find meaning, Adam
Zagajewski is considered a grand master of poetry and human thought.
Viivi
Luik – Estonia – Some writers sit or remain dormant after becoming their
initial publication. They are unsure if they can repeat the success of their
first work. Others never reached any success the first time around and worry
about publishing into the void again. Viivi Luik has never had an issue with
publishing. She has been described as the Estonia literary ‘wunderkid,’ her
first collection of poetry was published when she was eighteen in the Estonian
Literary Golden Years of the nineteen-sixties, and she was noted for being a
changing wind in the Estonian literary scene. This is perhaps why, Viivi Luik
is often regarded as the Canary poet, for her ability to take note of the
changing poetic predilections, sociopolitical atmosphere, and economic tides, but
also the personal, private, and sensual changes of the human heart. Her poetry
is often noted for its chameleon like flexibility, nimble measures, and undying
musicality. Her poetic forms often reflect and refract, personal observations,
private moments, intimate minuets, into the mystical and universal, through the
metaphors and lens of the natural world, landscape, and other external forces.
Her poetic voice is ever sensual, preceptive, and understanding of the world in
which we all inhabit, but experience is such different and unique measures.
Beyond her poetry, Viivi Luik has also published three novels. Her first two
novels were noted for their immediate poeticized language. Language,
experience, and the depiction of the intimate and immediate, are often noted as
focal points of the novels, not the usual narrative structures typically used
in prose deconstruction and criticism. These first two novels were noted for
their depiction of the political situations of the Eastern Europe and life
behind the Iron Curtain in the grand Soviet Union. “The Seventh Spring of
Peace,” tells the story of an Estonian childhood, riddled with absurdity, fear,
and paranoia, in the countryside, as a child seeks to make sense of the macro
machinations of the world around them, fit with fear and uncertainty. “The
Beauty of History,” recounts the love story of a young woman and a young man,
during the Prague Spring, and reflects the mentality and reality of the Baltics
at the time, and the malaise of Eastern Europe in its grey fortification. Viivi
Luik has also written, essays on matters of art, literature, and the conceptual
meaning human beings bring to them. She is one of Estonia’s most beloved and
special writers, who is unfortunately under translated and underappreciate
Javier
Marias – Spain – Javier Marias, is one of Spain’s most renowned, recognized,
and established writers, with international recognition and appeal—especially
towards English language readers. He studied English philology, translated
classic of English Literature into Spanish, as well as lectured at Oxford on
the art of translation. Javiar Maris had an upbringing, surrounded by
intellectualism and dissidence; his father a Spanish philosopher was persecuted
by Franco’s regime, and was imprisoned, for his teachings and criticisms. Due
to the hostility of Spain under Franco’s rule, Javiar Maris along with his
family, moved briefly to the United States, where his father lectured at
universities. Throughout his childhood and adolescences, Javiar Maris proved himself
as a literary prodigy; writing his first ‘mature,’ short story when he was
fourteen and later publishing in a collection of short stories titled: “While
the Women are Sleeping.” He published his first novel at the age of seventeen,
and his second novel while studying in university. His work is noted for its
postmodern pastiche and playfulness, combing genres, themes, and preoccupations
to bring a conceptive fragmented perspective of the modern world, while
remaining a sense of humour and playfulness. He is regarded as one of most
important contemporary Spanish language writers currently at work.
Mikhail
Shishkin – Russia – Russian literature has long been known as the grand gold
standard of literature. Its golden writers from: Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Leo Tolstoy,
Alexander Pushkin, and Anton Chekhov, retain their relevancy and their
provocative powers to this day. Though Russia’s history is noted for its darker
periods, and the Soviet Union, may have crushed many intellectual pursuits, the
Silver Age persevered with: Anna Akhmatova, Boris Pasternak, and Ivan Bunin;
which soon passed its moonlight glow on to later twentieth century writers:
Joseph Brodsky, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, and Marina Tsvetaeva. The torch from
its radiant golden sun, to its gentle silver moon, passed on and on. Today,
Mikhail Shishkin is considered one of the most prominent and acclaimed writers
of twenty-first century Russian literature. Shishkin is well revered for his
beautiful lush language, which is praised for its lyricism and delivered
magisterial control. Mikhail Shishkin is noted for tackling large themes and
preoccupations in his work such as history, time, love (ever eternal), death
and the resurrecting properties of memory. His work are grand scale epics,
echoing the Golden Age of Russian literature; he is quoted to saying his major
Russian influences are Leo Tolstoy, who taught him not to be afraid of naivety.
Anton Chekhov who passed on his love and devotion to humanity. As well as Ivan
Bunin, who encouraged him to never compromise. Alongside his influences,
Shishkin has been compared to James Joyce and Vladimir Nabokov. Despite being
praised as of the most important and influential Russian writers at work today,
Shishkin’s relationship with Russia is complicated. He currently resides in
Zurich, Switzerland, where he has worked as an interpreter for refugees.
Mikhail Shishkin is a staunch critic of Putin and his government, calling it a
regime riddled with corruption and filled with criminals. Despite his
universally daunting themes, his complex use of language written with lyrical
elegance; Shishkin is known for probing emotional destinies alongside the
ethereal elements, which rule with intangible presence, and yet all too real
authority. He has been described as a living classic, and an exceptional
example of a writer who blends the Golden Age realism and romanticism of
Russian literature, with postmodern sensibilities, as he seeks to broaden the
Russian dialogue of literature once again, away from the political paranoia, prisons,
and gulags of the Soviet Union.
Kjell
Askildsen – Norway – [ Recommended by Bror Axel Dehn ] – Kjell Askildsen is
regarded as one of the most important Norwegian writers working in the
contemporary short story; often characterized as a master of the form. His
short stories, utilize minimal language and bare bone plots, to showcase human
relationships at their most intimate and fraught, where moments of
misunderstanding explode and crumble the foundations of time and age, which has
supported the characters. His work has had a lasting impact on Scandinavian
literature, as he is often considered a mentor of many new and young
contemporary writers. Despite the intimate nature of the short story, and the
fact that Askildsen focuses on relationships within his work, there is glacial
permafrost which is imbedded in his work. His landscapes are derelict and
almost apocalyptic in their Beckettian minimal bleakness, with similar
draperies and events going through them, ashtrays and stale cigarette butts,
beer, coffee, as well as funerals. In such a timeless void, deprived of
coherent sense of time and place, there is little for the characters to hope
for, and so they succumb sexual impulses, and dream of erotic desires to keep
them company. In his machine like prose, with its repetitive mantras, and
steely accuracy, now rusted by time and fate, but not forgotten; Kjell Askildsen presents the plight of the
contemporary human: continually envisioning and craving for the warmth and
intimacy of companionship, but is thwarted by misunderstandings, and in the end
left disenfranchised and disposed in a world deprived of such luxuries, simply
by human failure and fault.
Péter
Nadas – Hungary – Peter Nadas, has often been compared to Marcel Proust, for
his preoccupation with memory and times passage; but also perhaps because of
his obscenely long novels; “Parallel Stories,” alone is extraordinarily large,
with a page of one-thousand five hundred and twenty pages, and took the author
eighteen years to write. Both his parents were illegal Communists during World
War II, but survived the war, and found stability under the Communist
dictatorship. Nadas’s father, was head of a government department, before being
accused of embezzlement, though he was exonerated of all charges and
accusations brought against him, he would commit suicide after the ordeal; his
mother, died when Peter was thirteen succumbing to an illness. After his
father’s suicide at sixteen, Nadas was an orphan. He trained to be a journalist
and a photographer, and for a few years worked as journalist and a
photographer, before freelancing and writing fulltime. Since then, Peter Nadas
has been of the most renowned and well known Hungarian of contemporary
literature, along with László Krasznahorkai. Much like his contemporary
(Krasznahorkai) is known for his doorstopper novels, and his uncompromising
style, which again requires readers to armed with stamina, tolerance and
patience, as they tread the memory laden works, as they probe the historical
and the personal.
Australia &
Oceania –
Gerald Murnane – Australia – Gerald Murnane’s name
is spoken in hushed whispers, among many. He’s a dark horse and a cult figure,
known for his sparse bibliography, his eccentric qualities, and his
uncompromising works. Murnane is often described as the quintessential
Australian writer, as he has never left the country, and rarely explores his
own, which is quite contrary to many Australian concepts, as they are known as
cosmopolitan travelers, before returning home to settle down. Not Murnane, he’s
a homebody, who has found his place on the earth, and quietly rests there. When
his work has been released, its quietly reviewed, praised vehemently, but the
praise does not fly far—despite often referring to the author and his work as
genius and masterpieces. His work is noted for being paradoxical and contrary,
nonchalantly refusing to fit into any concrete idea of what it should be or
what it represents. For example, on one hand, Gerald Murnane’s work is
described as plain, matter of fact, on the borders of being frosty in spirit,
before the reverse is annunciated; that Murnane’s work is intricately lyrical
to the point it was moving, in its continual distortion of personal realities,
based on a individuals sight, rather than the preconceived notions of reality.
His work is often described as fitting into the notion of realism at one point,
then paddling back re-state the argument that it’s anti-realism, with many
postmodernist tropes. The truth is: Gerald Murnane rejects literary tropes and
fashions, and instead writes the most unique stories and short novels, in prose
which shifts from extreme to extreme, in realistic but dreamlike prose, which
always relies on the individual’s perceptions of the world. It is truly no
wonder, why he is considered a cult favourite, a dark horse, and a genius on
the borderlands of the conventional. With the Nobel Banquet now cancelled, and
safe to presume al ceremonial activities, lectures, and other conventional
events related to the Nobel Prize cancelled; it would be perfect for Gerald
Murnane to receive the prize. After all he’s not much of a traveler.
Asia & the
Indo-Subcontinent –
Kishwar
Naheed – Pakistan (Language: Urdu) – Named Pakistan’s most important female and
feminist poets, Kishwar Naheed proves that a literary voice is not just a
creative and linguistic predilection, but one imbued with civic and
revolutionary obligations. Naheed is noted from an early age at being a
independent force, one which rejected openly conservative traditions and values
of the time—she fought to go to school (completing her high school studies via
correspondence), and without her families support continued on to
post-secondary education, completing a Master’s Degree in Economics. Yet it is
poetry that has brought Kishwar Naheed to the attention of the world.
Throughout her life, Kishwar Naheed cultivated and unleashed a confident and
forthright manner. This acerbic candor allowed her the ability to take charge
and challenge the otherwise inequal opportunities provided to her as a woman,
and her male counterparts. Her battling nature strengthened her convictions and
resolve, and are paramount in her literary works, which refused to concede and
simply churn out petty lines to appease an otherwise male dominated audience.
Rather, Kishwar Naheed published poems that called for action, rebellion, and
defiance to discriminatory practices on whatever grounds; be it: creed, colour,
caste, gender—those who were considered less then were called to defy and
resist the unfair treatment. It is said that every Pakistani woman found
themselves reflected Naheed’s poems. Her poem: “We Sinful Women,” became an
anthem for Pakistani feminists. As a poet, Kishwar Naheed is noted for her
candid, direct, and fierce poetic expressions. Her poetry, though noted for
resonating strongly with women; transcends the confines of gender politics and
discusses universal themes and ideals regarding the struggle for: equality,
justice, progress, and freedom.
Yōko
Ogawa – Japan – As of late, Yōko Ogawa has begun to receive greater attention
and recognition in the international literary world, specifically the English
language. With the publication of the English translation of her novel: “The
Memory Police,” Yōko Ogawa gained immediate attention in the English language
literary world, which only grew as the Covid-19 Pandemic took hold and the
notion of normal was amended and edited. “The Memory Police,” was shortlisted
for the both the Best Translated Book Award, as well as the Man Booker
International Prize. The drought and lack of appetite for reading Yōko Ogawa’s
work in the English language, is that Haruki Murakami has been the dominate
Japanese writer to have his foothold in the English literary market that also
had public appeal, as well as commercial success. Publishing as a business
sought to repeat the success of Murakami and attempted to solicit and market
other Japanese writers to readers who wanted more. Yōko Ogawa is often rumored
to be one such writer but failed to break into the environment already
established by Haruki Murakami. On the contrary though, Ogawa found immediate
readership, with lengthy translations and publications of her work in France. Yōko
Ogawa’s literary output is noted for its grotesque, macabre, and subtle violent
tropes. Her literary themes are centered around the ideas of memory, loss, and
absence. This immediately distinguishes her from her contemporary, Haruki
Murakami, whose uses more surreal dreamscapes, and magical realism romps; where
Yōko Ogawa fixates on more psychological, interpersonal, and intrapersonal
environments, with the subtle inclinations of the visceral and vicious lurking
around the mundane edges. Ogawa’s literary language it straightforward and
plain, though it will verge on the subtle, poetic; but never enters the stages
of extraordinary poetic. She has been endorsed by Nobel Laureate: Kenzaburō Ōe;
who has praised Ogawa for giving expression to the subtle psychological
workings of the human mind, through prose which is both gentle and searing in
its penetrating perspective. Yōko Ogawa is a superb writer, renowned for her
unadorned literary style, which explores the peculiarities of memory, and the
ghoulish world of loss and absence. Her narratives often fixate on the
struggles of outcasts (be it physical or mentally deranged), who are at odds
with the claustrophobic society, which seeks and demands conformity and abject
assimilation. Ogawa traverses the shadows of the modern individual’s psyche,
whereby she paints an intimate portrait of a society deceiving itself of its
own madness; or a society on the brink of losing its own memory in willful
consent, in order to escape the tragedies of the past in favour of the
uncertainties of the future. Yōko Ogawa’s work is not grand or epic, but rather
intimate and endearing, as it fixates on the private and personal tragedies of
the individual mirroring and reflecting on the greater society as a whole,
especially the cracks which have slowly over time become chasms and canyons, where
the macabre and the grotesque dance in the shadow of the abyss, and in the ripe
and rotten suppression of modern society.
Kim
Hyesoon – (South) Korea – Some female writers who write with an inclination
towards feminism, do so in subtle and otherwise graceful ways, without engaging
in immediately shocking imagery; Kim Hyesoon, on the other contrary engages in more
extreme, almost fanatical poetic discourse. She has been described as an
engaged and revolutionary feminist poet, one whose poems are disquieting in
their surreal, visceral, and grotesque imagery. In her poetry, Kim Hyesoon
readily challenges the (South) Korean opinion and perspective of women in societal
standards and hierarchy. Hyesoon readily rips apart these social conventions;
and casts a critical eye on the socio-economic system, as the cause of the
social hierarchy, and the subjection of woman. Kim Hyesoon views capitalism as
directly linked to (South) Korean patriarchal oppression, which views woman as
less than, or a lesser status then their male counterparts. Her poems are noted
for their visceral, violent, macabre and grotesque imagery, in which she
shockingly displays the uneasy landscape of (South) Korea’s social enclosure,
from the perspective of a woman. The political context which at times frames,
Hyesoon’s poems, are not entirely clear; though she does criticize the (South)
Korea dictatorship, with its willingness to accept neo-colonialism, and indulge
itself in a steady diet of unequal capitalism, which has oppressed and
disenfranchised the vulnerable and neglected of society. With that in mind, Kim
Hyesoon, readily and violently lashed out and rebelled against a system which
unjustly and cruelly seeks to oppress half the population (or more), to a
status of domestic and martial service, with complete dependence on men. Though
her poetry is critical, controversial, visceral, viral and violent, Kim Hyesoon
is well revered and respected poet, as she is engaged and actively participates
in either changing the system through poetry or at least having an informed
debate about the status of women within society. In two-thousand and nineteen
she was awarded the Griffin Poetry Prize for her collection: “Autobiography of
Death,” which cycles through how individuals and people move through the
structure of death, trauma, illness, and injustice.
Can
Xue – China – Can Xue is considered one of Chinas greatest contemporary
writers. This acclaim is provided by Western media and readers, more than it is
in China. In her native China, Can Xue is regarded as controversial and
dissents away from the main literary circle of the country. Her work is noted
for being highly abstract, surreal, and pushes the limitations of the
conventional notions of postmodernist literature. Her work is often understood
as allegorical—especially in a political context. The author vehemently denies
the political interpretation of her works. Instead, Can Xue, explains her work
is more a literary experiment, which explores herself as a subject. This means
as one pulls the layers of the abstract, unconventional, surreal and visceral
back, at the deepest pit of the narratives, their lies within itself an aspect
of Can Xue; meaning her work initially is constructed in an autobiographical
thought, which is only encapsulated in the surrealistic of the subsequent
narrative after the fact. Can Xue is not considered the most reasonable
authors, nor the easiest read. Her work is riddled with contrary perspectives,
contradictions, and as noted above an abstract and surreal perspective, which
has gathered both acclaim abroad and controversy at home. Being one of China’s
most experimental writers may come from the fact Can Xue had little to no
formal education, and she is able to use language and words in a more natural
(or rather, unnatural manner), whereby she is able to explore the rhythm and
cacophonic nature of language which both entices and disrupts readers. Her
narratives are often free from the technical or formal lectureships provided
via education, and her work is not interested in conforming to the political
and ideological standards outlined by more accessible, promoted, and available
authors. Can Xue’s writing on the contrary has been influenced by a natural
interest for language and writing, as well as years of reading. Often regarded
as the Chinese Kafka, Can Xue’s surreal narratives defy convention, formal
narrative and literary structures, and unsettle readers with a disquieting and
resonating force of an imaginative power which is strictly her own.
Hwang
Sok-yong – (South) Korea – Hwan Sok-yong observed the tragedies and realities
war. During the Vietnam War, he was charged in ‘Clean Up,’ Operations, where
individuals would come in and erase (‘clean up,’) the civilian massacres that
had taken place. More often than not this meant disposing of the dead in
careless manners, without thought and dignity, as long as the evidence was
erased. Despite the gruesome nature of the work, this would provide and provoke
Hwan Sok-yong to ask himself philosophical questions, as well as compare his
situation with that of his father and his generation, who were conscripted into
the Imperial Japanese army in order to strengthen Japan’s national interest in
the Asian sphere; Sok-yong, would then question his own conscription into the
Korean army which was to assist in strengthening America’s national interests
and influence in the region. These experiences, these questions, would be the
influences for his most famous and first short story: “The Pagoda.” Since then,
Hwan Sok-yong has been critical about the state of Korea calling it a “state of
homelessness.” Sok-yong is also noted for his political activism in Korea, in
which he championed democratic reforms, organized protests, wrote pamphlets and
plays, as well as hosted a clandestine radio show. Now Hwang Sok-yong is
considered one of the greatest prose writers of South Korea in which he
documents the turbulent twentieth century of the nation, being split in two,
and used as chess piece by larger foreign powers in a game of international
politics.
Yoko
Tawada – Japan/Germany – When Kazuo Ishiguro won the Nobel Prize for Literature
in two-thousand and seventeen, there was a bit of a discussion of whether he
was an English writer or a Japanese writer. The debate petered out abruptly. It
is a fair statement, however, to propose that Kazuo Ishiguro is
quintessentially an English writer. His literary language: English; his
characters: English (apart from his first two novels). Yet, his themes carry
the watermark of Japanese sensibilities and characteristics, but that is where
the Japanese aspect of his literary output and style conclude. They are merely
aspects of heritage and cultural impressions through parental endowment. Yoko
Tawada, by comparison resides on the farther end of the spectrum. She is by all
accounts an exponent writer, working in two languages: her native Japanese and
her adoptive German. Tawada works in both languages and is known for drafting
her novels and stories in both languages, often creating two different
manuscripts with two different voices, often employed in different literary
forms. Longer works—novels and plays—are written in Japanese; while shorter
works—short stories and essays—are drafted in German. The duality of language,
and the contrary perspectives created by two different languages, has
influenced Tawada’s use of language as well. She has expressed language as
unnatural, and more artificial to the point of magical. This sense of
bewilderment is often seen within her use of neologisms and wordplay within her
works, to provide a linguistic portrait of the everyday through the perspective
of how we discuss it, communicate it and describe it within the confines of words.
Reality in this sense does not influence language. Language on the contrary
frames and provides the necessary infrastructure to understand and interact
with reality. Beyond language and the peculiar technicalities of language and
its relation to understanding perceptions of reality; borders and boundaries
and their crossings, is another theme of Yoko Tawada’s work. Borders are not
just physical, geographical, ideological, cultural or linguistic in her work;
they are also philosophical and metaphysical: exploring the difference between
waking life and dreams, animals and humans, thoughts and emotions, and other
abstract phenomena. Language may provide context, but in narratives, Tawada
employees postmodern literary techniques and magical realism to explore these
otherwise strange notions of our differentiating and dissenting perspectives on
a dichotomous plane of contrary polar opposites. Yoko Tawada, is for all
intents and purposes a cosmopolitan and worldly author, eschewing geographical
boundaries and language barriers to create both a career and literary oeuvre to
reflect the mercurial state of a world and its linguistic shadow theatre. Unlike, Haruki Murakami, Yoko Tawada does not
eschew her Japanese heritage or first language. She employees and embraces
these notions fully. She also embraces and employees her adoptive language of
German, as an equally unique partner in her literary output and career. In this
she exists in a unique no-man’s land, based around a dual perspective of two
different languages and cultures, and endearingly belonging to both; while
Murakami exists continually as an outsider (with self-righteous indignation).
Ouyang
Jianghe – China – Chinese literature over the last century has gone through
numerous periods of upheaval, adjustments, abuses, and reformations. After the
communist revolution and the Mao years, Chinese literature entered a dark
period of political messages, ideological confirmations and propaganda
propagations. The nineteen seventies saw poetry take up the mantle of
resistance, though these poems were often obscure, their politically charged
messages and dissidence often saw them banned and their writers persecuted.
After the failed democratic protests of the late nineteen eighties, Chinese
literature once again shifted along with its economic capabilities. Ouyang
Jianghe is known as a writer of the third wave, or a post-misty poet. Despite
being considered a post-misty or obscure poet, Ouyang Jianghe is noted for
being intellectually driven and challenging; though his poetry does not take a
political stance. Rather the poetry of Jianghe concerns itself with the ideas
and ideals of art for art’s sake, choosing the poetic medium as an intellectual
conversation, riddled with scenes and thoughts from the ubiquitous, mundane and
commonplace. His poetry resides within the personal and the private, and
preoccupies the double meaning of everyday objects, figures, scenes, thoughts
as they relate to the reader and the writer. On these grounds, Ouyang Jianghe
is considered one of the most avant-garde and difficult poet working in the
Chinese language in the past few decades.
Ý
Nhi (Hoang Thi Ý Nhi) – Vietnam – Ý Nhi is one of the most important Post-War
poets of her generation. Nhi’s poetry style is noted for its grace, gentleness,
and subtlety. Her subject is always humane, though tinged with the inclinations
of tragedy. Her poetic format is regarded for its modernist form, detailing the
emotions of the Vietnam War, and its last effects on the Vietnam as well as the
populace specifically women. During the Vietnam War, Ý Nhi worked as
journalist, where she recounted and reported the horrors and devastation the
war caused, as it ripped through the country. It is therefore no surprise that
the war has been a major influence on her literary output and work, which
carries a gentle poignant sadness throughout her collections as it depicts the
great loss of the times from a female perspective, be it: lover, husband, son,
child or friend. Her work moves beyond just wartime literature
classification—though it carries the pit of bitterness in itself—there is
always gentle grace and philosophical wisdom, as she works historical themes and
events in the grander narrative and consciousness of society and culture. Over
the past years, Ý Nhi’s reputation and work has begun to find readership beyond
the borders of Asia, with her poetry being translated into French, Russian,
German and Spanish, as well as a few poems have been showcased in poetry
anthologies in English. In two-thousand and fifteen, Ý Nhi became the first
Vietnamese poet to receive the Cikada Prize, whereby her work is expected to
gain even further international recognition in Swedish as well.
Moon
Chung-hee – (South) Korea – Is considered by many (South) Korean literati as
one of the most important Postwar Poets of (South) Korea; which is ironic
considering, Moon Chung-hee’s poetry is not necessarily concerned with the war
and all the suffering, the division, the hunger, and the human malaise. This
would explain why some literary critics to make the distinction that Moon
Chung-hee, is the leading Female Postwar Poet. The notion carries the
inclination that the poets’ gender denotes and predefines her subject matter,
preoccupations, and poetic output. As if Moon Chung-hee is resigned to write
poetry about love, longing, heartache, domesticity and married life, children,
and other feminine preoccupations, in a Postwar context. Femininity and the
female gender are a preoccupation within Moon Chung-hee’s work, it is not
denied or overlooked; but it is also not subservient or complacent to the
subjection instilled on it via the masculine perspective. It is not portrayed
as being fragile or delicate. It is a
paradox of turmoil and bliss. It is the spirit of fire and quiet rebellion. It
is powerful, though viewed as soft and overly sensitive. In the works of Moon
Chung-hee the feminine is not degraded or typecast to poetry of exalting love
or insufferable heartbreak. Moon Chung-hee’s poems eschewed these preconceived
notions sentimentality and instead fixated and focused on the feminine as
complex, contrary and revolutionary; much like fire, which can both provide
warmth and cook, but aso become enraged and destructive. The poetry composed by
Moon Chung-hee reviews the female experience as existential, complicated,
revolutionary, and rebellious, a vibrant spectrum of human experiences,
complete with commentary on social, political and cultural topics and issues.
Her poetry is not denoted or disregarded as trivial, light, or cheap, but
striking in its vigor that has provided a new poetic perspective of the human
experience from the female perspective. A perspective that is fearless and
fiery as it changes the social and gender issues of the country and its poetic
prejudices, against itself.
Wang
Anyi- China – Eileen Chang was considered the literary jewel and darling of
Shanghai before the Cultural Revolution and eventual takeover of the Communist
Party of China. Chang’s novels were both fashionable, but also riddled with
literary sensibilities. By the nineteen-fifties, Eileen Chang had left China,
before settling into the United States, where she became a recluse and died
alone in her home in the early nineteen-nineties. Wang Anyi is often compared
to her cosmopolitan predecessor, Eileen Chang, because both writers are have
written fervently about Shanghai. Eileen Chang escaped The Cultural Revolution
of Mao Zedong; Wang Anyi was less fortunate, she was sent to a rural forced
‘re-education camp,’ at a young age, which deeply impacted the writer at a
young age. She was not permitted to return to Shanghai until the late
seventies, and then her literary career began to take hold. Initially, Wang
Anyi wrote about the day-to-day lives of the people she imagined, disregarding
the overtly social and political novels demanded by the communist state at the
time. It was not until she attended the International Iowa’s Writers Workshop,
that her work took a different more engaged perspective of the Chinese novel,
and wrote more socially engaged novels that often caused a stir of controversy,
through depicting otherwise social taboos, such as the unspoken carnal love
found depicted in: “Love on a Barren Mountain,” “Love in a Small Town,” and
“Brocade Valley.” Another novel of hers “Brothers,” pushes the bounds of the
notion of love, by depicting platonic homosexuality between two men. Despite
this her modern classic novel: “The Song of Everlasting Sorrow,” has by far
been her most critically acclaimed novel. The novel recounts the life of a
woman born in the 1940’s Shanghai, and traces her through the Second World War,
the Chinese Civil War, the Cultural Revolution, as well as her life
post-Cultural Revolution. It is often considered her most important novel, and
a groundbreaking achievement of Contemporary Chinese Literature. The most
constant theme in all of Wang Anyi’s work is her attention to urban detail of
life in Shaghai, riddled with brutal densities, long lines, the futile waiting,
and indomitable jostling and rudeness of life in the urban.
Yi
Mun-yol – (South) Korea – Yi Mun-yol is one of (South) Korea’s leading
contemporary writers and is considered the public’s favourite author to be
noted for the prize (or so I am told). Mun-yol’s work consists mainly of novels
and short stories, alongside social and political commentaries. Yi Mun-yol’s
literary is generally considered to splitting in to two categories: the macro
and the micro. The first category, the macro—or external—consists of an
exploration via allegorical elements, of Korean society during the past
century, fit with injustices, rampant ideologies, and how everyday lives are
shaped and governed, by the ideological, and powerful external forces over
seeing their lives, and attempts to create solutions for these dilemmas. The
second category, the micro—or internal—comprises of work that is considered
semi-autobiographical in scope, and is more concerned with introspective
exploration, existential themes ranging from angst, identity crisis’s and
issues, and the eventual implosion of society as a whole, imploding due to its
own failures, but also the implosion of the individual. The theme of connection
and abandonment make ready appearances in Yi Mun-yol’s work, due to the isolation
of his youth, and the abandonment of his father, who defected to (North) Korea,
during the Korean War. The defection and crime of the father had a profound
impact on the Yi Mum-yol’s upbringing, as he was treated as a social pariah, by
peers alike due to the actions of another. The notion and suffering of division
can often be found as an exploration in both of his categories of work. The
work of Yi Mum-yol is noted for being multilayered and complicated, due to the
extensive use of linguistic wordplay, symbolism, and the characters relation to
language. Translators of Yi Mun-yol’s work, have noted it is difficult to
translate this unique use of homonym wordplay into other languages, as the same
form does not exist. The two categories, plus his own personal background, make
Yi Mum-yol a unique writer, as well as noteworthy.
Hiromi
Itō – Japan – Japanese poetry is not as well-regarded as other cultural and
literary exports from the island nation (such as Haruki Murakami and video
games). Regardless, Japanese poets remain active in their cultural spheres of
influence. One of the most important poets of the late Twentieth Century and
contemporary Japanese poetry is: Hiromi Itō. In a similar fashion as (South)
Korean poets, Kim Hyesoon and Moon Chung-hee; Hiromi Itō is often regarded as
one of those unique, revolutionary, and famous feminist poetic perspectives in
the Japanese literary canon. Despite the feminist perspective forced upon her,
and her early poetic predilections were aimed at the relationship between the
sexes, motherhood, womanhood, and child-rearing; her work continually evolved,
adapted, and changed its skin like that of a chameleon, never fixating or
focusing too long on a topic. Her literary perspective and output have ranged
from poetry, to essays, to criticism; but also taken into consideration Native
American oral traditions of storytelling; shamanistic and holistic poetry; as
well as the lifecycle and plants. There is no discipline—be it cultural,
social, literary, or scientific—that Hiromi Itō does not find endlessly
interesting and inspiring, while also not critically analyzing and studying.
For example, in her early career she was a formulative figure in feminist
literary criticism in Japanese. Now she has become an instrumental figure in
literary ecocriticism. Despite the varied interests of her literary output and
career, the qualities of her literary style remain predominate throughout: that
same wandering, longing, transitional quality, continually seeking the
interconnectedness of cultures, people, and history.
Bei
Dao – China – Is often cited as one of the most prominent proprietors and poets
of the Misty Poet Generation of contemporary Chinese poetry. The Misty Poets of
contemporary Chinese poetry are a dissident and reactionary poetic school of
writers, who promoted democratic visions and ideals through their poetic works.
Their works were noted for employing obscure imagery and poetic techniques to
both evade censorship, as well as to force the reading populace to contemplate
and think about the poetry they were reading. The Misty Poets became the
de-facto literary enemies of the Cultural Revolution, and the Communist Party
of China. The goal of encouraging the reading populace to think becomes a
dangerous activity in authoritarian institutions. If the populace thinks, they
will then question; if they question, they will begin to question the reality,
they will then question why are subject to the needless suffering of the ruling
elite, which inevitably leads to the downfall of authoritarian figures,
institutions, and governments. A: thinking, questioning and contemplating
population, becomes an uncontrollable one. Bei Dao has inevitably been
disciplined for his poetic dissidence. He has been sent to re-education camps
and forced labour camps in order to understand the back-breaking ideals of
communism. Yet, undeterred the author continued to refine and secretly publish
his works, even in the harsh conditions of his confinement and education. He
participated in the first Tiananmen Square protests, before being forced into
exile, and banned from re-entering the country. In exile, Bei Dao had the
liberty of publishing his poetry, but retained his hazy language and obscure
symbolism to provoke and inspire. China now on a global stage, is showcasing
its aggressive and almost impudent might. Protests in Hong Kong have received
worldwide attention, alongside economic wars between other nations. Awarding,
Bei Dao, would be considered a concise and political message, in complete
contrast to the earlier (mistake) of Mo Yan. Despite the political atmosphere,
Bei Dao’s poetry is noted for its peculiarity, especially in the use of
language, as well as sociopolitical preoccupations. His poetry is forever aimed
in an idealistic direction of the unwavering spirit of human resilience and
stoicism, despite rampant corruption and oppression.
Duong
Thu Huong – Vietnam – The Vietnam War was often considered one of the biggest
political and military blunders of the twentieth century. Just like its
predecessor the Korean War, which divided (and still divides) the Korean
Peninsula; the Vietnam War rouse suspicion and questions of the ethical
efficacy of the American War Machine, which had been glorified and promoted
during the Second World War, as unstoppable in its victorious virtues. The
Vietnam War, by contrast presented the notion of war not as a patriotic parade,
but one of horror, trauma, and often inhumane slaughter. The rise of mass media
showcased its ability to present a narrative to both gather support of the
public, but also their accusations of savagery.
The war itself did not unite a country; it divided it. Since then, the
translation of Vietnamese literature has been rare and often limited. Duong Thu
Huong has often been the most translated Vietnamese writer in the English
language, mainly due to her work being dissident in nature. In nineteen-eighty
nine, Duong Thu Huong was expelled from the Communist Party for her criticism
of corruption in the government. She would later be imprisoned for her critical
writings against the government, subsequently she would lose her job as a prizewinning
screenwriter, her works were banned from publication, and she was forced to
earn a living as a translator. Further insult was added, as the writer was
prohibited from forming any group, party, or movement which could be seen as
operating in complete contrast or autonomous to the government. In order for
her to express commentary on freedom and democracy for Vietnam, Duong Thu Huong
would need to turn to her pen, but be denied publication and be threatened with
further imprisonment. In two-thousand and six, Duong Thu Huong was granted
permission to leave Vietnam, and has since resided in exile in Paris, where she
promotes change through uncensored and critical writings. Her novels and
stories often take the form of conventional narratives and stories, often with
subtle political annotations and context, from there the author is able to
provide a fierce and fiery barrage of criticism levelled against the communist
government and its corruption. In this case, Duong Thu Huong is considered one
of the strongest writers in translation from Vietnam, based off translation
quantity alone, and the rarity the countries literature has found in other
foreign languages. The promotion of humanistic ideals: freedom of speech and
thought, independence, autonomy, are strong pillars of the author to stand on
as well.
Ko
Un – (South) Korea – For years now, (South) Korea has been lobbying and
desiring a Nobel Laureate in Literature, in part recognition of its culture,
literary history, and of course it cements or presents the nation as a first
class player on the world stage. Of course, as most know—to all informed about
the awards; the Nobel Prizes are not Olympics, they are not panhandling to
nations or governments, they awarded to individuals who have achieved great mastery
or accomplished great work in their fields; be it Literature, Medicine,
Chemistry, Physics, Peace or Economics. Yet, for (South) Korea, Ko Un has been
considered the sole candidate for the Nobel Prize for Literature. National
panhandling aside—Ko Un is quite a poet. His oeuvre encompasses a variety of
poetic schools, thoughts, styles and formats. His poetry ranges from zen poems,
imagistic reflections, personal epiphanies, to historical epics, as well to
character sketches; such as his Thirty volume series of poems: “Ten Thousand
Lives,” where the poet immortalizes people he has met in a poem. Despite his
large scope of his poetic achievements, Ko Un’s life has often been usurped by
political upheaval and personal difficulties. He was repeatedly imprisoned by
the (South) Korean dictatorship, for his political protests and democratic
sentiments. During the Korean War, he was employed as a grave digger, before a
brief stint as a Buddhist monk. It was not until the eighties that Ko Un would
begin his serious devotion to writing poetry, and produce a large, varied, and
diverse bibliography; after which he would gain international recognition and
national honours. Today, Ko Un is revered, respected and recognized as a poet
of great talent and humanistic thought.
Wang
Xiaoni – China – Wang Xiaoni is often classified as a Misty Poet alongside: Bei
Dao, and Yang Lian. Despite this, Wang Xiaoni lacks the political motivations
and convictions found in the works of the Misty Poets, whose obscure poetry
sought to provoke and inspire democratic principles and social movements
through literature. Instead Xiaoni has eschewed political stances in favour of
a distinct and personal poetic form and style which emphasizes emotional
resonance, and a preoccupation with the personal and private human psyche and
soul. Her poetry is renowned for its striking style that Wang Xiaoni has
crafted for herself, which details the feelings (both physical sensations and
emotional response) to the landscape, scenes, and messages found in the
everyday. Early in her literary career, Wang Xiaoni clarified immediately her
interest was in the personal and its relation to the existence of others, as
well as this relationship with the landscape and society as a whole, entirely
deprived of the adulterating influence of politics and ideological messages.
Her poetic style is noted for its intense detailed effort to capture the
internal and introspective meaning, before being shaped into a musical and
graceful composition. The emotional impact takes precedence over stylistic and
compositional concerns. She avoids linguistic experimentation and is skeptical
of writing poetry merely to showcase the peculiarities of language or the
cunning nature of a writer willing to display their own clever aptitudes. Likewise
she shuns mystical tropes and themes, which she views with skepticism, all in
favour of displaying and discussing with great accuracy the human spirit,
shadow, soul—the psyche of the individual—fit with its physical sensations and
emotional resonances, in the constrained form of poetry.
Mend-Ooyo
Gombojav – Mongolia – Mend-Ooyo Gombojav is considered one of Mongolia’s most
critically acclaimed writers. Known for the versatility of forms in which he
writes in including poetry, short stories, novels, and essays. He first
embarked on a literary career at the age of thirteen when he wrote his first
poem under the tutorship of Dorjiin Gombojav, who was his mentor. In his early
twenties, Mend-Ooyo Gombojav became a founding member of the underground
literary movement called ‘Fire,’ in Mongolia, which would set the stage as an
early milestone as a movement revolutionizing and modernizing Mongolian
literature. Over the latter half of the twentieth century Mongolia would begin
to chance its political landscape, and Mend-Ooyo Gombojav was considered one of
the greatest writers shaping and influencing the literary landscape. By the
nineties, the singular communist party rule had come to an end, and democratic
reforms were taking shape. Free from presenting his work to the communist
censors, Mend-Ooyo Gombojav was able to freely write and publish his work
without meeting the constraints of ideological demands. During this time,
Mend-Ooyo Gombojav wrote extensively about the pastoral and nomadic culture and
heritage of Mongolia. These poems are often considered the most important works
that Mend-Ooyo Gombojav has produced, as they presented a unified identity of
Mongolia through its heritage, by celebrating the nomadic culture and history.
Over the past three decades, Mend-Ooyo Gombojav became an increasingly
striking, vibrant, and powerful voice in Mongolian literature. His bibliography
ranges between his renowned poetry to novels, as well as scholarly and
essayistic work.
Li
Ang – Taiwan – Here is a paradox: calling a female writer, a woman writer is
considered rude; yet calling a female writer, a feminist writer is considered a
compliment. The two are used interchangeable but carry different connotations.
A ‘woman’s writer,’ brings to mind a female writer whose literary
preoccupations are trivial, marginal, and of no literary significance. Whereas
a ‘feminist writer,’ carries the weight of a female writer, who provides social
commentary and criticism, on sociopolitical issues, especially issues regarding
gender inequality, and female struggles, it carries the weight of more serious
and severe thought. The Taiwanese writer, Li Ang is regarded as a ‘feminist
writer,’ noted for her idiosyncratic and penetrating portraits of gender
politics in contemporary Taiwanese society.
Her work is noted for being candid and vicious in portrayals of the
plight of women and is known for pushing transgressive boundaries in a bold and
unapologetic manner, often placing her in taboo territory. Despite this, Li
Ang, has been writing since the age of sixteen, when she embarked on her
literary career, and since then has published over twenty novels and short
story collections. Despite the impertinent nature of her work, which vivisects
and examines the gender politics in Taiwanese society, and the psychosexuality
of her characters, she is internationally renowned and acclaimed, for breaking
down oppressive social barriers, and displaying the putrid patriarchal
system(s) which are still at work. Beyond examining gender politics, Li Ang has
also written candidly on the state of Taiwanese politics, especially its
continual assertion of independence. If literatures is meant to push the
envelope, explore boundaries, and envision new and striking methods of
communicating ideas, Li Ang dances within these flames proudly and
unapologetically.
South America
& Latin America; with the Caribbean –
Nancy
Morejón – Cuba – Often called one of the most prominent poets of
Post-Revolution Cuba, and the most translated female poet from Cuba, certainly
does not hurt Nancy Morejón’s reputation on the global literary stage. Morejón
is considered the first professional Cuban writer with African ancestry. Her
poetry focuses on issues of ethnicity, gender; the individuals relation to
history; politics, and the Afro-Cuban identity; which are all displayed in her
colourful and vibrant poetic compositions that blend Spanish and African
cultural traditions, and ponder questions of these two unique traditions, and
what it means to be a product of both. Though Nancy Morejón celebrates and
writes of ‘blackness,’ in all its beauty, experiences, and rich cultural
traditions, there is a resistant refusal to subscribe struggle or adversity
within a singular parameter. Ethnicity, history, and politics are themes within
Morejón’s poetry and will became entangled with each other, they take on
intimate notions such as family situations or scenes, or ancestral explorations
of the past. This can be observed as one explores the notion of slavery, its
relation to the present, and the effects on the individual as they relate to society,
their family, and history. Nancy Morejón’s poetry is noted for its lyricism,
slight mystical tones, erotic fasciation’s, and intimate spiritual nature. As a
poet, Nancy Morejón views poetry as a form of social communication and eschews
all attempts at hermeticism or closed off language preferences. The goal
remains the same, to communicate beyond geography, language, and gender with
others, on an experience, a thought, an emotion, a moment, all expressed
through the unique narratives of her poetry.
Rodrigo Rey Rosa – Guatemala – Rodrigo Rey Rosa –
Guatemala – Rodrigo Rey Rosa is a profoundly humanistic author, whose styles of
writing can be described as both diverse and digressive. Rosa can be both fluid
and fragmentary; eschewing national identity in favour of a more global reach;
coupled with a mosaic prose writing that documents and exemplifies his vagabond
and transitionary existence. His travels have taken him throughout Central
America and Mexico, as well as sojourns in North Africa—specifically Morocco,
where the tutelage of friend and mentor, Paul Bowles, proved to be a major
influence on his writing, intercepted with his own heritage, experiences, and
preoccupations. His most recent translated work into English “Human Matter,”
has been described as frustratingly fragmented; defying any traditional notion
of proper classification within the literary scope. It has been described as a
collection of notebooks, investigations, and a recorded exploration of
humanity, memory, integrity, and cruelty. It’s too fictious to be defined as
non-fiction; yet, to discursive for many to call it a novel. All the same,
“Human Matter,” is defined and marketed as a novel. It’s been praised as a
treatise exemplifying human dignity, integrity, as well as collective identity,
but in the family sequence, but also on a national level. Throughout his
erudite and colourful career, Rodrigo Rey Rosa gained praise, support and
acknowledgement from others. The late Roberto Bolaño praised Rodrigo Rey Rosa
as being one of the best writers of his generation. In fashion similar Bolaño,
and other Post-Boom writers, Rodrigo Rey Rosa employees more postmodernist
techniques and perspectives in his literary output. His work carries the
influence of myth and folktales of Guatemala but takes a more global attitude in
preoccupation. Unlike the predecessors of the Latin American Boom Generation,
Rodrigo Rey Rosa’s concern is not necessarily limited to the mystical, exotic,
and magical lands of South and Central America, but instead pushes the
otherwise southern land to the forefront of the global literary stage,
providing a unique dialogue not hindered by national identity or provincial
concerns.
Adélia Prado – Brazil – Adélia Prado –
Brazil – Adélia Prado is one of Brazils most renowned, and beloved contemporary
poets. Her poetry was first discovered when she was on the cusp of middle age,
when she decided to relinquish a few poems to a poet, essayist, and scholar,
who in turn passed these poems on to the Brazilian modernist master, Carlos
Drummond de Andrade, who quickly heaped praise on this otherwise startling and
unknown voice, writing from the interstate of Brazil, away from the high urban,
cultural, and cosmopolitan centres of the time. Adélia Prado’s poetry was noted
immediately, as being independent, unique and striking, as it never fell into
the fashionable preoccupations of the time. Rather, Prado’s poetic perspective
was one of the everyday: the physical (carnal and erotic), as well as the spiritual
and religious, and that of the perspective of being a woman. Adelia Prado is a
devote practicing catholic; which carries the aris of solemn conservative
stiffness, with little enjoyment, and an exacting sense of self-flagellation in
order to bring on sufficient suffering for penance and repentance in order to
gain a more intimate and masochistic relationship with a holier being; Prado’s
poetry eschews this image abruptly, by displaying erotic details that become
both shock and contrary to faith. She defends this practice by stating the
poetry is not the eroticism of the flesh, but the intimacy of soul. Her themes
move beyond just the theological eroticism of spiritual and soulfulness, as it
also recounts the details of the lives of women of Brazil, their concerns and
their preoccupations, which through her poetry is never just ordinary. According
to the poet, it is the workings of the devil, which provides the illusion that
the everyday is somehow deprived of any extraordinary details, or a sense of the
bewilderment, as she relentlessly persists there is poetic enjoyment and beauty
within the world of the everyday, and its ubiquitous charm. It is in the simple
acts of life, and those brief moments of reflection that the metaphysical,
divine, and transcendental reality is revealed. Six years ago Adélia Prado was
the recipient of the Griffin Lifetime Recognition Award, an hour she shares
with poets: Adam Zagajewski, Ana
Blandiana, and the late (Nobel Laureate) Derek Walcott; which only cements the
international recognition, and appeal that Adélia Prado is in possession of.
Frankétienne – Hati – Frankétienne has been regarded
as Hati’s: Father of Letters—a wizened man of literature, wordplay, and
humanistic intellectual pursuits. For this, he has often been speculated and
tipped as a winner for the Nobel Prize for Literature. Frankétienne’s literary
work is known for its unusual use of language in the form of neologisms; but
also for his ill-mannered depictions of vulgar sexual encounters, and brutal violence,
which are common occurrences in Haiti even today. Even though Papa Doc and Baby
Doc are dead, there has been little progress or change in Haiti’s political
system or central control of power within the country. Haiti has been described
as an unfortunate orphan of fate and change; a politically mismanaged wretch;
and a depressingly third world country, which is better left ignored then
acknowledged. For Frankétienne, this all must be brutally depicted, voiced, and
protested. Frankétienne’s work is noted for its mystical atmosphere, and it’s
almost voodoo folkloric roots. If Wole Soyinka was a writer influenced by the
Yoruba people’s myths and folklores, in which he found a way to embody in his
literary identity; Frankétienne’s violent and mystical heritage (found in his
paintings, poetry and prose) stems from the Hattian voodoo traditions of Haiti
and its alluringly dark intrigue, which enchants the Caribbean in warmth and
ecstasy.
Elena Poniatowska – Mexico –Elena Poniatowska is
considered by many the Grand Dame of Mexican Letters; but Poniatowska may view
herself as a journalist first, and a writer of literary pursuits second. Her
work—especially her journalistic work—focuses on the disenfranchised of Mexican
society: the underprivileged and poor; though she has a strong inclination to
focus on women. Poniatowska’s fixation on the social and political disparity of
Mexico in her reportage and literary works, have some declaring her a political
and human rights activist. There is always a tint of irony, though, when those
who challenge and question the socio-political inequality, usually come from
privileged and upper-class lives. In this, Elena Poniatowska is of no
exception. Poniatowska was originally born in Paris, France to a fortunate
family (her father was distantly related to the last king of the
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth), her family would later leave France due to the
Second World War, and the Nazi invasion of France. The family left for Mexico
(where her mother was originally from but fled during the Mexican Revolution).
As a young woman of reasonable noble birth, Elena Poniatowska was expected to
be raised, and behave like a lady. Imagine her mother’s dismay and despair,
when Elena Poniatowska showed greater interest in the people of the streets,
the maids in the house, and all their stories and experiences; before becoming
a journalist, rather than concern herself with fashion, and the life of a
socialite, and finally a proper marriage. Escaping the world of fashion,
interior design, and other leisure lifestyle preoccupations did not end the
moment, Poniatowska became a journalist. Her first journalistic position was
that of a lifestyle columnist, which she stated was dreadfully dull and boring.
After satirically mocking the fashion of the time, she was instructed to
conduct boring interviews everyday for a year with individuals she came across.
Over time though, Elena Poniatowska would begin to cover the sociopolitical and
economic disenfranchisement of Mexico, and its subsequent violence. After
writing about the student massacre in Mexico in nineteen sixty-eight, Elena
Poniatowska would set to become one of the most powerful literary voices within
the country by being both journalist, social critic, civil activist, and prose
writer (novels and short stories). As a journalist, Elena Poniatowska cannot be
described as objective, her work is always centered, and delivered on the
behalf of the personal and human stories of the affected—specifically the poor,
and woman—who are inevitably the victims of the violence and corruption.
Throughout her career Elena Poniatowska has been the recipient of numerous
literary accolades including, The Cervantes Prize in two-thousand and thirteen.
In receiving the award, the prize jury praised Elena Poniatowska for her
devotion to the journalistic form; brilliant foray into different literary
genres; as well as her firm understanding and commitment to documenting,
reporting, and disseminating contemporary history.
Luisa Valenzuela – Argentina – Heralding from a
literary family and background, it comes as no surprise that Luisa Valenzuela
became a writer. Throughout her childhood home, writers frequently visited her
family; her mother, Luisa Mercedes Levinson hosted many social and literary
gatherings attended by the Argentinean literati, including Jorge Luis Borges,
who composed a story with Levinson. Initially interested in the natural sciences,
Valenzuela turned towards writing in her late adolescences, and embarked on a
literary and journalistic career from there. Valenzuela’s literary career and
bibliography spans over thirty published works, in a multiple of different
forms including: novels, short stories, flash fiction, and essays; which
coincide with her journalistic work as well, and teaching and lecturing
engagements. Despite her privileged background, Luisa Valenzuela was not immune
to the political turmoil and social upheaval of Argentina during the seventies;
as the military junta came into place, intellectuals, and writers were feared
as enemies of political power and certainty, and were quickly censored and
removed from their positions into others, in order to ensure they could not
touch or engage with others and provoke freedom of thought, or political
revolution. Luisa Valenzuela often tackled themes of political oppression, and
women’s oppression at the hands of authoritarian governments. Valenzuela’s use
of language is also a remarked as being highly refined, along with her
engagements in political and social interests. Language becomes malleable form
for the author, subjected to her authority and providing new perspective,
description, and recollection of events and themes with ease. Despite writing and publishing around the
same time as Latin American Boom writers, such as Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Mario
Vargas Llosa, and Carlos Fuentes; Luisa Valenzuela, is described as one of the
earliest and most profound Post-Boom writers. Regardless, she is a world-renowned
writer, who has been instrumental in paving the way for other writers of the
Southern Continent to have their voices heard and appreciated on the literary
stage.
Carmen Boullosa – Mexico – Boullosa is one of
Mexico’s leading contemporary writers, who has worked in a variety of different
literary formats, which includes novels, short stories, poetry, plays, as well
as a foray into screenwriting. Arguably, Boullosa is most famous for her
novels, which are consciously written in a different format, style, and
thematic form then the others. This conscious desire to write each new novel in
a new format, style, and thematic occupations, is the hallmark Carmen
Boullosa’s literary personality, and overarching literary style. Her novels
vary between historical fiction and magical realism. Her satirical trilogy of
plays uses similar devices as they deploy historical settings and a inclination
for the fantastic, to satirize the traditional perspective gender norms, and
woman’s oppression in the patriarchal society framework. Feminist issues within
the Latin American context, which has made her one of the leading female voices
of contemporary Mexican Literature; who has been praised by the late Carlos
Fuentes, and Roberto Bolaño.
Cesar Aira – Argentina – Cesar Aira is a prolific
and industrious writer, producing two to four novellas a year. Aira is known
for being a practitioner of a unique writing style and technique, which he
refers to as: ‘Flight Forward,’ where he bypasses edits and revisions, and
begins to change the direction of his novella, when he views the work is headed
towards a literary or stylistic traps or dangers. This ‘flight forward,’
technique has often be compared to theatrical improvisation, where the writes
improvises or changes style or literary genre to best serve the work. Aira’s
often avant-garde perspective has gathered praise and criticism. On one hand
critics applauded the writer’s unique blend of contrary and shifting
perspectives to offer a truly unusual viewpoint of the world, with surreal and
humorous manners. On the other hand, detractors have criticized this style as
being nothing more than postmodernist gimmick or party trick which the author
parades as a literary aesthetic, but is nothing more than a continual rehash of
the same old joke, where he nonchalantly wears the hat of Dadaism; the coat of
surrealism; the tie of fantastic; and the shoes of quasi-nonsensical. Criticism
often points at the authors reliance on his style, often removes attention from
his depth and themes, which many argue are severely underdeveloped in favour of
his stylistic forays. Regardless of either criticism or praise, Cesar Airia is
perhaps one of the most important literary writers in the Spanish language; one
that has moved from the Latin Boom Generation, and facilitated a multitude of
genres, perspectives, and themes with every novella written, produced, and
published.
Circe Maia – Uruguay – Circe Maia is a literary
national treasure of Uruguay; despite living through the political upheavals
which have gripped the country. These same political upheavals have infiltrated
her home, and often came close to destroying her personal life. Her husband was
arrested for his political involvements, and Circe Maia was only spared a
similar fate, simply because she was pregnant with her youngest daughter at the
time. The dictatorship of Uruguay and personal tragedies had once silenced Maia
as a poet—but not out of grief or fear, but more out of protest. Now, she is a
renowned and respected contemporary poet. Her poetry is noted for being direct
and somber. She refuses to slip into the self-absorbed poetic monologue or fill
the airs of a narcissistic poet. Circe Maia writes with clear conviction, to
write her poetry in a way in which as a poet and as a reader, there is a
conversation in which there is a mutual unearthing of what it means to be human
and to live, all become thoughts and questions about the human condition and
its universal and personal destiny. Circe Maia has battled against her poetry
becoming self-contained and hermetic; rather her poetry is lively, direct,
approachable and conversational in form and function, it is the poetry of daily
life, the poetry heard and seen through the comment mundane events, reflected
in objects and events; it is a poetry of a life lived and experienced, rather
than one theorized and mythologized.
Ana María Shua – Argentina – The Southern Continent
is an extraordinary continent filled with literary talent, which is only now
beginning appreciated across the globe. For decades though, the South and Latin
American literary culture was dominated by what was known as the Latin American
Boom Generation. There were of course other writers who wrote independently
from the Boom Generation, they’re risked being overlooked for not participating
in the otherwise more dominate culture or literary group. Ana María Shua (much
like Luisa Valenzuela) worked independently from the Boom Generation. In a
similar fashion as Valenzuela, during the Argentinean military junta, Shua was
forced into exile; there in France, she worked as a journalist. After the
dictatorship fell, Ana Maria Shua returned to Argentina that her literary
career began to take hold and take off, when she published her first novel.
Since then, Ana Maria SHua has published over eighty books in a variety of
forms including, novels, short stories, flash, fiction, poetry, drama, essays
and children’s literature; while also being anthologist of Jewish folklore and
writing books of humour. The micro story (flash fiction) is what Anna Maria
Shua is most known for, often called the ‘Queen of the Microstory,’ both in
South America and in Europe.
Cristina Peri Rossi – Uruguay – Nearing the end,
throughout this section of this Nobel Prize for Literature Speculation List,
the Latin American Boom is referenced with a few writers, Cristina Peri Rossi
will be the last writer to have a reference attached to the previous Boom
authors. Where others are merely associated as being post-Boom or being admired
or praised by members of the Boom Generation, Cristina Peri Rossi, appears to
be the only one listed who had a partial association with them. Arguably
Cristina Peri Rossi, is also the only woman writer who was associated with the
Boom Generation as well. Throughout her association, she was actively involved
in championing the causes of the generation during the 60’s and 70’s, as well
as forced into exile twice; she also was a dear friend of the late Julio
Cortázar. Despite her relation to these writers, she was only partially
associated, mainly due to her own desire to maintain a distance from the
formalities of being categorized as one of them. Rossi is an independent
writer, who sought to retain that independence free from literary associations;
while others may argue that her gender played a key role in the lack of formal
induction. Regardless, the Uruguayan writer is one of the most accomplished,
beloved, and renowned writers of South American literature. Her work is
comprised of both novels, short stories, poems, as well as essays, journalism,
and political commentary. Throughout her bibliography, Cristina Peri Rossi has
maintained common themes throughout her work, which include political and
social injustices; love and passion; sexuality, feminism, and issues relating
to gender.
In the End:
Closing Thoughts –
There you have it Gentle Reader: my Nobel
Speculation List for Two-Thousand and Twenty. My sincerest apologies that the
list is later than previously desired. Thank-you for your patience.
Following are some statistics and data of this
year’s list:
86 writers are included on this year’s speculation
list.
35 writers are female.
51 writers are male.
Of these eighty-six writers, 12 are new to this
list. These new writers are separated by geographical area in the following:
Africa – 1
North Africa & The Middle East – 2
Europe – 3
Asia & The Indo-Subcontinent – 3
South America & Latin America, with the
Caribbean – 3
Continuing with this statistical report, with
regards to how this is organized and contained, if we look at countries in
correlation to the author, most have one to two writers listed. There are some,
however, who exceed this general convention and have three and even four to
five writers named in correlation to nation. Those countries are:
South Africa – Ivan Vladislavic, Wilma Stockenström,
Antijie Krog, and Athol Fugard
Morocco – Abdellatif Laâbi, Abdallah Zrika, and Leila
Abouzeid
Estonia – Doris Kareva, Viivi Luik and Jaan
Kaplinski
France – Annie Ernaux, Pierre Michon, and Éric
Chevillard
Russia – Lyudmila Petrushevskaya, Mikhail Shishkin,
and Olga Sedakova
Hungary – Zsuzsa Takács, László Krasznahorkai, and
Péter Nadas
Norway – Jon Fosse, Kjell Askildsen, and Dag Solstad
Japan – Yoko Ogawa, Hiromi Itō, and Yoko Tawada
(South Korea) – Moon Chung-hee, Kim Hyesoon, Hwang
Sok-yong, Yi Mun-yol and Ko Un
China – Ouyang Jianghe, Can Xue, Wang Xiaoni, Bei
Dao, and Wang Anyi
Argentina – Cesar Aira, Luisa Valenzuela, and Ana
María Shua
On one more small side note Gentle Reader, of all
the continental categories, one category has more female writers listed then
the others, which generally have more men listed.
The above Gentle Reader is merely a continual
enjoyment of classification and categorization, in an almost deconstructive and
dissected manner. It provides a unique overview of components of the above
speculative list, providing nothing more than some unique analytics. South
America & Latin America, with the Caribbean, has a total of 8 women writers
listed, with only three men. Of course, this was not planned, and some writers
were not included on this year’s list, as in previous years. But it seems
unique in retrospect.
This year’s list is also somewhat of a personal
disappointment Gentle Reader. When I had first begun the work in assembling it
months prior, I had begun to sift through prior speculation and lists; other
international awards to find unknown or interesting writers. I added each of
them to the list, but overtime, it became apparent that I had bite off more
than I could chew, and some of these potential writers were put on the back
burner. Perhaps they will appear on next years list, as I once again rotate through,
weighing the interest of keeping some writers on the list due to a sense of
obligation; and maybe I’ll actually have worked and prepared on the list in
advance time to properly edit, add, and remove as necessary and publish on time
as well. Disappointment aside, I look forward to seeing who this year’s Nobel
Laureate in Literature will be.
As previously mentioned, there is no point in
vouching, proclaiming or even beginning to state if any of the above listed
writers have a chance to receiving the Nobel Prize for Literature or not. The
goal remains the same, to provide the beneficial aspect of providing readers to
discover new writers, while we patiently for the announcement to come, while
participating in fierce debates as readers, who champion their literary
writers.
Until October 10th Gentle Reader, we will
not know who this year’s Nobel Laureate in Literature will be. But it’ll be
exciting to find out—though disappointing as well, that the ceremony is
cancelled due to complications relating to COVID-19.
