1996 Nobel Prize in Literature
- 3 October 1996 (1996-10-03) (announcement)
- 10 December 1996
(ceremony)
← 1995 · | Nobel Prize in Literature | · 1997 → |
The 1996 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to the Polish poet Wisława Szymborska (1923–2012) "for poetry that with ironic precision allows the historical and biological context to come to light in fragments of human reality."[1][2] Szymborska is the 9th female recipient and the 5th Nobel laureate from Poland after Czesław Miłosz in 1980.[3]
Laureate
Wisława Szymborska's poetry addressed existential questions. In her poems, she employs literary devices such as ironic precision, paradox, contradiction, and understatement to illuminate philosophical themes and obsessions.[4] She weaves in the machinery of eternity in a momentary experience of the here and now. Her poetry is characterized by a simplified, "personal" language that is unlike contemporary language, often with a little twist at the end, with a striking combination of spirituality, ingenuity, and empathy. Many of her poems feature war and terrorism.[5] Among her well-known collections include Dlatego żyjemy ("That's Why We Are All Alive", 1952), Pytania zadawane sobie ("Questioning Yourself", 1954), Ludzie na moście ("People on the Bridge", 1986), Koniec i początek ("The End and the Beginning", 1993), and Widok z ziarnkiem piasku ("View with a Grain of Sand", 1996).[6][7][3]
Reactions
The choice of Szymborska was seen as a surprise by many observers who had expected a novelist to win the prize as the previous years prize had been awarded to the Irish poet Seamus Heaney.[8][9] The exiled Chinese poet Bei Dao was also a favourite to win the prize.[10] “She has gone through a long evolution and has reached maturity,” said the Polish poet Czeslaw Milosz, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1980. “Polish poetry in the 20th century has reached a strong international position on the European continent. Szymborska represents it well.”[11]
Nobel lecture
Szymborska delivered her Nobel lecture entitled The Poet and the World in the Polish language on December 7, 1996 at the Swedish Academy.[12] During the Nobel banquet, on December 20, she expressed a short speech of gratitude, saying:
"No one is accustomed to receiving a Nobel Prize. Therefore no one is accustomed to expressing gratitude for it. In my native tongue, as well as in every other tongue, there are many beautiful words from which to choose. But I think that on this occasion the simplest word is the most serious and the most meaningful: Merci, dziękuję, tack."[13][14]
References
- ^ The Nobel Prize in Literature 1996 nobelprize.org
- ^ "I Don't Know: The Nobel lecture". The New Republic. 30 December 1996. Retrieved 19 February 2012.
- ^ a b Wisława Szymborska britannica.com
- ^ "Nobel Prize-winning poet Szymborska dies aged 88". France24. 1 February 2021. Retrieved 1 February 2012.
- ^ Duval Smith, Alex (14 October 2005). "A Nobel Calling: 100 Years of Controversy". The Independent. UK: Independent Print Limited. Archived from the original on 24 December 2007. Retrieved 26 April 2008.
1996: Her poem, "The End and the Beginning", reads: "No sound bites, no photo opportunities And it takes years All the cameras have gone To other wars." Szymborska was born in Kórnik, in western Poland, in 1923.
- ^ Wisława Szymborska – Facts nobelprize.org
- ^ Wisława Szymborska – Poetry Foundation poetryfoundation.org
- ^ "Polish Poet, Observer of Daily Life, Wins Nobel". New York Times. 4 October 1996.
- ^ "Nobel Prize won by shy Polish Poet". Irish Times. 4 October 1996.
- ^ "Polish poet awarded Nobel Prize in Literature". CNN.
- ^ "Reclusive Polish Poet Awarded Nobel Prize". Los Angeles Times. 4 October 1996.
- ^ Wisława Szymborska – Nobel Lecture nobelprize.org
- ^ Wisława Szymborska – Banquet speech nobelprize.org
- ^ Szymborska: Banquet Speech encyclopedia.com
External links
- 1996 Press release nobelprize.org
- Award ceremony speech nobelprize.org
- v
- t
- e
- 1901: Sully Prudhomme
- 1902: Theodor Mommsen
- 1903: Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson
- 1904: Frédéric Mistral / José Echegaray
- 1905: Henryk Sienkiewicz
- 1906: Giosuè Carducci
- 1907: Rudyard Kipling
- 1908: Rudolf Eucken
- 1909: Selma Lagerlöf
- 1910: Paul Heyse
- 1911: Maurice Maeterlinck
- 1912: Gerhart Hauptmann
- 1913: Rabindranath Tagore
- 1914
- 1915: Romain Rolland
- 1916: Verner von Heidenstam
- 1917: Karl Gjellerup / Henrik Pontoppidan
- 1918
- 1919: Carl Spitteler
- 1920: Knut Hamsun
- 1921: Anatole France
- 1922: Jacinto Benavente
- 1923: W. B. Yeats
- 1924: Władysław Reymont
- 1925: George Bernard Shaw
- 1926: Grazia Deledda
- 1927: Henri Bergson
- 1928: Sigrid Undset
- 1929: Thomas Mann
- 1930: Sinclair Lewis
- 1931: Erik Axel Karlfeldt (posthumously)
- 1932: John Galsworthy
- 1933: Ivan Bunin
- 1934: Luigi Pirandello
- 1935
- 1936: Eugene O'Neill
- 1937: Roger Martin du Gard
- 1938: Pearl S. Buck
- 1939: Frans Eemil Sillanpää
- 1940
- 1941
- 1942
- 1943
- 1944: Johannes V. Jensen
- 1945: Gabriela Mistral
- 1946: Hermann Hesse
- 1947: André Gide
- 1948: T. S. Eliot
- 1949: William Faulkner
- 1950: Bertrand Russell
- 1951: Pär Lagerkvist
- 1952: François Mauriac
- 1953: Winston Churchill
- 1954: Ernest Hemingway
- 1955: Halldór Laxness
- 1956: Juan Ramón Jiménez
- 1957: Albert Camus
- 1958: Boris Pasternak
- 1959: Salvatore Quasimodo
- 1960: Saint-John Perse
- 1961: Ivo Andrić
- 1962: John Steinbeck
- 1963: Giorgos Seferis
- 1964: Jean-Paul Sartre (declined award)
- 1965: Mikhail Sholokhov
- 1966: Shmuel Yosef Agnon / Nelly Sachs
- 1967: Miguel Ángel Asturias
- 1968: Yasunari Kawabata
- 1969: Samuel Beckett
- 1970: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
- 1971: Pablo Neruda
- 1972: Heinrich Böll
- 1973: Patrick White
- 1974: Eyvind Johnson / Harry Martinson
- 1975: Eugenio Montale
- 1976: Saul Bellow
- 1977: Vicente Aleixandre
- 1978: Isaac Bashevis Singer
- 1979: Odysseas Elytis
- 1980: Czesław Miłosz
- 1981: Elias Canetti
- 1982: Gabriel García Márquez
- 1983: William Golding
- 1984: Jaroslav Seifert
- 1985: Claude Simon
- 1986: Wole Soyinka
- 1987: Joseph Brodsky
- 1988: Naguib Mahfouz
- 1989: Camilo José Cela
- 1990: Octavio Paz
- 1991: Nadine Gordimer
- 1992: Derek Walcott
- 1993: Toni Morrison
- 1994: Kenzaburō Ōe
- 1995: Seamus Heaney
- 1996: Wisława Szymborska
- 1997: Dario Fo
- 1998: José Saramago
- 1999: Günter Grass
- 2000: Gao Xingjian
- 2001: V. S. Naipaul
- 2002: Imre Kertész
- 2003: J. M. Coetzee
- 2004: Elfriede Jelinek
- 2005: Harold Pinter
- 2006: Orhan Pamuk
- 2007: Doris Lessing
- 2008: J. M. G. Le Clézio
- 2009: Herta Müller
- 2010: Mario Vargas Llosa
- 2011: Tomas Tranströmer
- 2012: Mo Yan
- 2013: Alice Munro
- 2014: Patrick Modiano
- 2015: Svetlana Alexievich
- 2016: Bob Dylan
- 2017: Kazuo Ishiguro
- 2018: Olga Tokarczuk
- 2019: Peter Handke
- 2020: Louise Glück
- 2021: Abdulrazak Gurnah
- 2022: Annie Ernaux
- 2023: Jon Fosse
- 2024: to be announced