Norwegian playwright wins Nobel literature prize

Norway’s Jon Fosse, whose plays are among the most widely staged of any contemporary playwright in the world, won the Nobel Prize in Literature yesterday.Sometimes compared to Samuel Beckett, another Nobel-winning playwright, Fosse’s work is minimalistic, relying on simple language which delivers its message through rhythm, melody and silence.The Swedish Academy said the 64-year-old was honoured "for his innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable”.Born in 1959 in Haugesund on Norway’s west coast, Fosse is best known for his dramas, though his writing spans poetry, essays, children’s books and translations.His work "touches on the deepest feelings that you have, anxieties, insecurities, questions of life and death”, Swedish Academy member Anders Olsson said."It has a sort of universal impact of everything that he writes. And it doesn’t matter if it is drama, poetry or prose, it the same kind of appeal of basic humanism,” Olsson said.Fosse’s writing is defined more by form than content, where what is not said is often more revealing than what is."Fosse presents everyday situations that are instantly recognisable in our own lives. His radical reduction of language and dramatic action expresses the most powerful human emotions of anxiety and powerlessness in the simplest terms,” the jury said."I am overwhelmed and grateful. I see this as an award to the literature that first and foremost aims to be literature, without other considerations,” Fosse said in a statement.Speaking to Norwegian public broadcaster NRK, he said he was "surprised but also not”, after his name had been mentioned in Nobel speculation for several years."While he is today one of the most widely performed playwrights in the world, he has also become increasingly recognised for his prose,” the jury said.Fosse’s oeuvre, written in Nynorsk – a written form of Norwegian used by 10% of the population – spans a variety of genres and consists of plays, novels, poetry collections, essays, children’s books and translations.His major works include Boathouse (1989), which was well-received by critics, and Melancholy I and II (1995-1996).According to his Norwegian publisher, Samlaget, his plays have been staged more than a thousand times around the world.His work has been translated into around 50 languages."I don’t write about characters in the traditional sense of the word. I write about humanity,” Fosse told French newspaper Le Monde in 2003.He is the fourth Norwegian and the first since 1928 to win the Nobel Prize for literature, this year worth 11mn Swedish crowns (about $1mn).