Since it was established in 1901, the Nobel Prize in Literature has primarily recognized writers from the West, but this year, analysts predict that the Swedish Academy will cast its gaze farther afield.
There is no formal shortlist, so there is much conjecture as to who the Nobel committee will choose. They are expected to announce their choice on Thursday at 1:00 pm (1100 GMT).
Many people think Australian novelist Gerald Murnane will win, but Can Xue, a Chinese author who is currently the favorite on multiple betting platforms, is also favored.Can’s experimental approach, often compared to Franz Kafka’s, turns the ordinary into the fantastical.
The school is renowned for its propensity to introduce readers to lesser-known writers.
“I think they’ve gone to great pains to find some writer that will catch the culture commentariat with their pants down,” Bjorn Wiman, culture editor at Sweden’s newspaper of record, Dagens Nyheter, told AFP.
That was the case in 2021 — when Zanzibar-born British author Abdulrazak Gurnah was chosen for his work exploring exile, colonialism and racism — and in 2016, when US folk rock icon Bob Dylan won.
Wiman said the prize could just as easily go to a Mexican or Argentinian writer as an African author.
“I think it will be a woman from a language zone outside Europe,” he said.His personal pick would however be British Indian-born author Salman Rushdie — a symbol of free speech after receiving death threats over his 1988 novel “The Satanic Verses” which was declared blasphemous by Iran’s supreme leader, and the victim of a 2022 stabbing in New York state that saw him lose his right eye.
“But then they will be accused of honouring another middle-aged man,” Wiman said.
Last year, the prize went to middle-aged Norwegian playwright Jon Fosse.
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