Presentation Speech by Anders Österling, Ph.D., of the (Translation) The recipient of this year’s Nobel Prize for Literature, the Japanese Yasunari Kawabata, was born in 1899 in the big industrial town of Osaka, where his father was a highly-cultured doctor with literary interests. At an early age, however, he was deprived of this favourable growing-up…

Presentation Speech by Professor Kjell Espmark, Member of the Translation from the Swedish text Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, Ladies and Gentlemen, In his novel The Silent Cry, Kenzaburo Oe describes a scene which casts light over his entire œuvre. The narrator, Mitsu, living in a marriage which has not survived the birth of a…

Swedish Presentationstal av författaren Per Wästberg, ledamot av , den 10 december 2005. Per Wästberg presenterar Nobelpriset i litteratur 2005 i Stockholms Konserthus. Eders Majestäter, Eders Kungliga Högheter, Ärade Nobelpristagare, Mina damer och herrar, Harold Pinter är det engelska dramats förnyare under 1900-talet. “Pinteresque” är ett adjektiv i Oxford Dictionary. Likt Kafka, Proust…

Presentation Speech by , Permanent Secretary of the , on December 10, 1930 This year’s winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature is a native of a part of America which for a long time has had Swedish contacts. He was born at Sauk Centre, a place of about two or three thousand inhabitants in…

Presentation Speech by Claes Annerstedt, President of the , on December 10, 1909 History tells us that there was a time when Sweden fought for a world prize on the field of martial honour. The time of arms has passed, but in the international competition for peaceful prizes our people have for a long time…

English Presentation Speech by Horace Engdahl, Permanent Secretary of the , Member of its Nobel Committee, 10 December 2008. Professor Horace Engdahl delivering the Presentation Speech for the 2008 Nobel Prize in Literature at the Stockholm Concert Hall. Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, Ladies and Gentlemen, Of what use are characters to a…

Presentation Speech by S. Siwertz, Member of the Very seldom have great statesmen and warriors also been great writers. One thinks of Julius Caesar, Marcus Aurelius, and even Napoleon, whose letters to Josephine during the first Italian campaign certainly have passion and splendour. But the man who can most readily be compared with Sir Winston…

  Presentation Speech by Karl Ragnar Gierow, of the (Translation) Your Majesty, Your Royal Highnesses, Ladies and Gentlemen, No great writer gains lustre from a Nobel Prize. It is the Nobel Prize that gains lustre from the recipient – provided the right one has been chosen. But who is the right one? According to Nobel’s…

Presentation Speech by Anders Österling, Permanent Secretary of the In our modern age, American authors have set their stamp more and more strongly on the general physiognomy of literature. Our generation in particular has, during the last few decades, seen a reorientation of literary interest which implies not only a temporary change in the market…

Presentation Speech by Per Hallström, Permanent Secretary of the , on December 10, 1934 The work of Luigi Pirandello is extensive. As an author of novellas he certainly is without equal in output, even in the primary country of this literary genre. Boccaccio’s Decameron contains one hundred novellas; Pirandello’s Novelle per un anno (1922-37) has…