Nobel Prize

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…

Swedish Presentationstal av Professor Horace Engdahl, ständige sekreterare, ledamot av Svenska Akademien, 10 december 2008. Professor Horace Engdahl presenterar Nobelpriset i litteratur 2008 i Stockholms Konserthus. Eders Majestäter, Eders Kungliga Högheter, mina damer och herrar! Vad skall man med personer till i ett litterärt verk? Roland Barthes hävdade att det mest föråldrade bland…

  Presentation Speech by Professor Lars Gyllensten of the Translation from the Swedish text Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, Ladies and Gentlemen, With this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature to Gabriel García Márquez the Swedish Academy cannot be said to bring forward an unknown writer. García Márquez achieved unusual success as a writer with his…

English Presentation Speech by Writer Per Wästberg, Member of the , Chairman of its Nobel Committee, December 10, 2005. Per Wästberg delivering the Presentation Speech for the 2005 Nobel Prize in Literature at the Stockholm Concert Hall. Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, Esteemed Nobel Laureates, Ladies and Gentlemen, Harold Pinter is the renewer…

Presentation Speech by Professor Lars Gyllensten of the Translation from the Swedish text Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, Ladies and Gentlemen, “Heaven and earth conspire that everything which has been, be rooted out and reduced to dust. Only the dreamers, who dream while awake, call back the shadows of the past and braid from unspun…