ationality stands the danger of becoming a restrictive category in finding and rewarding excellence. Swedish philanthropist Alfred Bernhard Nobel was possibly aware of this fact. When he bequeathed a sizeable portion of his assets to establish and endow a diverse menu of prizes, Nobel categorically warned that nationality shouldn’t be a vital consideration in determining the recipient of the awards. Constrained by the terms of Nobel’s will, the Swedish Academy may actively overlook nationality as an assessment criterion for these awards, but it is difficult to hold the public to the same standard. Once the winners of the prizes are announced, the nationalities of the Nobel laureates come into sharp focus as the awards have long been criticised for their lack of diversity. A Nobel laureate’s country of origin often shapes public reactions to their winning the prestigious accolade and may even determine if their award ought to be celebrated or reviled.

The Nobel Prize for Literature has long been a prisoner to Euro-centric logic. The chain has been broken now and then. In 2021, Zanzibar-born Abdulrazak Gurnah won the Nobel Prize for Literature. In 2022, however, French memoirist Annie Ernaux received the prestigious literary award.

Jon Fosse, this year’s recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature, is a Norwegian playwright and prose writer. At first glance, sceptics might be predictably irked —if not entirely surprised —to discover that a writer of European origin has bagged the coveted prize. However, it is an encouraging sign that the Swedish Academy has yet again selected a non-Anglophone author as its choice for 2023. As a result, Fosse’s Nobel win reflects the Swedish Academy’s abiding commitment to recognising the contributions of writers who are not writing in English.

In Fosse’s case, the question of language is all the more significant and complex as he writes in Nynorsk (or New Norwegian), which is the less common of the two official versions of Norwegian.

Nynorsk emerged in the decades after Denmark’s centuries-long rule came to an end in 1814 and linguists sought to eliminate the overpowering influence of Danish on the language they spoke and wrote. Since then, Nynorsk has either been rebuffed for its radical linguistic approach or warmly embraced as Norway’s ‘minority’ mother tongue. It is spoken by almost 10 per cent of Norway’s population and remains a subject of considerable controversy. Opinions vary on the utility of this language, depending on whom you ask. Nynorsk is either perceived as a dying language or a nationalistic project kept alive through state intervention.

Fosse’s willingness to write in Nynorsk can, therefore, be viewed as a subtle political move that symbolises a blatant rejection of colonial tendencies. The Nobel committee’s decision to recognise literary output in Nynorsk is an even more political move. It will undoubtedly resuscitate a language that has, so far, only enjoyed institutional significance instead of widespread public approbation. The Swedish Academy’s decision may have inadvertently given Nynorsk a much-needed boost in stature, but it raises concerns that it could compromise the committee’s nationality blindness legacy. There is a burgeoning threat that the Nobel committee’s support for Nynorsk might not be construed as a repudiation of a colonial encounter but as a veiled affirmation of a nationalistic agenda.

His Nobel win is, in equal measure, a reassertion of the Swedish Academy’s Western bias, a calibrated step to promote non-Anglophone literary voices and an indirect victory for Nynorsk.

This, of course, is a cynical thesis on the Swedish Academy’s decision that relies heavily on the optics surrounding Fosse’s win. At its core, the Nobel Prize for Literature seeks to recognise an author who has produced the most outstanding literary work in an ideal direction. The merit of a literary work can be typically gauged through its deft handling of the chosen genre and rich evocation of themes. As per the Nobel committee, Fosse has won the award for his inventive plays and prose. If last year’s Nobel Prize for Literature celebrated Annie Ernaux’s enduring commitment to life writing, this year’s award acknowledges Fosse’s versatility as a dramatist and prose stylist.

As a playwright, Fosse has been compared to Samuel Beckett —another Nobel laureate —and is often considered a worthy successor to Henrik Ibsen. Billed as one of the most widely performed playwrights in the world today, Fosse is also highly regarded for his prose, which includes novels, poetry collections, children’s books, translations and essays. Commenting on Fosse’s win, Ander Olsson, a member of the Swedish Academy, said that Fosse’s diverse oeuvre has a universal and humanistic touch. Olsson believes that Fosse possesses the distinct ability to evoke our “deepest feelings” on a range of themes such as life, death and the loss of emotional orientation.

Fosse’s oeuvre is minimalistic to the core. His prose benefits from a slow-moving quality that adds to its aesthetic appeal. Through its exploration of solitude, vulnerability, childhood, faith and familial bonds, the Norwegian author’s work captures the hidden complexities of human relationships. Silence is a dominant motif in his writing. What is elided is often more potent than what is revealed.

Soon after the Swedish Academy announced its decision, numerous articles cropped up on news websites with the intention of introducing Fosse’s vast body of work to an English-speaking audience. This process of discovery is likely to persist over the next few months, but it will be futile to appraise Fosse’s oeuvre without mentioning his magnum opus, Septology. Spanning three volumes, this semi-autobiographical text comprises seven parts and examines a man’s encounter with another version of himself. Interestingly, the 1,250-page novel is framed as a single sentence - an audacious and unusual literary technique.

For decades, the Nobel committee has announced some surprising and questionable winners for the prestigious literary prize. These decisions have been taken under the guise of recognising exemplary literary talent and giving prominence to a creative voice. Fosse is the choice of the moment and ought to be celebrated as just that - the chosen one among copious, unknown contenders. His Nobel win is, in equal measure, a reassertion of the Swedish Academy’s Western bias, a calibrated step to promote non-Anglophone literary voices and an indirect victory for Nynorsk. Be that as it may, these considerations shouldn’t be used to diminish the breadth and scope of Fosse’s literary accomplishments. Literature is fundamentally subjective and readers ought to draw their own conclusions about Fosse’s work instead of relying on the Nobel committee’s judgment.

The writer is a freelance journalist and the author of No Funeral for Nazia