Bob Dylan

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The Nobel Prize in Literature 2016 was awarded to Bob Dylan “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.” This will likely go down in history as the most controversial and polarizing Nobel award, if not across all the categories, then certainly in Literature. Most obviously it is a challenge of sorts to what the word “literature” really entails. Dictionary definitions and references to ancient oral traditions aside, the word “literature” carries with it connotations of the written word; of dusty tomes and erudite classics, and of a tradition stretching back thousands of years, connecting people across time and space in an attempt to intimate some sense of “the human condition.”

As Michael Orthofer points out, Dylan received a Pulitzer in the Special Awards category, and not the Letters/Music categories. There is little doubt that Dylan is one of the most celebrated and accomplished musicians of the past century, with an incredible legacy that "emanates directly from the North American post-Protestant gnosis" (according to Harold Bloom) and looking forward to the new era of rock and folk, connecting the past and the future. The Nobel Literature Prize purports to recognize individuals who have produced "in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction". It is certainly no stretch to argue Dylan’s work can be said to fit this definition, and as an artist and a creator he is more than qualified by pretty much any standards of taste and aesthetics one wishes to accord.

Nevertheless, the decision to award Dylan with the Nobel is a mistake. The Nobel prize, from its very description, is unavoidably and irrefutably ideological and political to some extent, at times more clearly than others. Its reputation and influence has moved it beyond a simple book award to something that dictates and sets the tone of cultural discourse. I’m sure the Swedish Academy is cognizant of this fact (more on this later), which is why I (and many others) are so surprised and understandably dismayed by the 2016 decision.