László Krasznahorkai Awarded the Nobel Nobel Prize in Literary Arts

The coveted Nobel Prize in Literature for this year has been granted to from Hungary author László Krasznahorkai, as declared by the Nobel awarding body.

The Academy praised the 71-year-old's "gripping and imaginative oeuvre that, in the midst of cataclysmic terror, reaffirms the force of creative expression."

A Legacy of Bleak Fiction

Krasznahorkai is renowned for his bleak, melancholic books, which have garnered many accolades, such as the recent National Book Award for literature in translation and the prestigious Man Booker International Prize.

Several of his books, including his titles his debut and The Melancholy of Resistance, have been turned into cinematic works.

Debut Novel

Hailing in the Hungarian town of Gyula in the mid-1950s, Krasznahorkai first made his mark with his 1985 initial work Satantango, a grim and hypnotic portrayal of a collapsing countryside settlement.

The novel would later earn the Man Booker International Prize award in English decades after, in 2013.

A Distinctive Prose Technique

Commonly referred to as postmodernist, Krasznahorkai is famous for his extended, meandering phrases (the twelve chapters of Satantango each consist of a single paragraph), bleak and pensive motifs, and the kind of unwavering force that has led critics to liken him to Gogol, Melville and Kafka.

This work was widely made into a seven-hour movie by filmmaker Béla Tarr, with whom Krasznahorkai has had a long working relationship.

"The author is a great writer of epic tales in the European heritage that includes Franz Kafka to the Austrian writer, and is characterised by absurdist elements and grotesque exaggeration," commented the committee chair, leader of the Nobel jury.

He portrayed Krasznahorkai’s prose as having "progressed to … smooth structure with long, winding sentences devoid of punctuation that has become his trademark."

Literary Praise

Susan Sontag has referred to the author as "today's from Hungary genius of end-times," while WG Sebald commended the universality of his vision.

Only a few of Krasznahorkai’s books have been rendered in English. The critic James Wood once noted that his books "circulate like precious items."

International Inspiration

Krasznahorkai’s literary path has been shaped by travel as much as by his writing. He first departed from socialist his homeland in the late 80s, residing a period in West Berlin for a scholarship, and later was inspired from Asia – especially Mongolia and China – for works such as The Prisoner of Urga, and his book on China.

While developing War and War, he travelled widely across the continent and stayed in Ginsberg's New York apartment, describing the legendary poet's assistance as crucial to finishing the novel.

Krasznahorkai on His Work

Inquired how he would describe his work in an discussion, Krasznahorkai answered: "Characters; then from these characters, words; then from these words, some concise lines; then further lines that are lengthier, and in the main exceptionally extended phrases, for the span of three and a half decades. Beauty in writing. Fun in darkness."

On audiences encountering his writing for the first time, he added: "For any people who have not yet read my novels, I would refrain from advising any specific title to peruse to them; instead, I’d recommend them to venture outside, rest at a location, possibly by the side of a brook, with nothing to do, no thoughts, just remaining in tranquility like boulders. They will sooner or later come across someone who has already read my books."

Literature Prize History

Ahead of the reveal, oddsmakers had pegged the favourites for this year’s prize as Can Xue, an experimental Chinese author, and the Hungarian.

The Nobel Award in Writing has been presented on one hundred seventeen past events since 1901. Recent winners include Annie Ernaux, Dylan, Abdulrazak Gurnah, Glück, Peter Handke and Tokarczuk. The previous year's winner was the South Korean writer, the South Korean author renowned for The Vegetarian.

Krasznahorkai will ceremonially accept the medal and document in a function in winter in Stockholm, Sweden.

Additional details forthcoming