Much more than in other years, the Nobel Prize in Literature was very difficult to predict this year.
And against all expectations, it was awarded this Thursday to the American poet Louise Glück, already crowned with a Pulitzer Prize in 1993 for her collection "The Wild Iris".
She is crowned "for her characteristic poetic voice, which with its austere beauty makes individual existence universal", announced the Swedish Academy by awarding the prize.
BREAKING NEWS:
The 2020 Nobel Prize in Literature is awarded to the American poet Louise Glück “for her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal.” # NobelPrize pic.twitter.com/Wbgz5Gkv8C
- The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) October 8, 2020
Several French seemed in the running, and Maryse Condé was notably among the favorites of online betting sites, Michel Houellebecq, among those of literary critics.
Guess all this: the list of "nominees" will not be revealed anyway for fifty years.
An image to restore
Slowly, with the discretion that befits muffled atmospheres, the Swedish Academy hopes to turn the page of a particularly troubled period.
At the end of 2017, in the midst of the “MeToo” scandal, its members did not agree on how to handle the accusations against Jean-Claude Arnault, husband of an academician and influential personality of the Swedish cultural scene.
Arnault has since been convicted of rape;
the affair had thrown a harsh light on the wings of the academy.
Decision had been taken not to give a prize in 2018. By rewarding the Austrian writer Peter Handke last year, with the sulphurous pro-Milosevic positions, the jury better assumed the controversy, defending the work more than the man.