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The year 2001 marked the 100th anniversary of the Nobel Prize. Since 1901, prizes have been awarded annually on December 10 (the anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death) in the areas of physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, and peace. In addition, since 1968, the Bank of Sweden has awarded a "Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel." Ceremonies are held at the Old Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm for prizes in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, and economics, while the Nobel Peace Prize is presented at Oslo City Hall in Norway.
Each Nobel Laureate receives a medal, a hand-made diploma, and a document confirming the prize amount (in 2000 this was 9,000,000 Swedish crowns, or about US $900,000.)
Nobel Prize in Literature 1997 - Diploma Given to Dario Fo
In honor of the 100th Anniversary, the Nobel Foundation has designed a beautiful web site commemorating the history of the prize, including images of the medals and diplomas given, and a full list of laureates from each of the prize areas. Information on the Laureates includes (when available) a biography, a photograph, the press release announcing the individual's selection, the presentation speech, Nobel lecture, Nobel diploma, Nobel stamp, video, literary extract, and links to other web resources.
The Nobel Prize in Literature
The Nobel Prize in Literature is one of the five prize areas mentioned in Alfred Nobel's will. The will states that a prize shall be given to the person who "shall have produced in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction." In awarding the prize, Nobel directed that "no consideration shall be given to the nationality of the candidates, but that the most worthy shall receive it, whether he be Scandinavian or not." A list of the Nobel Laureates in Literature since 1901, with links to further information, has been made available on the Nobel Foundation web site.
Medal for Literature
Nobel Laureates in Literature in Knight Library's collection:
Below is a list of Nobel Laureates in Literature since 1901, followed by a link to a list of their works in the University of Oregon library catalog. A link has been provided from the author's name to further information available about them on the Nobel Foundation web site.
We hope you enjoy your exploration of Nobel prize-winning literature in Knight Library's collection.
2003
J.M. Coetzee - "who in innumerable guises portrays the surprising involvement of the outsider"
 Works in Knight Library
2002
Imre Kertész - "for writing that upholds the fragile experience of the individual against the barbaric arbitrariness of history"
Works in Knight Library
2001
Sir V.S. Naipaul - ""for having united perceptive narrative and incorruptible scrutiny in works that compel us to see the presence of suppressed histories"
Works in Knight Library
2000
Gao Xingjian - "for an œuvre of universal validity, bitter insights and linguistic ingenuity, which has opened new paths for the Chinese novel and drama\"
Works in Knight Library
1999
Günter Grass - "whose frolicsome black fables portray the forgotten face of history"
Works in Knight Library
1998
José Saramago - "who with parables sustained by imagination, compassion and irony continually enables us once again to apprehend an elusory reality"
Works in Knight Library
1997
Dario Fo - "who emulates the jesters of the Middle Ages in scourging authority and upholding the dignity of the downtrodden"
Works in Knight Library
1996
Wislawa Szymborska - "for poetry that with ironic precision allows the historical and biological
context to come to light in fragments of human reality"
Works in Knight Library
1995
Seamus Heaney - "for works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles
and the living past"
Works in Knight Library
1994
Kenzaburo Oe - "who with poetic force creates an imagined world, where life and myth condense to form a disconcerting picture of the human predicament today"
Works in Knight Library
1993
Toni Morrison - "who in novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import,
gives life to an essential aspect of American reality"
Works in Knight Library
1992
Derek Walcott - "for a poetic oeuvre of great luminosity, sustained by a historical vision, the
outcome of a multicultural commitment"
Works in Knight Library
1991
Nadine Gordimer - "who through her magnificent epic writing has - in the words of Alfred
Nobel - been of very great benefit to humanity"
Works in Knight Library
1990
Octavio Paz - "for impassioned writing with wide horizons, characterized by sensuous intelligence and humanistic integrity"
Works in Knight Library
1989
Camilo José Cela - "for a rich and intensive prose, which with restrained compassion forms a
challenging vision of man's vulnerability"
Works in Knight Library
1988
Naguib Mahfouz - "who, through works rich in nuance - now clear-sightedly realistic, now
evocatively ambiguous - has formed an Arabian narrative art that applies to all mankind"
Works in Knight Library
1987
Joseph Brodsky - "for an all-embracing authorship, imbued with clarity of thought and poetic intensity"
Works in Knight Library
1986
Wole Soyinka - "who in a wide cultural perspective and with poetic overtones fashions the drama of existence"
Works in Knight Library
1985
Claude Simon - "who in his novel combines the poet's and the painter's creativeness with a deepened awareness of time in the depiction of the human condition"
Works in Knight Library
1984
Jaroslav Seifert - "for his poetry which endowed with freshness, sensuality and rich inventiveness provides a liberating image of the indomitable spirit and versatility of man"
Works in Knight Library
1983
William Golding - "for his novels which, with the perspicuity of realistic narrative art and the diversity and universality of myth, illuminate the human condition in the world of today"
Works in Knight Library
1982
Gabriel García Márquez - "for his novels and short stories, in which the fantastic and the realistic
are combined in a richly composed world of imagination, reflecting a continent's life and conflicts"
Works in Knight Library
1981
Elias Canetti - "for writings marked by a broad outlook, a wealth of ideas and artistic power"
Works in Knight Library
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