1975 Nobel Prize in Literature
| 1975 Nobel Prize in Literature | |
|---|---|
| Eugenio Montale | |
"for his distinctive poetry which, with great artistic sensitivity, has interpreted human values under the sign of an outlook on life with no illusions" | |
| Date |
|
| Location | Stockholm, Sweden |
| Presented by | Swedish Academy |
| First award | 1901 |
| Website | Official website |
The 1975 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to the Italian poet Eugenio Montale (1896–1981) "for his distinctive poetry which, with great artistic sensitivity, has interpreted human values under the sign of an outlook on life with no illusions".[1] He is the fifth Italian laureate for the literature prize.
Laureate
Along with Giuseppe Ungaretti and Salvatore Quasimodo, Eugenio Montale is associated with the poetic school of hermeticsm, the Italian variant of the French symbolism movement, although Montale himself did not consider himself to be part of the hermetic school. His poetry is often compared to T. S. Eliot. When the Swedish Academy awarded him with the Nobel Prize in 1975, they called him “one of the most important poets of the contemporary West”.[2] His notable oeuvres include Ossi di seppia ("Cuttlefish Bones", 1925), Le occasioni ("The Occasions", 1939), La bufera e altro ("The Storm and Other Things", 1956), Satura (1962–1970) (1971) and Diario del '71 e del '72 (1973).[3]
Deliberations
Nominations
Montale was first nominated for the prize in 1955 by Nobel laureate T. S. Eliot. It was followed in 1961 and from 1966 he became a regular nominee. By 1973 the Nobel committee had received 23 nominations in total before Montale was eventually awarded.[4]
| No. | Nominee | Country | Genre(s) | Nominator(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vicente Aleixandre (1898–1984) | Spain | poetry | ||
| Ba Jin (1904–2005) | China | novel, short story, memoir, essays | [5] | |
| Riccardo Bacchelli (1891–1985) | Italy | novel, drama, essays | ||
| Saul Bellow (1915–2005) | Canada United States |
novel, short story, memoir, essays | ||
| Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986) | Argentina | poetry, essays, translation, short story | ||
| Anthony Burgess (1917–1993) | United Kingdom | novel, poetry, drama, screenplay, autobiography, biography, essays, literary criticism, translation | ||
| Elias Canetti (1905–1994) | Bulgaria United Kingdom |
novel, drama, memoir, essays | ||
| Jorge Carrera Andrade (1903–1978) | Ecuador | poetry, essays, history, autobiography | Academia Ecuatoriana de la Lengua[6] | |
| André Chamson (1900–1983) | France | novel, essays | ||
| Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921–1990) | Switzerland | drama, novel, short story, essays | ||
| Dario Fo (1926–2016) | Italy | drama | [7] | |
| Max Frisch (1911–1991) | Switzerland | novel, drama | ||
| William Golding (1911–1993) | United Kingdom | novel, poetry, drama, essays | ||
| Günter Grass (1927–2015) | West Germany | novel, drama, poetry, essays | ||
| Graham Greene (1904–1991) | United Kingdom | novel, short story, autobiography, essays | ||
| Jorge Guillén (1893–1984) | Spain | poetry, literary criticism | ||
| Paavo Haavikko (1931–2008) | Finland | poetry, drama, essays | ||
| William Heinesen (1900–1991) | Faroe Islands | poetry, short story, novel | ||
| Gyula Illyés (1902–1983) | Hungary | poetry, novel, drama, essays | ||
| Eugène Ionesco (1909–1994) | Romania France |
drama, essays | ||
| Kim Chi-ha (1941–2022) | South Korea | poetry, drama, essays | [8] | |
| Anja Lundholm (1918–2007) | West Germany | novel, translation | ||
| Norman Mailer (1923–2007) | United States | novel, short story, poetry, essays, biography, drama, screenplay | ||
| Bernard Malamud (1914–1986) | United States | novel, short story | ||
| André Malraux (1901–1976) | France | novel, essays, literary criticism | ||
| Henri Michaux (1899–1984) | Belgium France |
poetry, essays | ||
| Czesław Miłosz (1911–2004) | Poland | poetry, essays, novel, translation | ||
| Eugenio Montale (1896–1981) | Italy | poetry, translation | ||
| Alberto Moravia (1907–1990) | Italy | novel, literary criticism, essays, drama | ||
| Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977) | Russia United States |
novel, short story, poetry, drama, translation, literary criticism, memoir | ||
| José María Pemán (1897–1981) | Spain | poetry, drama, novel, essays, screenplay | ||
| Francis Ponge (1899–1988) | France | poetry, essays | ||
| Yannis Ritsos (1909–1990) | Greece | poetry, songwriting | ||
| Tadeusz Rózewicz (1921–2014) | Poland | poetry, drama, translation | ||
| Jaroslav Seifert (1901–1986) | Czechoslovakia | poetry, memoir, translation | ||
| Léopold Sédar Senghor (1906–2001) | Senegal | poetry, essays | ||
| Ignazio Silone (1900–1978) | Italy | novel, short story, essays, drama | ||
| Georges Simenon (1903–1989) | Belgium | novel, short story, memoir | ||
| Claude Simon (1913–2005) | France | novel, essays | ||
| Isaac Bashevis Singer (1902–1991) | Poland United States |
novel, short story, autobiography, essays | ||
| Zaharia Stancu (1902–1974) | Romania | poetry, novel, philosophy, essays | ||
| Sándor Weöres (1913–1989) | Hungary | poetry, translation | ||
| Elie Wiesel (1928–2016) | Romania United States |
memoir, essays, novel, drama |
Reactions
According to the Associated Press, Montale said that award had overwhelmed him and made his life, "which was always unhappy, less unhappy."[3]
In Italy, the awarding of the Nobel Prize to Montale was positively received. Their Prime Minister, Aldo Moro, congratulated him, said that the award "consecrates the validity of your poetical and human message, and, in you, honors the Italian culture,"[3] and President Giovanni Leone commented that his work's contained "tormented and lucid singling‐out of the anxieties and the aspirations of modern man."[3]
Award ceremony
At the award ceremony on 10 December 1975, Anders Österling of the Swedish Academy said:
"at his best Montale, with strict discipline, has attained a refined artistry, at once personal and objective, in which every word fills its place as precisely as the glass cube in a coloured mosaic. The linguistic laconicism cannot be carried any further; every trace of embellishment and jingle has been cleared away. When, for instance, in the remarkable portrait-poem of the Jewes Dora Markus, he wants to indicate the current background of time, he does so in five words: Distilla veleno una fede feroce (“A fierce faith distils poison”). In such masterpieces both the fateful perspective and the ingeniously concentrated structure are reminiscent of T.S. Eliot and “The Waste Land”, but Montale is unlikely to have received impulses from this quarter and his development has, if anything, followed a parallel path"[9]
Nobel lecture
Eugenio Montale delivered his Nobel lecture on 12 December 1975. Entitled "Is Poetry Still Possible?", he spoke about the art of poetry and poetry's place in the modern world of mass communication.[10]
Notes
- ^ The official list of nominees and nominators will be revealed on first week of January 2026. Currently, the list includes those purported to have been shortlisted and nominated according to new agencies.
References
- ^ "The Nobel Prize in Literature 1975". nobelprize.org.
- ^ "Eugenio Montale". poetryfoundation.org. 10 April 2023.
- ^ a b c d "Montale, a Poet, Awarded Nobel Prize for Literature". The New York Times. 24 October 1975.
- ^ "Nomination archive – Eugenio Montale". nobelprize.org. 21 May 2024. Retrieved 2 January 2025.
- ^ "Chinese writers who have won an int'l award". china.org.cn. 1 September 2015. Retrieved 1 July 2024.
- ^ "Ecuador y su sueño de alcanzar el Nobel de Literatura". El Comercio (in Spanish). 6 October 2014. Retrieved 1 July 2024.
- ^ Mitchell, Tony (1999). Dario Fo: People's Court Jester (Updated and Expanded). London: Methuen. p. 139. ISBN 0-413-73320-3.
- ^ Kang Hyun-kyung (21 December 2015). "Poet fights to correct past wrongs". The Korea Times. Archived from the original on 16 March 2023. Retrieved 10 March 2023.
- ^ "Award ceremony speech". nobelprize.org.
- ^ "Eugenio Montale Nobel lecture". nobelprize.org.
External links
- Award ceremony speech nobelprize.org
- Eugenio Montale Nobel lecture nobelprize.org