 1987 Nobel Prize in Literature | ||||
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| Joseph Brodsky | ||||
 "for an all-embracing authorship, imbued with clarity of thought and poetic intensity." | ||||
| Date |
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| Location | Stockholm, Sweden | |||
| Presented by | Swedish Academy | |||
| First award | 1901 | |||
| Website | Official website | |||
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The1987Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to the Russian–American poet and essayistJoseph Brodsky (1940–1996) "for an all-embracing authorship, imbued with clarity of thought and poetic intensity."[1][2][3]
At the age of 18, Joseph Brodsky started writing poetry. His poetry was influenced by British poets likeJohn Donne andW. H. Auden as well as Russian predecessors likeAlexander Pushkin andBoris Pasternak. Brodsky's forced exile affected his writing, both thematically and linguistically. He details how he gradually loses hair, teeth, consonants, and verbs inChast' rechi ("A Part of Speech", 1977). The interaction between the poet and society appears frequently in his poems. According to Brodsky, literature and language are vital tools for the advancement of society and the advancement of human thought. His famous literary and autobiographical essay collectionLess Than One: Selected Essays (1986) explores his fellow Russian writers likeDostoyevsky,Mandelstam, andPlatonov.[4][5]
In 1987,Joseph Brodsky was among the top contenders speculated to be the favorites to receive the award, among themMario Vargas Llosa (awarded in2010),Octavio Paz (awarded in1990),Carlos Fuentes,Nadine Gordimer (awarded in1991),Christa Wolf,Marguerite Yourcenar,Graham Greene andNorman Mailer.[6]Artur Lundkvist, member of theNobel Committee, describedJoyce Carol Oates, a favorite as well, as "one of the most impressive phenomena in American literature in 10 years."[6]
At the award ceremony in Stockholm on 10 December 1987,Sture Allén, permanent secretary of theSwedish Academy, said:
In the remarkable writings to which the Swedish Academy has drawn attention this year, poetry as the highest manifestation of life is a theme throughout. It is developed with a poetic brilliance combined with both intellectual beauty and linguistic mastery. (...) Style and mood alternate in this richly orchestrated poetry. Here is the profound cultural analysis in the essays side by side with the rollicking ironies in the poemHistory of the Twentieth Century. Yet, for Joseph Brodsky poetry, even in its mirthful moments, is deadly earnest.[7]
