Singer-songwriter Bob Dylan’s winning the Nobel Prize in Literature shocks the world

Singer-songwriter Bob Dylan’s winning the Nobel Prize in Literature shocks the world. October. 15, 2016 07:22. by 고미석기자 mskoh119@donga.com.

American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan (75) has won the 2016 Nobel prize in literature. The fact that the world’s most renowned prize in literature was given to the folk rock artist in the 116-year history of Nobel Prize has surprised the world. On Thursday, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature to Bob Dylan “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition” and said, “Bob Dylan writes poetry for the ear.”

Dylan has been mentioned as a nominee for the Nobel Prize in Literature. However, his winning the prize is considered as a "revolution" by the literary world. His music containing social messages such as anti-war and peace was expressed by lyrics of through contemplation and enjoyed by young generations in 1960s and 1970s along with the anti-Vietnam war movement. His masterpiece of music "Blowin’ in the Wind" was a theme song of human rights and protests and greatly influenced student movements in South Korea.

The debate over the lifelong singer’s winning of the world’s most prestigious prize for literature has continued. People are confused to decide whether his winning should be viewed as a revolution or changing lanes of the prize. Some argued, “This feels like the lamest Nobel win since they gave it to Obama for not being Bush (the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Barack Obama).” Meanwhile, British Indian novelist Salman Rushdie said, “Dylan is the brilliant inheritor of the bardic tradition. Great choice.”

Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced Svetlana Alexievich, a Belarussian journalist and prose writer, as the recipient of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature, indicating that it made unexpected choices two times in a row in this category. It seems that the academy tries to expand the category of literature rather than limiting it as novels and poems only. Boundaries between pure literature and popular music, and between literature and non-literature are blurring. Bob Dylan’s Nobel Prize indicates the paradigm shifts in literature in the 21st century.