László Krasznahorkai received the Premio Nobel de Literatura

The novelist László Krasznahorkai received the Nobel Prize for Literature yesterday in a lavish ceremony held at the Stockholm Concert Hall, Sweden. The Hungarian was praised for his “spectacular way of portraying themes such as melancholy and hopelessness with dark absurdism and humor,” said Ander Schultz of the Swedish Academy of Literature.

At the award ceremony, broadcast through the award’s website, the literature expert said that the winner’s work is “faithful to the European tradition such as, for example, that of Franz Kafka and Thomas Bernard. In his works, Krasznahorkai presents us with young and deluded heroes, as (Fiodor) Dostoevsky would refer, whom he makes infinitely compassionate, but with intellectual shortcomings.

“Contrary to what Johan Sebastian Bach did, terror and beauty are irreconcilably opposed. He has the extraordinary ability to make a single sentence that can exceed 400 pages, and with it unfold reality in a complex way, and even eclipse it, which makes it similar to a musical form.”

Hungarian was also praised for its smooth syntax that allows the reader to navigate between opposites. Between the heavy and the light, melancholy and exaltation. Incredible stories and poetic intensity.

“His reading is perceived as if it were a search in China and Japan, without detaching himself from the European context, and he lands it with a contemplative tone. In his work the role of art in a blind and finite world is also reflected. Here, European disillusionment meets the mysticism of the East,” said the academic in reference to the first paragraph of the work. To the north the mountain, to the south the lake, to the west the road, to the east the river.

And he continued: “the novelist also gives us a strong blow of reality that dissolves the contemplative, as happens when one of his characters, on a visit to Shanghai, accompanied by his translator and completely drunk, comes across the hell of a vehicular crossing known as ‘the crossing of the nine dragons’. He shows us that not all hope has left this dark world, but we simply do not know when it will emerge.”

Ander Schultz concluded that László Krasznahorkai’s work is a faithful example of a clear, artistic vision that can see through the fragile order established by man.

Later the writer was called to receive the award that honors him as the greatest literary exponent in the world, which he received from the king of Sweden, Carl XVI Gustav. In addition, he was given a work of art that was not specific and 11 million Swedish crowns (almost 20 million pesos).

The writer had announced his award speech a couple of days ago in his native Hungary. True to his dark but humorous pessimism, he spoke of angels who “have no wings, but no message, none at all. They are here among us in their simple street clothes, unrecognizable, if they wish.”