STOCKHOLM • This year's Nobel Literature Prize field is wide open ahead of tomorrow's announcement, with literary circles abuzz about whether the nod will go to a controversial pick or a crowd-pleaser.
Names tossed about in the speculation include Caribbean-American author Jamaica Kincaid, Canadian poet Anne Carson, Kenyan writer Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Hungary's Peter Nadas and American novelist Thomas Pynchon.
The Swedish Academy's decision to honour Austrian novelist Peter Handke last year unleashed a flood of criticism, leaving many wondering how it could crown a writer known for supporting Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic in the Balkan wars and denying the extent of Serbian terror.
But the 18-member Academy, which defended its choice as one based solely on literary merit, is no stranger to controversy.
Its eyebrow-raising pick of American rock legend Bob Dylan in 2016 was followed by a rape scandal close to its members that erupted in 2017 and tore the Academy apart, forcing it to postpone the 2018 prize for the first time in 70 years.
The Academy was revamped and its Nobel committee was required by the Nobel Foundation, which manages the prizes, to take in five external experts to help vet candidates for the literature prize deliberations last year, as well as this year.
But two external experts quit after last year's prize announcements, lamenting that their views were not taken into account.
WHAT WOULD ALFRED NOBEL SAY?
Mr Bjorn Wiman, culture editor of Sweden's biggest daily Dagens Nyheter, called the choice of Handke "terribly bad", adding: "If the Academy knows what is good for them, they'll choose Jamaica Kincaid (this year)."
Kincaid writes about themes such as colonialism, racism and gender, and "her stances on various moral and political issues are absolutely worth listening to today", Mr Wiman told Agence France-Presse.
He added that she "is exactly the type of person that takes the prize in the idealistic direction that prize founder Alfred Nobel spoke of" in his will creating the prizes.
But, he said, if last year's choice is anything to go by, the Academy may also "dust off some old candidate" from years ago, as it did with Handke.
If that proves to be the case, authors such as Nadas, Albania's Ismael Kadare and Romania's Mircea Cartarescu could receive the nod.
Ms Madelaine Levy, literature critic at daily Svenska Dagbladet, agreed Kincaid could be a potential winner, calling her an "unbelievably musical writer who's easy to love".
But an Academy that chose Handke could be more inclined to go with someone like France's Michel Houellebecq, she suggested.
"He's the same type of writer, with a gloomy view of contemporary Europe and a very negative view of mankind, where man is such a failure... and from that, create great literature about man's weakness and ugliness."
Ms Levy's choice is American author Joan Didion, who "started a type of societal but very politically interested and pop culture-interested essay style that is very lively today".
Anne Carson is seen as a hot tip this year, as well as the "usual suspects" Joyce Carol Oates and Marilynne Robinson of the United States, Israel's David Grossman, Canada's Margaret Atwood and South Korean poet Ko Un.
Former editor Svante Weyler said British writer Hilary Mantel - not usually mentioned in Nobel circles - could also win "for combining an extremely sharp intellectual depiction with a very public appeal".
"(Mantel) has not only made the historical novel acceptable, she has made it the leading genre in world literature," Mr Weyler said.
But the Academy often shuns best-selling mainstream authors, opting to shine its spotlight on lesser-known names.
"If you're sitting on all this prize money to award, and you have all this attention that you can bestow, then of course you might think... it's more fun to give it to someone who's not already in the limelight," Ms Levy said.
At the end of the day, she added, "almost all countries have some unbelievably strong writers worthy of a Nobel prize. The list of writers who are so incredibly good that they are at Nobel prize level is long - several hundred, I would say".
"The Academy has surprised everyone many, many times. They work in mysterious ways," she concluded.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
