The Nobel Prize in Literature goes to Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan has long been regarded as a possible candidate for the Nobel literature prize. The Academy’s committee in Stockholm has now decided to award him the honour, explaining that he has “created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition”. The 75-year-old American is the first songwriter to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Dylan has written more than 500 songs, among them classics such as “Blowin’ In The Wind”, “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” and “Like a Rolling Stone”  – and has influenced generations of pop and rock musicians. “Dylan has the status of an icon. His influence on contemporary music is profound”, explained the Swedish Academy.

Reactions from Germany:

 
© Thomas Köhler/Photothek

Federal Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier was the first German minister to express his congratulations: 

“I congratulate Bob Dylan on this outstanding honour from the bottom of my heart. The Stockholm jury has taken a courageous decision which once again breaks with the genre boundaries this year. It is honouring one of the greatest musicians of the 20^th century, who like no other has directly reached the hearts of millions of people around the world with his lyrics and their profound truths.”

 
© dpa/Eventpress Mueller-Stauffenberg

Monika Grütters, Germany’s minister for culture, in an interview with regional broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk:

“Dylan naturally influenced my adolescence, too, with great ballads and lyrics such as “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” or “Like a Rolling Stone”. The effects can still be felt today; that is good literature.”

 
© dpa/Swen Pförtner

The literary scholar and poet Heinrich Detering made the following statement to the German Press Agency:

“Like no-one else, Dylan has combined the modern American music tradition with high literary culture to create a new art form – Ovid with blues, Shakespeare with gospel. It would therefore be a great misunderstanding to think that he is being honoured only for the quality of his texts. Lyrics, music and performance are a trinity.”

 
© dpa/Elmar Kremser/Sven Simon

The German author Sibylle Berg on Facebook:

“The chances of my being awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics have just increased dramatically #nobelliteratureprize.”