Chinese writer Can Xue leads the list of Nobel Prize contenders and Swifty takes part in the Literary Village

This year’s Nobel Prize for Literature will be announced on October 10. Who will win in the end? There is undoubtedly another lively debate in the literary world. The publication of the odds list added some drama to this event.

In recent years, every time before the Nobel Prize for Literature is announced, major gaming companies around the world establish special teams and other items to compile the prize for that year.

Nobel Prize Odds Ranking

The higher the rating on the odds list and the lower the odds, the more certain the bettor is that the author will win. In the predictions of Nicer Odds, a well-known British betting company, the Chinese writer Can Xue once again topped the list of odds. As of 2019, Can Xue has been shortlisted for the Nobel Prize in Literature for six consecutive years, and has topped the list for the past two years, making her a major contender. popular for the award.

Can Xue has been shortlisted for the Nobel Prize in Literature for six consecutive years (data map)

Can Xue, formerly known as Deng Xiaohua, was born in Changsha, Hunan in 1953. Can Xue was fond of Western classical literature and Russian literature when she was young, her production works give a including “The House on the Mountain”, “Huangni Street”, “Old Floating Clouds”, “Five-Spice Street”, etc. Many scholars consider Can Xue to be an underrated Chinese avant-garde writer and one of the most experimental writers of our time.

Australian writer Gerald Moonan was second, Canadian writer Anne Carson third, and Thomas Pynchon and Haruki Murakami, who have long been considered candidates for the Nobel Prize, sixth and ninth place.

The famous American singer Taylor Swift, known as Taylor Swift by Chinese fans, is also on the list. It is not unique for a singer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature In 2016, Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize for “creating a meaningful new way of expressing emotions through poetry based on the traditional form of American song”, which inspired extensive discussion. .

(popular news reporter Lu Han)

previously reported

Nobel Prize in Literature, Can Xue’s “Hot” and “Cold”.

When Mo Yan won the Nobel Prize for Literature 11 years ago, he said, “I hope the Chinese female writer Can Xue wins the prize.” award winning popular author. Especially this year (2023), Can Xue has been in first place for a long time on the list of Nobel Prize possibilities issued by European bookmakers.

Ma Yueran once said, “Can Xue is China’s Kafka, even more powerful than Kafka…” The chairman of the International Booker Prize jury, Ide Tangkin, even believes that she is better than Yu Hua in terms of depth of thought .

Although judging from the list of Nobel Prize winners over the years, not many people bet on the final result, but those who can be on this list are famous writers with international influence. national at Beijing time on October 5 at 7 pm At this point, the results of the Nobel Prize in Literature will be announced Before then, let’s get to know Can Xue and her work in advance.

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Can Xue’s works are like flowers inside the wall and fragrance outside the wall.

She has been hailed by foreign literary circles as a creative Chinese female writer since the mid-20th century. Can Xue’s nearly 90 works have been translated into English, French, German, Japanese, Swedish, Italian, Vietnamese and other languages ​​and published abroad Her works have been selected into the collection of outstanding novels the world in the United States, Japan and other countries many times. As the only Chinese writer to be included in American university textbooks, Can Xue’s novels have been selected into the textbooks of Harvard University, Cornell University, Columbia University, Chuo University in Tokyo and Kogakuin University in Japan.

The American writer Susan Sontag said: “If I were to be asked to name the best writer in China, I would say without hesitation: Can Xue.”

But in China, since Can Xue is rarely active in the public eye and rarely participates in large-scale literary exchange activities, “Can Xue” is an unfamiliar name to many. readers. In addition, her works are full of avant-garde and absurd. readers are a little unsure of what she is talking about.

In fact, throughout Can Xue’s more than 30 years of literary creation, his works have always had certain avant-garde artistic features, such as multiple symbols of images, escaping from​​​​ narrative language, and maze-like internal spatial structures. Can Xue constantly moves freely between wild imagination and calm knowledge, and it is difficult to predict what will happen in her story.

Canxue Youth Photo Publishing House

For example, in her work “The Goddess of Xishuangbanna”, the background of the story always makes us feel familiar It starts from a flower, a cloud, a river, and a small thing, and uses familiar life scenes as the beginning and texture, “Snow” “City” or “Mengcheng”, “Ma Street” or “Toad Village”, the style of these towns are common in our daily life, but in the life of the main narrative character, the Towns, streets, and buildings are different depending on the characters.

Can Xue does not like to be involved in various public activities and lives a very self-disciplined life. According to Chen Xiaozhen’s description, her daily life is almost the same as Kant’s: getting up on time at seven o’clock, starting to read and write at nine o’clock, for an hour and a half. Start reading and writing at one o’clock in the afternoon, two and a half hours. During these two parts of her time, she wrote books of philosophy. Then it’s exercise time. After dinner, it was time to write a novel for an hour. Don’t start drafting, don’t think about it, just think for a minute or two and then keep writing. After writing eight or nine hundred words, I put down the pen and gave up. After the work is completed, touch up the color a little. Then it’s time to learn English.

This kind of life allows her to focus on her creation to the greatest extent without disturbing others, just like her pen name “Canxue”. on the high mountains; Another meaning is that spring has come, and that everyone is still taking a step towards it, which is very brave.”

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If you understand the background of Can Xue’s growth, you will understand why her writing tends to be “stream of consciousness”.

Looking at the first half of Can Xue’s writing career, “barbaric growth” is the most appropriate way to describe it. Can Xue has experienced the changes of the times and family changes in her childhood. The wildest hemp and mugwort leaves are left… The cake that is made is bitter and astringent, but you must eat it every day.”

Xue’s first childhood memory “New Leaves”

When Can Xue was twelve or thirteen years old, she began to read Chinese and foreign classic novels, which laid a solid foundation for her future creations. As a child, Canxue read hard books over and over again, constantly thinking about what is described in the books, finding the pictures in the books, and taking in the texture and pattern of the clothes. which the main characters would wear. Reading “A Dream of Red Mansions”, her father asked her what she was thinking when she mentioned “Baoyu Cries Daiyu”. Xue said, “I just feel dark in my heart.” Her father asked, “It’s so sad, why do you have to read it over and over again?” Can Xue answer, “I don’t know if she can read.” She recalled later in the book, “My The obsessive imitation is an early performance activity in which I prepare for the big drama I will play in the future.”

Can Xue (second from the left in the front row) with her family

She said, “Childhood is the source of art. The understanding and feeling of childhood is the same as entering the door of art. , and the unforgettable Sophora flower cake and the sweet wine created the rich and sensitive emotional world of this girl who had a great interest in literature, and also created her attractive and arrogant personality. Can Xue wrote in the book: “In some ordinary times, as a child, I benefited from it for the rest of my life. “

Can Xue, who only had a primary school education, joined the society to make a living at a young age and worked as a miller, gatherer, lathe worker, and barefoot doctor after to marry her husband, she taught herself to be a carpenter in the country, and later he opened a tailor shop. It must be said that her first novel “Huangni Street” was written while bending over the sewing machine Can Xue was already over 30 years old at this time.

Can Xue, like this, has always kept her honest and sincere study inside. As she has repeatedly said in many interviews and self-reports, what she pursues is a kind of ” the literature of the soul itself”. Writing on a spiritual level. After constantly removing external imperfections, her works reflect a spiritual or spiritual purity.