The Nobel Prize in Literature, 2017

The Nobel Prize in Literature, 2017

  • On 5th October, 2017 The Nobel Prize in Literature for 2017 is awarded to the English author Kazuo Ishiguro “who, in novels of great emotional force, has uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world”.

About Kazuo Ishiguro

  • Kazuo Ishiguro was born on November 8, 1954 in Nagasaki, Japan.
  • In the late 1970s, Ishiguro graduated in English and Philosophy at the University of Kent,and then went on to study Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia.
  • Kazuo Ishiguro has been a full-time author ever since his first book, A Pale View of Hills(1982).
  • Both his first novel and the subsequent one, An Artist of the Floating World (1986) take place in Nagasaki a few years after the Second World War.
  • The themes Ishiguro is most associated with are already present here: memory, time, and self-delusion.
  • This is particularly notable in his most renowned novel, The Remains of the Day (1989), which was turned into film with Anthony Hopkins acting as the duty-obsessed butler Stevens.
  • Apart from his eight books, Ishiguro has also written scripts for film and television.

Works in English

  • A Pale View of Hills. – London : Faber & Faber, 1982
  • An Artist of the Floating World. – London : Faber & Faber, 1986
  • The Remains of the Day. – London : Faber & Faber, 1989
  • The Unconsoled. – London : Faber & Faber, 1995
  • When We Were Orphans. – London : Faber & Faber, 2000
  • Never Let Me Go. – London : Faber & Faber, 2005
  • Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall. – London : Faber & Faber, 2009
  • The Buried Giant. – London : Faber & Faber, 2015

Film and Television

  • A Profile of Arthur J. Mason / directed by Michael Whyte ; screenplay by Kazuo Ishiguro, 1984
  • The Gourmet / directed by Michael Whyte ; screenplay by Kazuo Ishiguro, 1986
  • ”The Gourmet” in Granta, 1993:43
  • The Remains of the Day / directed by James Ivory ; screenplay by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, 1993
  • The Saddest Music in the World / directed by Guy Maddin ; screenplay by Kazuo Ishiguro, 2003
  • The White Countess / directed by James Ivory ; screenplay by Kazuo Ishiguro, 2005
  • Never Let Me Go / directed by Mark Romanek ; screenplay by Alex Garland, 2010

About Nobel Prize in Literature

  • The Nobel Prize in Literature is awarded by the Swedish Academy, Stockholm, Sweden.
  • Awarded to 114 Nobel Laureates since 1901.
  • 41 years was the age of the youngest Literature Laureate ever, Rudyard Kipling, best known for The Jungle Book.
  • 88 years was the age of the oldest Literature Laureate ever, Doris Lessing, when she was awarded the Prize in 2007.

Reference:
https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2017/press.html
https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2017/bio-bibl.pdf
https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/