The Nobel Prize and American Literature

As a member of the illustrious Royal Swedish Academy, and chairman of its Nobel Committee, Kjell Espmark is in a unique position to give an insider's view of the Nobel Prize for Literature. 

Kjell Espmark (b. 1930) is a poet, a novelist, and a literary historian. He was professor in comparative Literature at the University of Stockholm 1978-1995, became a member of the Swedish Academy in 1981 and the chairman of its Nobel Committee in 1988. His poetry can be read in a dozen languages, including English: Béla Bartók against the Third Reich (1985), Route Tournante (1993), and Five Swedish Poets (1997). The first in a series of seven novels, Glömskans tid ("The Age of Oblivion", 1987-1997, is available in French (L´Oubli, 1990) and Italian (L´Oblio, 1998). The best-known of his seven books of criticism (including studies of Harry Martinsson, Tomas Tranströmer, and the tradition from Baudelaire) is The Nobel Prize in Literature, A Study of the Criteria behind the choices (1986; in English in 1991); it can also be read in French, German, Greek, and Chinese.

Friday, September 16, at 4 pm
Townsend Center, Geballe Room
Stephens Hall
University of California, Berkeley
Info: 510 642-5355