1988 Nobel Prize in Literature

Award

1988 Nobel Prize in Literature

Naguib Mahfouz

"who, through works rich in nuance – now clear-sightedly realistic, now evocatively ambiguous – has formed an Arabian narrative art that applies to all mankind."

Date|

* 13 October 1988 (1988-10-13) (announcement)
* 10 December 1988
(ceremony)

Location| Stockholm, Sweden
Presented by| Swedish Academy
First award| 1901
Website| Official website
| <- 1987 · | Nobel Prize in Literature | · 1989 ->

|
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The 1988 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to the Egyptian writer Naguib Mahfouz (1911–2006) "who, through works rich in nuance – now clear-sightedly realistic, now evocatively ambiguous – has formed an Arabian narrative art that applies to all mankind."[1] He is the first and only Arabic–Egyptian recipient of the prize.[2][3]

## Laureate

[edit]

Main article: Naguib Mahfouz

The writings of Naguib Mahfouz address some of life's most important issues, such as the passage of time, society and norms, knowledge and faith, reason and love. Some of his early works are set in ancient Egypt such as Rādūbīs ("Rhadopis of Nubia", 1943), and he frequently uses Cairo as the setting for his tales. His famous Al-Thulāthiyyah ("The Trilogy", 1956–57): Bayn al-qaṣrayn ("Palace Walk", 1956), Qaṣr al-shawq ("Palace of Desire", 1957), and Al-Sukkariyyah ("Sugar Street", 1957), describes prolifically modern Egyptian society. Though some of his later works have a more mystical or metaphysical quality, later works of his focused on the modern age and life in a changing society. 350 short stories and more than 30 novels make up Mahfouz's body of work, among them Awlād ḥāratinā ("Children of Gebelawi", 1959), Tharthara Fawq Al-Nīl ("Adrift on the Nile", 1966), and Afrāḥ al-qubba ("Wedding Song", 1981). Many of his stories have been adapted for film.[2][4]

## Reactions

[edit]

Widely read in Egypt and other Arabic countries, Mahfouz was largely unknown in the Western world at the time he was awarded the Nobel prize. While Mahfouz was controversial politically, he was a popular writer and the Nobel prize to him was well received throughout the Arab world. The prize was accepted by his two daughters at the award ceremony in Stockholm in December 1988. Mahfouz donated most of the prize money to charities.[5]

## Nobel lecture

[edit]

Naguib Mahfohz's Nobel lecture was read at the Swedish Academy on 8 December 1988 by Mohamed Salmawy, first in Arabic, then in English.[6]

## Award ceremony

[edit]

At the award ceremony in Stockholm on 10 December 1988, Sture Allén, permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, said:

> Naguib Mahfouz has an unrivalled position as spokesman for Arabic prose. Through him, in the cultural sphere to which he belongs, the art of the novel and the short story has attained international standards of excellence, the result of a synthesis of classical Arabic tradition, European inspiration and personal artistry.[7]

Naguib Mahfouz was unable to the attend the award ceremony. The prize was accepted by his daughters, Om Kalsoum Naguib Mahfouz and Fatma Naguib Mahfouz.[7]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ The Nobel Prize in Literature 1988 nobelprize.org
2. ^ a b Naguib Mahfouz britannica.com
3. ^ Sheila Rule (14 October 1988). "Nobel Prize in Literature Awarded To an Arabic Writer for First Time". The New York Times. Retrieved 21 May 2021.
4. ^ Naguib Mahfouz – Facts nobelprize.org
5. ^ Robert D. McFadden (31 August 2006). "Naguib Mahfouz, 94, Nobel Laureate in Literature, Dies". The New York Times.
6. ^ "Naguib Mahfouz Nobel lecture". nobelprize.org.
7. ^ a b "Award ceremony speech". nobelprize.org.

## External links

[edit]

* 1988 Press release nobelprize.org
* Award ceremony speech nobelprize.org
* Naguib Mahfouz Nobel lecture nobelprize.org
* Naguib Mahfouz documentary nobelprize org

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Laureates of the Nobel Prize in Literature

1901–1920|

* 1901: Sully Prudhomme
* 1902: Theodor Mommsen
* 1903: Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson
* 1904: Frédéric Mistral / José Echegaray
* 1905: Henryk Sienkiewicz
* 1906: Giosuè Carducci
* 1907: Rudyard Kipling
* 1908: Rudolf Eucken
* 1909: Selma Lagerlöf
* 1910: Paul Heyse
* 1911: Maurice Maeterlinck
* 1912: Gerhart Hauptmann
* 1913: Rabindranath Tagore
* 1914
* 1915: Romain Rolland
* 1916: Verner von Heidenstam
* 1917: Karl Gjellerup / Henrik Pontoppidan
* 1918
* 1919: Carl Spitteler
* 1920: Knut Hamsun

1921–1940|

* 1921: Anatole France
* 1922: Jacinto Benavente
* 1923: W. B. Yeats
* 1924: Władysław Reymont
* 1925: George Bernard Shaw
* 1926: Grazia Deledda
* 1927: Henri Bergson
* 1928: Sigrid Undset
* 1929: Thomas Mann
* 1930: Sinclair Lewis
* 1931: Erik Axel Karlfeldt (posthumously)
* 1932: John Galsworthy
* 1933: Ivan Bunin
* 1934: Luigi Pirandello
* 1935
* 1936: Eugene O'Neill
* 1937: Roger Martin du Gard
* 1938: Pearl S. Buck
* 1939: Frans Eemil Sillanpää
* 1940

1941–1960|

* 1941
* 1942
* 1943
* 1944: Johannes V. Jensen
* 1945: Gabriela Mistral
* 1946: Hermann Hesse
* 1947: André Gide
* 1948: T. S. Eliot
* 1949: William Faulkner
* 1950: Bertrand Russell
* 1951: Pär Lagerkvist
* 1952: François Mauriac
* 1953: Winston Churchill
* 1954: Ernest Hemingway
* 1955: Halldór Laxness
* 1956: Juan Ramón Jiménez
* 1957: Albert Camus
* 1958: Boris Pasternak
* 1959: Salvatore Quasimodo
* 1960: Saint-John Perse

1961–1980|

* 1961: Ivo Andrić
* 1962: John Steinbeck
* 1963: Giorgos Seferis
* 1964: Jean-Paul Sartre (declined award)
* 1965: Mikhail Sholokhov
* 1966: Shmuel Yosef Agnon / Nelly Sachs
* 1967: Miguel Ángel Asturias
* 1968: Yasunari Kawabata
* 1969: Samuel Beckett
* 1970: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
* 1971: Pablo Neruda
* 1972: Heinrich Böll
* 1973: Patrick White
* 1974: Eyvind Johnson / Harry Martinson
* 1975: Eugenio Montale
* 1976: Saul Bellow
* 1977: Vicente Aleixandre
* 1978: Isaac Bashevis Singer
* 1979: Odysseas Elytis
* 1980: Czesław Miłosz

1981–2000|

* 1981: Elias Canetti
* 1982: Gabriel García Márquez
* 1983: William Golding
* 1984: Jaroslav Seifert
* 1985: Claude Simon
* 1986: Wole Soyinka
* 1987: Joseph Brodsky
* 1988: Naguib Mahfouz
* 1989: Camilo José Cela
* 1990: Octavio Paz
* 1991: Nadine Gordimer
* 1992: Derek Walcott
* 1993: Toni Morrison
* 1994: Kenzaburō Ōe
* 1995: Seamus Heaney
* 1996: Wisława Szymborska
* 1997: Dario Fo
* 1998: José Saramago
* 1999: Günter Grass
* 2000: Gao Xingjian

2001–2020|

* 2001: V. S. Naipaul
* 2002: Imre Kertész
* 2003: J. M. Coetzee
* 2004: Elfriede Jelinek
* 2005: Harold Pinter
* 2006: Orhan Pamuk
* 2007: Doris Lessing
* 2008: J. M. G. Le Clézio
* 2009: Herta Müller
* 2010: Mario Vargas Llosa
* 2011: Tomas Tranströmer
* 2012: Mo Yan
* 2013: Alice Munro
* 2014: Patrick Modiano
* 2015: Svetlana Alexievich
* 2016: Bob Dylan
* 2017: Kazuo Ishiguro
* 2018: Olga Tokarczuk
* 2019: Peter Handke
* 2020: Louise Glück

2021–present|

* 2021: Abdulrazak Gurnah
* 2022: Annie Ernaux
* 2023: Jon Fosse
* 2024: Han Kang
* 2025: to be determined

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