Nobel Speculation and 40,000 Dictionaries

Posted on September 30, 2010 by Scott Esposito

The Nobel Prize in literature is set to be announced sometime between October 7th and the 14th. With the date getting so close, there's a lot of specuation. The Literary Saloon has an extremely thorough discussion of the contenders, with commentary, analysis, and even breakdowns of how various possible winners' odds have changed over the years. (As a reminder, the Nobel doesn't do a longlist or shortlist, so guesses like these are always something of a crapshoot, but nonetheless fun.)

Words Without Borders have their own thoughts, with a very active comment thread with all kinds of speculation. Surprisingly (to me, and probably ohters) the WWB thread has a distinctly Rhilip Rothian air, with many arguing his merits. For instance:

 

Roth does seem like an obvious candidate in some respects, but—and this is my main point here—I think he would have been much more likely to win say 30 years ago than today. At this point it seems that if they were going to give it to him, they would have already. I wouldn’t say it’s flat out impossible to imagine (unlike some other people who get mentioned), but it does strike me as being somewhat unlikely. He may be the obvious American, but that having been insufficient to date, I’m not sure he’ll live long enough for it to be America’s “turn” again in the current environment.

I would be surprised, but who knows.

In other translation news, it's nice to see translator Alexis Levitin being recognized by academia and awarded a Distinguished Professor position from the SUNY Board of Trustees. Translators tend to gripe (quite legitimately) that translation isn't taken seriously by the powers that be in higher education, so this is a welcome development.

And Levin's travel to a translators' college with 40,000 dictionaries got my attention:

This summer, Levitin spent a month at the European Translators College in Straelen, Germany.

"They have 40,000 dictionaries," he said. "I finished several short stories by contemporary writers — Gastão Cruz and Rosa Alice Branco — which have been accepted by Rosebud. I spent two weeks with her (Branco) in Portugal."