Nobel Prize 2016 in Literature awarded to Bob Dylan

 

Today, the Swedish Academy awarded Bob Dylan the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition”.

 

BREAKING 2016 #NobelPrize in Literature to Bob Dylan “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition” pic.twitter.com/XYkeJKRfhv

— The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) October 13, 2016

 

While the decision came as a surprise to many, Permanent Secretary at the Swedish Acadamy Sara Danius emphasised his decades-long cultural contributions and called him “a great poet in the English tradition” in an interview following the announcement.

In a supplementary document containing biographical and bibliographical notes, the Swedish Academy also cited Dylan’s “profound” influence on modern music and how his body of work already had been the subject of cultural studies for a long time.