Let’s play a game: Retro-Nobels

Nobel in Literature is awarded – contrary to the most literary awards – to author for the lifetime achievements rather than a single books. And this approach works well: several of greatest 20th century writers got the prize. But here’s where problem lies: several but not all. Committee awarded many authors that faded into obscurity while omitted some great ones that are remembered and respected to this day like James Joyce or Vladimir Nabokov.

So my question is: who from deceased authors should’ve been awarded? Let’s stick to the authors that died between 1901 and 2023. And would be cool if we pick some less obvious choices like aforementioned Joyce and Nabokov.

I’ll start: Witold Gombrowicz.
Nobel Prize in Literature was so far awarded to 5 polish writers, most recently to Olga Tokarczuk. However, Gombrowicz, who is widely considered the most influential polish author of 20th century, wasn’t so lucky. He is my personal favourite author who influenced greatly my taste in books and worldview. He wrote mostly social satires and didn’t stray away from controversy. Just 10 years after WW2 he published “Trans-Atlantic”, a satire on patriotism in face of war. In the novel he introduces a old father who wants to perform bloody sacrifice of his young son on the altar of Fatherland. As far as I remember this book alone made polish officials to ban all his works in country (at that point he was living abroad in Argentina). Some people suspect that Gombrowicz would be awarded the year he died, but sadly it happened a couple of months before October so he wasn’t eligible for the prize anymore.

by Hopeful_Meeting_7248