Bob Dylan recently gave a 4,000-word Lecture in response to being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. It was reported that the lecture was the sole requirement for the musician to receive the honor and the monetary award that comes with the Nobel Prize.
Dylan: first Western musician to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature
Dylan is not the first musician to receive the honor, as Indian musician and poet Rabindranath Tagore received the same Nobel Prize for Literature in the year 1913. However, the singer of "All Along the Watchtower" is the first Western musician to receive the honor in 2016.
Although, this award has not been without controversy, particularly over whether the songwriter's artistic expressions actually fell under "Literature." Dylan was still awarded the prize in the end. The committee responsible for the awards stated that they awarded the musician for ushering in "new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.”
The Nobel Prize for Literature comes with a monetary reward of 8 million Swedish crowns, which roughly converts to $927,740. This amount is what Dylan will receive following his 4,000-word lecture.
Bob Dylan was given the coveted award in 2016. Traditionally, winners have to give a lecture first in order to officially receive the prize. Awardees usually give the lecture in December, but Dylan turned this initial event down because of "prior commitments." The committee gave him a deadline of June 10th to deliver his lecture, otherwise he would forfeit both the award and the purse.
An 'eloquent' and 'extraordinary' lecture
But Dylan came through before the deadline, and in his 27-minute lecture he shared how he himself wondered how he could connect his songwriting to literature.
"I wanted to reflect on it and see where the connection was,” Dylan said. In this, he realized that it all started with his fascination with Buddy Holly, an American singer who was popular in the mid-1950s.
He also related how literature shaped the music he made. Dylan describes his songwriting influences as a mix of inspiration from other folk artists and classic stories like "Moby Dick," "The Oddyssey," and "All Quiet on the Western Front."
Newsweek noted that the Nobel Prize committee was satisfied with the lecture Dylan delivered, describing it as "extraordinary" and "eloquent," as one might expect from the renowned folk singer and songwriter.
