The 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded to American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, for “having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.”
The award has come as a surprise in some corners. “If you’re a ‘music’ fan, look it up in the dictionary. Then ‘literature’. Then compare and contrast,” tweeted acclaimed author Irvine Welsh, who said he was a Dylan fan. “Have they inducted Don De Lillo into the Rock n Roll hall of fame alongside Def Leppard and Slayer yet?”
The Swedish Academy’s permanent secretary, Sara Danius, said Dylan, 75, “is a great poet in the English-speaking tradition.”
Can you tell the difference between these literary greats and Dylan’s musical poetry?