Why is the Nobel Prize for Literature awarded to a folk singer?

In fact, this just exposes our narrow understanding of Bob Dylan. Most people only regard him as a folk singer and ignore Bob Dylan as a poet.

The Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded to the world-famous folk singer Bob Dylan. The official award is: Bob Dylan has created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.

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As soon as the news of the award came out, it immediately aroused huge attention. The New York Times said that "the Nobel Prize in Literature was given to a music prize for the first time." More people said that it was the first time that the Nobel Prize in Literature was given to a music prize. a singer. The crowd was confused and joked that Taylor should be the next winner. In fact, this just exposes our narrow understanding of Bob Dylan - in fact, most people only regard Bob Dylan as a folk singer and ignore him as a poet.

Can lyrics be considered literary works?

What if lyrics cannot be considered literature? It is estimated that Su Dongpo was the first to disagree.

Let’s take a look at the criteria for the Nobel Prize in Literature—the person who has created the best work with an ideal tendency in literature. You see, there is no word that defines the form of literature.

Then the core question is: Can Dylan's lyric art be regarded as a kind of literature? And a more fundamental question is: Are good lyrics literature?

One thing I believe everyone will realize is that the lyrics written by Dylan are undoubtedly highly literary. In his "Here Comes the Rain", you can see traces of the romantic poet Shelley, Rimbaud-like illusions, and Baudelaire-like decadence. In fact, there were calls for Dylan to win the Nobel Prize a few years ago. At that time, some people regarded this statement as a joke - a folk singer winning a literary award? But if we check the information a little bit, we will find that Bob Dylan was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature every year from 1998 to 2002.