The 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature was not announced until mid-October. Legendary American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan unexpectedly won the crown and broke through the glasses of all walks of life. The world's most important literary award was awarded to a songwriter, an unprecedented award, and the boundaries of literature were redrawn.
The press release of the Nobel Prize in Literature jury was concise, calling Bob Dylan "for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition." The "musical poet" Bob Dylan pioneered a poetic language that was different from the past, and was firmly affirmed.
I studied the language and noticed that shortly after the Nobel Prize in Literature was announced, The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, a well-known and authoritative dictionary in the United States, immediately updated the online version of the material, adding a sentence at the end of Bob Dylan's original entry, saying that "he was awarded the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature." Nobel Prize for literature）。 The dictionary content is not a news report, but the publishing house grasps the major events, and the efficiency of such a sword and performance is amazing.
The Oxford English Dictionary, the world's largest and most authoritative dictionary, contains 21 quotations related to Bob Dylan, portraying his image in the English-speaking world in written evidence. More than half of the documentary evidence is related to his music, one-third is a general general general subject, and two and a half deal with his literary language.
Of these two-and-a-half documentary evidence, the 1990 one is of particular interest: "Poet or no, he (i.e., Bob Dylan) is an innate linguist, like Shakespeare, or Thoreau, or Conrad, or Yeats" Bob Dylan is］ a born languager， like Shakespeare or Thoreau or Conrad or Yeats）。
This documentary evidence is from the famous music journalist Paul Williams and is quoted from the classic bob Dylan: Performing Artist. Paul Williams in his book delves into The Book of Bowbert Dylan, comparing him to a literary giant, arguing that he is in the same class as Shakespeare, Thoreau, Conrad, and Yeats. Shakespeare is the greatest writer in the English-speaking world since time immemorial, Thoreau is an important representative of 19th-century American literature, Conrad is recognized as one of the greatest novelists to write in English, and Yeats won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1923 and is one of the most outstanding figures in 20th-century literature. Paul Williams gave Bob Dylan such a high opinion 26 years ago, and now the Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded to the musical poet, which is a belated affirmation.
However, another comprehensive documentary is rather negative, saying that Bob Dylan was a "pot-boiler", that is, a money-maker who catered to the public's disregard for art and made a living: "They talk about several money-making people, such as Psychedelic expert Timothy Leary, poet Alan Ginsburg, Dick Gregory, Bob Dylan, etc." poet Allen Ginsberg， Dick Gregory， Bob Dylan， ［etc.］）。 This article is from the April 10, 1968 "Iowa City Press-Citizen", and the reason for this comment is unknown, but the newspaper is a local tabloid with extremely limited influence, so let's treat it as a normal noise!
There is another piece and a half of documentary evidence related to Bob Dylan's literary language. One of them says that Paul Simon and Bob Dylan are "the offspring of Beat poetry and folk music," and that their content spans poetry and music, so it is only half a strip. The other is a quote from Bob Dylan's single "Subterranean Homesick Blues," whose classic lyrics, "You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows," adds a new meaning to the original "weatherman." Refers to a member of a violent revolutionary group in the U.S.
The Beatles in Britain belong to the same era as Bob Dylan, the souls John Lennon and Paul McCartney are also songwriters, and the Oxford English Dictionary generously contains 115 documentary evidence about the Beatles. The Beatles' great musical achievements contributed words such as "Beatlemania" and "Beatlesque" to the English, but their lyrics were markedly less literary than those of Bob Dylan.
Music poet Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize, and his classic masterpieces may once again spark a blaze, and "Dylanology" is more likely to become the highlight of the academy. The folk-style anti-war songs "Blowin'in the Wind" and "Mr. Tambourine" Tambourine Man), the political protest song "The Times They Are A-Changin'" (The Times They Are A-Changin'), the poetic rock blockbuster "Like a Rolling Stone", and many other legendary classics have since spanned the two great temples of music and literature.