Jon Fosse: The Singer and Signer of Existential Blues

Abstract

The year twenty-twenty-three has been a baccate year for Jon Olav Fosse, a Norwegian author, dramaturge, and translator. It is the year in which he has bagged the Nobel prize in literature “for his innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable” (indianexpress.com). His literary realm provokes the mysticism of mundane life, discerning the essence of life, love, loss, logic, and light with the volition of opening a new horizon for the betterment of the coevals and the coming generations. His literary world offers such a spellbinding phenomenon where there is a prominent colouration of the philosophical inquiries of existentialism—that chiefly deals with human beings' existence and essence—especially of existential blues to which this paper proffers to probe exploring, analyzing, and discussing the available material on e-media. This paper attempts to answer the question of whether Jon Fosse is the singer and signer of Existential Blues, or not. To answer this question, existential themes, thoughts, and theories of the great existentialists will be presented as touchstone as possible, and they will help in exploring, analyzing, and discussing the available contents on Fosse’s existential blues on e-media.