Abstract

BOZA MENDEZ, David. The literary pebble in Bob Dylan’s shoe: an analysis of the early criticism in Costa Rica on his Nobel and his poetic-literary value. Comunicación [online]. 2018, vol.27, n.1, pp.132-143. ISSN 1659-3820.  http://dx.doi.org/10.18845/rc.v27i1-18.3890.

2016 marked a momentous year in popular culture and rock music history when Bob Dylan became the first musician to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. This award generated a considerable amount of critique in the media, not only in specialized magazines but also in newspapers. Likewise, in Costa Rica, a number of newspaper articles dealt with the subject of Dylan’s Nobel. This study aims to analyze the similarities and differences in terms of the discourse of these articles. In this regard, this study presents a list of the main arguments on this subject; some of the statements serve as input for analyzing the nature of sung music and evince its relation with poetry. Furthermore, the notion of their common source is addressed in order to make this sonic-linguistic relation more evident. The last section intends to present the poetic and literary characteristics of Bob Dylan’s songs. Finally, this study aims at demonstrating why the songwriter is a worthy recipient of a literary prize of this nature. These conjectures are based on the theories of some literary and popular culture experts; in addition, semiotic analysis represents the main tool for this study.

Keywords : Bob Dylan; Nobel Prize; poetry; literature; contemporary literature; song; singing; cultural studies.

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