Are Rowling’s Works Literary Enough to Merit the Nobel Prize in Literature?

[The Swedish Academy Committee for the Nobel Prize in Literature: Anna-Karin Palm (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna-Karin_Palm), Ingrid Carlberg (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingrid_Carlberg), Anders Olsson (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anders_Olsson_(writer)) (chair), Ellen Matson (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_Mattson), and Steve Sem-Sandberg (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Sem-Sandberg) (photos all from their Wikipedia pages)]
Nick and John return at last to discuss the ten posts John has written that argue Rowling’s writing on literary merit alone are worthy of a nomination for the 2027 Nobel Prize in Literature. The first explores the Nobel Prize nomination process (and why Rowling does and doesn’t stand a chance of winning). The rest explain the brilliance of Rowling-Galbraith’s allegory and embedded text infused Troubled Blood, the fifth Cormoran Strike novel and perhaps her finest writing.
* J. K. Rowling and the Nobel Prize for Literature (hogwartsprofessor.substack.com),
* The First Medieval Morality Play in (hogwartsprofessor.substack.com/p/the-first-med…)Troubled Blood (hogwartsprofessor.substack.com/p/the-first-med…): Margot Bamborough’s Spiritual Life and Death (hogwartsprofessor.substack.com/p/the-first-med…),
* The Second Medieval Morality Play of (hogwartsprofessor.substack.com/p/the-second-me…)Troubled Blood (hogwartsprofessor.substack.com/p/the-second-me…): Margot Bamborough’s Life as a Nuanced History of Feminism (hogwartsprofessor.substack.com/p/the-second-me…),
* The Third Medieval Morality Play of (hogwartsprofessor.substack.com/p/the-third-med…)Troubled Blood (hogwartsprofessor.substack.com/p/the-third-med…): Dennis Creed, the Demon of Paradise Park (hogwartsprofessor.substack.com/p/the-third-med…),
* The Literariness of (hogwartsprofessor.substack.com/p/the-literarin…)Troubled Blood (hogwartsprofessor.substack.com/p/the-literarin…): Margot Bamborough’s Subliminal Second Act as Angry Ghost (hogwartsprofessor.substack.com/p/the-literarin…),
* The Literariness of (hogwartsprofessor.substack.com/p/the-literarin…)Troubled Blood (hogwartsprofessor.substack.com/p/the-literarin…): Rowling’s Rewriting ‘Faerie Queene’ Book 1 in Strike 5 (hogwartsprofessor.substack.com/p/the-literarin…),
* The Two Embedded Texts of (hogwartsprofessor.substack.com/p/the-two-embed…)Troubled Blood (hogwartsprofessor.substack.com/p/the-two-embed…)and the Texts Embedded Within Both of Them (hogwartsprofessor.substack.com/p/the-two-embed…),
* The Literariness of (hogwartsprofessor.substack.com/p/the-literarin…)Troubled Blood (hogwartsprofessor.substack.com/p/the-literarin…): Carl Jung’s (hogwartsprofessor.substack.com/p/the-literarin…)Red Book (hogwartsprofessor.substack.com/p/the-literarin…)as the Model of Talbot’s ‘True Book (hogwartsprofessor.substack.com/p/the-literarin…),’
* The Literariness of (hogwartsprofessor.substack.com/p/the-literarin…)Troubled Blood (hogwartsprofessor.substack.com/p/the-literarin…): The Astrological Clock Structure of Strike5 (hogwartsprofessor.substack.com/p/the-literarin…), and
* The Literariness of (hogwartsprofessor.substack.com/p/the-literarin…)Troubled Blood (hogwartsprofessor.substack.com/p/the-literarin…): Charting the Ring Structure of the Seven Chapter Sets (hogwartsprofessor.substack.com/p/the-literarin…)
The only references they make to ideas not found expressly in these posts were to their conversation about Carl Jung in a previous Rowling Studies podcast (hogwartsprofessor.substack.com/p/metallurgical…) and John’s noting that Apollo and Artemis are twin brother and sister (mythologysource.com/who-was-the-twin-of-artemis) in support of his point that Rowling leans Apollonian in the Apollonian/Dionysian divide a la Germaine Greer and Camille Paglia.
[Mythologists would probably note the important differences between Apollo and Artemis (symbolsage.com/apollo-and-artemis-mythology) as a counter to that argument, but that both are ‘Apollonian’ as Nietzsche understood it seems clear. See the fourth post above, Dennis Creed, the Demon of Paradise Park (hogwartsprofessor.substack.com/p/the-third-med…), for the context of that Apollonian/Dionysian distinction.]
John has Troubled Blood alchemy, mythology, and names posts in queue with two extras to close out this Nobel Prize series. Paid Subscribers will also be receiving chapters from his Perennialism draft PhD thesis.
Nick and John will return this weekend for a conversation about Christian objections to Harry Potter. Paid Subscribers will be receiving their invitation to a free, interactive, seven-week class next week.
Stay tuned!
Garry Craig Powell on 2026 Nobel Prize in Literature Winner (Garry Craig Powell writedangerously.substack.com/p/anne-carson-wi…)

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