photo caption, Novelist Han Kang was the first Korean to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Updated 2 hours ago
Novelist Han Kang was the first Korean to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Author Han Kang, now 53 years old, won the International Division of the Man Booker Prize, one of the world’s top three literary prizes, for his novel ‘The Vegetarian’ in in 2016.
The Swedish Academy, which organizes the Nobel Prize, stated the reason for its selection, saying, “It is a powerful poetic prose that confronts historical trauma and reveals the fragility of human life.”
The Nobel Prize Committee has been awarding the Literature Prize since 1901, and this is the 18th time that a woman has won the prize.
Han Kang was the second Korean to win the Nobel Prize. Former President Kim Dae-jung, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2000, was the first recipient.
The Nobel Prize committee assessed Han Kang as “a person who has devoted himself to music and art.”
The committee also said that Han Kang’s work crosses borders by studying a wide range of species.
The Nobel Prize ceremony will be held on December 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death, in Stockholm, Sweden (prizes in physiology, physics, chemistry, literature, and economics) and Oslo, Norway (peace prize) .
Meanwhile, Han Kang made his literary debut in 1993 by publishing four poems in the quarterly magazine Literature and Society.
In 1995, he made his first prose with the publication of the short story collection ‘Yeosu’s Love’ and has been actively working on his works since then.
2016 will be remembered as a turning point for the Han River. ‘The Vegetarian’, published in 2007, was translated into English by Deborah Smith in 2015, almost 10 years later, and even won the Man Booker Prize.
‘The Vegetarian’ shows the brutal consequences suffered by a woman who refuses to go into dietary rules.
Among his other works are ‘Here Comes a Boy’, ‘Human Behaviour’, and ‘Greek Lessons’.
Mats Malm, the permanent secretary-general of the Swedish Academy, said of Han’s award, “Han Kang was not ready for the award.”
Committee Chairman Anders Olson also said that it “confronts historical trauma and invisible rules, showing the fragility of human life in each work.”
He praised Han Kang’s “poetic and experimental style”, calling him “an innovator of modern prose”.
He also said that Han Kang has a “unique sense of the connection between body and soul, living and dead.
Han Kang became the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature from French writer Annie Ernault in 2022.
She is also the first woman to win the Nobel Prize this year.
When news of an award-winning writer broke, there was a great response in the online space.
President Yoon Seok-yeol said on Facebook, “I express my respect for the author who raised the value of Korean literature.”
BTS member V also shared the winning article on his Instagram account and left a message saying, “I read it in the army. Congratulations.”
Writer Koo Byeong-mo wrote on Instagram, “It’s a real mix of words. “The first Asian woman!” He congratulated him by posting a message saying,
Han Kang was born in Gwangju Metropolitan City as the daughter of novelist Han Seung-won.
Mr. Han, who moved to Seoul in elementary school, studied Korean literature at a university in Seoul.
Mr.
Norwegian writer John Fosse won last year’s Nobel Prize in Literature, and previous winners include Toni Morrison, Doris Lessing, Kazuo Ishiguro, Gabriel García Márquez, and Bob Dylan.
