Han Kang receives 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature for “intense poetic prose”

CNN
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The 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature goes to Han Kang, a South Korean author, for her “intense poetic prose that grapples with historical trauma and exposes the fragility of human life.”

Han, 53, began her career with a poetry group in a South Korean magazine before making her prose debut with a short story collection in 1995.

She later began writing longer prose works, most notably The Vegetarian, one of her first books to be translated into English. The novel, which won the Man Booker International Prize in 2016, depicts a young woman's attempt to live a more “plant-like” life after suffering macabre nightmares about human cruelty.

Han is the first South Korean author to win the literary prize and only the 18th woman out of 117 prizes awarded since 1901. The prize, announced in Sweden on Thursday, carries a cash prize of 11 million Swedish kronor ($1 million).

Much of Han's work raises the question posed by a character in her 2019 novel “Europe,” whose protagonist is plagued by nightmares: “If you were able to live the way you want “What would you do with your life?”

Although many of Han's protagonists are women, her prose works are often told from the perspective of men.

“Before my wife became a vegetarian, I always thought she was completely unremarkable,” begins her novel “The Vegetarian.” “However, if there was no particular attraction, no particular disadvantages and therefore there was no reason for either of us not to get married.”

Originally written and published in Korean, The Vegetarian was translated by then 28-year-old Deborah Smith. By her own admission, Smith was “monolingual until she was 21,” choosing only Korean due to a lack of English-Korean translators.

The Swedish Academy praised Han's work for its “unique awareness of the connections between body and soul, the living and the dead.” Through her “poetic and experimental style,” the academy said, Han “has become an innovator in contemporary prose.”

Anna-Karin Palm, a member of the Nobel Committee for Literature, said that readers unfamiliar with Han's work should start with “Human Acts,” a 2014 novel about the 1980 Gwangju Uprising, as more than 100 civilians were killed in pro-democracy demonstrations led by students in the South Korean city.

“Human Acts” shows how “the living and the dead are always connected and how these types of traumas stay in a population across generations,” Palm said at Thursday’s announcement ceremony.

But Han's “intense, lyrical” writing style almost seems like a comfort in the face of this historical violence, Palm added. “Her very delicate, precise prose becomes almost a counterpoint to the brutal noise of power,” she said.

Before the announcement, Ellen Mattson, another member of the committee, explained how the jury goes about selecting this year's literary laureate.

“We start with a very long list of about 220 names,” Mattson said. “Then we have to navigate through this enormous mass of names – and we need the help of experts from different parts of the world.”

Ultimately, the committee arrives at a collection of “about 20 names,” which is then narrowed down to a shortlist of five authors. “That’s where the real work begins,” Mattson said.

Each committee member must then “read everything by these five authors” while focusing on a single winner.

Announcing the award, Mats Malm, permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, said Han was “having an ordinary day” and had “just had dinner with her son” when he called to congratulate her.

“She wasn’t really prepared for it, but we started discussing preparations for December,” he said. The Nobel Prize ceremony will take place in Stockholm on December 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death in 1896.