South Korean author Han Kang speaks to the media during a press conference in Seoul, South Korea. , Photo Credit: AP
In a time of two wars and less accountability, it should not be surprising that the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded to South Korean writer Han Kang. Despite his “surprise” at the unexpected prize – Chinese avant-garde writer Can Xue was said to win – Han Kang’s work is perfect for reflecting situations in life that follow no reason or logic. Are.
At least two of his novels translated into English use the massacre of unarmed civilians and protesters as a backdrop, ensuring that the crimes remain memorable and not hidden chapters in history. The Swedish Academy praised the 53-year-old author for “her deeply poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and highlights the fragility of human life”.
Tangled with this question – ‘What does it mean to be human?’ – Han Kang has explored this existential question in novel after novel, covering the complex cycle of human behavior from acts of horror to moments of kindness. “Investigator in Contemporary Prose” has a poetic and experimental style to express her concerns about women and their struggle to overcome patriarchal mentality, totalitarianism, violent oppression, environment, relationships and social injustice, some people Fundamentalists will say.
In a brief interview after the award, Han Kang told Swedish Academy official Jenny Ryden that readers looking for her work should start with her 2021 novel. we don’t fall apartThe English translation is scheduled to be released in early 2025 and revolves around the friendship of two women during the time of the 1948 massacre on Jeju Island.
past and present
He mentioned another novel human actWhich uses the 1980 massacre in Gwangju, where Han Kang was born, as a backdrop for a history of how the past informs the present. Nowhere are these clearer than in the Academy’s words that “He has a unique awareness of the relationship between body and soul, the living and the dead…” human act, Where the soul of a murdered student longs to see the faces of his murderers, “wants to hover like a burning flame above their sleeping eyelids, to creep into their dreams… until they hear my voice She listens, asks, demands why”.
The third novel she wanted readers to discover is a “personal, autobiographical” novel, The White Book“An Elegy” on grief, about the demise of a sibling after surviving only a few hours. He ended it by talking about his most famous novel, Vegetarianwhich won the 2016 Man Booker International Prize, and launched a competition for translations of his other works. His short story was expanded into a three-part novel, my woman’s fruitIt was first published in Korea in 2007, and found readers in English when it was translated by Deborah Smith in 2015.
The protagonist, Yeong-hye, gives up eating meat, with disastrous consequences. There is violent pushback from her husband and other members of her family, while Yeong-hee seeks solace in the plant world as those around her fail to understand her. Nobel Committee Chairman Anders Olsson said that in his work, there is a correspondence between mental and physical suffering with a close connection to Eastern thinking.
Korean literature has been riding it for many years Hallyu Or with the Korean wave the world has fallen in love with everything about the country, from music, movies, television dramas to food. Singers like Psy (‘Gangnam Style’, 2012) and bands including BTS are household names globally. Over the past three years, several writers – including Hwang Seok-yong (miter 2-10Translated from Korean by Sora Kim-Russell and Youngjae Josephine Bae), Cheon Myeong-kwan (whaleTranslated by Chi-Young Kim), Bora Chung (cursed bunnyTranslated by Anton Hur) – is on the Booker list.
In his interview after the Nobel Prize, Han Kang said that he hoped the news would be “good” for Korean literature readers. News agencies reported that after his victory, Koreans flocked to bookstores to buy his books; An event that is sure to be repeated all over the world.
reuters His father, novelist Han Seung-won, is quoted as saying that his novels have been translated Vegetarian Due to which he first received the Man Booker International Prize and now the Nobel Prize. Han Seung-won said, “My daughter’s writing is very delicate, beautiful and sad.”
The world is waiting to know more from Han Kang’s creations. How concerned he is about the human condition is evident from his stance of not celebrating victory when people die in wars.
published – October 13, 2024 01:48 am IST