SPECIAL NOTE: HAN KANG’S NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE
Han Kang’s profile photo Photo credit: https://han-kang.net/Biography
By Eun Byoul Oh
As we discussed in our Editor’s note, we are thrilled to hear the news that Han Kang was selected as the Nobel Prize winner for Literature in 2024. Her achievement is received as a victory for many sectors of minorities in South Korea.
As The New York Times recognized, her Nobel Prize showcases “another validation of the outsize soft power of the South Korean cultural juggernaut.” However, it should be noted with emphasis that she is a female writer who writes about past traumas of Korea.
Her Nobel Prize empowers many other females and female writers in Korean society. It also demonstrates the power of word and language that preserves and memorializes the past atrocities that Koreans have suffered, representing how some memories are simply indelible despite the efforts to erase them from history.
Han Kang’s achievement is not without controversy inside of South Korea. There have been calls by conservative parent groups to remove The Vegetarian from all schools, stating that it is harmful to youth because of its descriptions of violence against women.
The New York Times cites Han Kang’s fellow writer, Bora Chung’s commentary on the power of writing. Writing “is a form of dissent and a form of resistance.” Han’s books, Human Acts and I Do Not Bid Farewell, remember the incidents of the Gwangju Uprising and the Jeju 4.3 Uprising. Her other book The Vegetarian, which won The International Booker Prize, illustrates the life of females in Korea. Han Kang’s books are certainly a means of protest, which is indeed a part of Korean identity.
In recent years, the literature and publishing circle had to face huge budget cuts from the South Korean government. The public libraries are shutting down. Hopefully, Han’s nomination will bring some attention to Korean literature and the importance of supporting the authors and publishing environment in Korea, especially for female writers and those willing to tell the difficult parts of history that others would like to bury and forget or pretend never happened.
On another note, we want to give a big shout out to the translators of Han Kang’s books for making them available for the world to enjoy along with Koreans. We hope that everyone in the KCCNYC community gets to read Han Kang’s books!
Read More:
https://yalereview.org/article/han-kang-nobel-prize
https://www.npr.org/2024/10/14/1210942145/nprs-book-of-the-day-han-kang-the-vegetarian
Interviews:
