As South Korean author Han Kang becomes the 18th woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, here’s a guide to her work.
ADVERTISEMENTSouth Korean writer Han Kang has been announced as the 2024 Nobel Prize laureate in Literature, with the Swedish Academy praising « her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life.”
It’s a historic win as Han, 53, becomes the first Asian woman to win the prize and is only the second Korean winner.
Han was born in Gwangju in 1970 and moved to the capital Seoul as a child. She studied Korean Literature at Yonsei University and began publishing poems and short stories in the 90s. Her first novel was « A Love of Yeosu » was published in 1995.
In South Korea, Han has been a long celebrated member of the literary scene, winning the Korean Fiction Award, the Yi Sang Literary Award Grand Prize, the Dong-in Literary Award, and the Ho-Am Prize in the Arts among many others.
Internationally, she has also won the International Booker Prize, the Premio Malaparte, the San Clemente Literary Prize, the Prix Médicis étranger and was elected as a Royal Society of Literature International Writer in 2023.
For those unacquainted with the South Korean author, here’s our guide to Han Kang’s work.
The famous one
Han won the International Booker Prize in 2016 for a novel she’d written over a decade earlier. « The Vegetarian » was first published in South Korea in 2007 based on her 1997 short story « The Fruit of My Woman. » Its publication in English marked the first of a fruitful collaboration with translator Deborah Smith – who shares the International Booker Prize win – and Han’s entry into the international literary realm.
« The Vegetarian » is a unique tale of Yeong-hye, a woman who disrupts the social milieu of middle-class Seoul society when she starts refusing to eat meat. The tension that arises over Yeong-hye’s refusal to eat meat leads to similar refusals of societal mores as her behaviour is increasingly criticised as erratic and insane.
What’s so striking about « The Vegetarian » is how it puts the simple act of a woman refusing to eat meat as the bouncing board for an entire family to fall apart. Han’s depiction of Korean domestic life as so fragile, it’s thanks to her – and Deborah Smith’s – masterful prose that it balances the decorum and fury with ease.
The new one
What you consider Han’s latest novel is somewhat dependent on a few factors: whether you can read Korean and whether you care about publishing order of the original vs the translation. If you do read Korean, Han’s 2021 novel « Don’t Say Goodbye » is her most recent and will be released in English translation by Emily Yae Won and Paige Aniyah Morris sometime next year.
Before that, Han’s previous novel was « White », released in 2016 in Korea and translated by Smith into English for a 2017 publication as « The White Book ». However, to most international audiences, Han’s newest novel is « Greek Lessons ».
Published last year, « Greek Lessons » was originally released in 2011 in Korea as « Greek Time ». Translated by Smith and Yae Won, it follows a similar path to « The Vegetarian » where it takes a disempowered woman through an existential journey.
This time, it’s a mute woman who takes a class in Ancient Greek as an attempt to reclaim her ability over language. While the woman explores her loss of speech through the lens of her other many personal losses, she grows closer to the teacher who has lost his sight and connection to family. Although small in size, where « Greek Lessons » expands on from « The Vegetarian » is its dissection of humanity through the language we use.
Where to go next?
Although Han has a large bibliography, the number of English translations are relatively sparse. If her winning the Nobel Prize reflects the trend seen with French writer Annie Ernaux two years ago, many more of her novels will soon get the translations they deserve.
In the interim, the two key texts for non-Korean speakers to get their teeth into are « The White Book » and « Human Acts ». Both are period novels, set around important historic moments.
ADVERTISEMENT« The White Book » takes readers to Europe through Han’s literary lens. Set after the end of World War II in Poland, it is an elongated meditation on grief through 65 different white objects. Anyone who liked Maggie Nelson’s « Bluets » will know how powerful a literary mechanism this can be. Released in English in 2017, it was nominated for the next year’s International Booker Prize.
« Human Acts » takes place amongst the Gwangju Uprising, known in Korea as May 18, the student protests that took place in 1980 in response to the coup the day prior that installed a military dictatorship over South Korea. The uprising was violently stopped by the military with US support. Han has said that « Human Acts » is her most representative work and for non-Korean readers, offers an insight into a crucial moment in the country’s history.
