How one photograph inspired Nobel laureate Han Kang's world of literature

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How one photograph inspired Nobel laureate Han Kang's world of literature

Published: 11 Oct. 2024, 09:30 Updated: 11 Oct. 2024, 14:47

LEE JIAN
lee.jian@joongang.co.kr

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

2024 Nobel Prize in Literature recipient, author Han Kang

When Han Kang was awarded this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature on Thursday, the Swedish Academy notably applauded her complex explorations of the human race.

For nearly three decades, Han has maintained themes of historical trauma and human fragility in her more than 20 published works. Chairman of the Nobel Committee Anders Olsson described the author as having “a unique awareness of the connections between body and soul, the living and the dead.”

Han's inspiration reportedly comes from a photo that her father, reputed novelist Han Seung-won, showed Han when she was 13. Pictured were the brutal realities of the 1980 Gwangju Uprising, a 10-day pro-democracy movement led by students during former president and then-brigadier general Chun Doo-Hwan’s (1931-2021) military coup. The death toll, largely civilians, is reported to be as high as 2,000.

The English cover of Han Kang's "The Vegetarian" (2016) [SCREEN CAPTURE]

The six short stories in her first published fiction piece, “Love of Yeosu” (1995), explore the violence and loneliness of characters trapped in tragic settings.

Her first novel, “Black Deer” (1998) is about two men setting out to look for a woman with amnesia who has run off nude. Her second, “Your Cold Hands” (2002), explores the duality of humans through an artist who obsesses over plaster casts of female bodies.

Korean cover of Han Kang's 'We Do Not Part" (2021)

Her most representative work, “The Vegetarian,” was published in 2007 and won the International Booker Prize, with the English translation by Deborah Smith in 2016. “Writing books is a way for me to ask questions, and through ‘The Vegetarian,’ I wanted to portray a woman who vehemently refuses to be part of humanity,” she said during her winner’s speech for the International Booker Prize.

“The Vegetarian” is the first of Han’s books published in English and also her first book to be adapted into a movie. It was released under the same title in 2009. Written about a married female who quits meat in rejection of violence, the book viscerally depicts ways that society, patriarchy and relationships can ruin a person.

English cover of Han Kang's "Human Acts" (2016) [SCREEN CAPTURE]

More of her later works include “The Wind Blows, Go” (2010), which is about friendship and grief after the mysterious death of a female artist.

“Human Acts” (2014) deals directly with the Gwangju Uprising, providing an in-depth look into its victims. Writing this book was especially difficult for her mentally, as Han said she “cried every day, sometimes, cried the whole day after writing just three lines,” according to this paper's Korean affiliate, the JoongAng Ilbo. The English translation by Smith was published by Hogarth Press in 2016.

“The White Book” (2016) was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2018. It is an elegy to the narrator’s sister, who died shortly after birth. Beyond grief, it also delves into the hypotheticals of human fate. An English translation by Smith was released in 2019 through the Random House Publishing Group.

“Greek Lessons” (2011), whose English translation by Smith and Emily Yae Won was published in English last year by Hogarth Press, is about the bonding between a mute student and the student’s teacher who is mute. They find common ground in the deeply embedded pain of their pasts. The book was selected as a New York Times Editors’ Choice and a Best Book of the Year by The New Yorker, Time and the Chicago Public Library.

English cover of Han Kang's "Greek Lessons" (2021) [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Her most recent novel, “We Do Not Part,” also known as “I Do Not Bid Farewell,” was published under Munhakdongne in 2021. The book is about the love, life, grief and loss surrounding the 1948 Jeju April 3 Uprising, told in the voices of three women.

Its French edition, translated by Choi Kyung-ran and Pierre Bisiou, was released by Editions Grasset and won the prestigious Prix Medicis award last year. The English translation is slated for release in January 2025 under the Random House Publishing Group.

BY LEE JIAN [lee.jian@joongang.co.kr]