'Truths will be spoken': Nobel winner Han Kang on the necessity of literature

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'Truths will be spoken': Nobel winner Han Kang on the necessity of literature

Published: 07 Dec. 2024, 16:11 Updated: 07 Dec. 2024, 20:57

LEE JIAN
[email protected]

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

Korean author Han Kang answers questions from reporters at the Nobel Prize Museum in Sweden on Dec. 6 during her first official press conference since winning the Nobel Prize in Literature. [NEWS1]

Literature is “not a surplus but a necessity” during times of turmoil, according to Nobel laureate author Han Kang.

“Books constantly have readers enter another person’s mind and, in that process, deeply explore themselves as well. Repeating this act gives one internal strength — an uncompromising muscle to make clear judgments and think for oneself in a time of unprecedented crisis,” she told the press in Stockholm, Sweden, on Friday, ahead of the official Nobel Prize awards ceremony slated for Tuesday.

Her comments come in the wake of President Yoon Suk Yeol's emergency martial law declaration on Tuesday, putting one of Asia’s most vibrant democracies under military rule. The decree was lifted six hours later, following a unanimous parliamentary vote as well as nationwide fury and anxiety that rippled around the world.

The author is well-versed in similar historical events. Her book “Human Acts” (2014) directly deals with the last time emergency martial law was declared, in 1979. “I sincerely hope that the country will not go back to the age of control and the suppression of speech," she said.

Korean author Han Kang answers questions from reporters at the Nobel Prize Museum in Sweden on Dec. 6 during her first official press conference since winning the Nobel Prize in Literature. [NEWS1]

Han was also optimistic, however, in truth and democracy. “Language has a way of slipping through when attempts are made to grip, control or suppress it. So whatever happens, truths of some form will be spoken. I believe this power of language will remain unchanged in the future."

But even before Korea's short brush with martial law, society had limited Han's voice. Some of her books, namely “The Vegetarian” (2007), were banned in libraries and blacklisted for being “harmful for minors.”

“There are many readers in Korea who painfully sympathize with ‘The Vegetarian,’ but many others misunderstand the book,” she said. “Now, I think that this is just the book’s fate. But it was indeed heartbreaking, as its author, when it was categorized as a ‘harmful book’ and thrown away in libraries.”

She continued, “‘The Vegetarian' is a novel filled with questions and ironies. The title, for starters, refers to the protagonist, but she never declared herself a vegetarian. It also uses the literary device of an unreliable narrator. Yeong-hye herself barely speaks in the first person throughout the book. So each line is ironic, and I think readers will really enjoy the book when they think about this.”

Han Kang is featured on the facade of Stockholm's city hall as the laureate of this year's Nobel Prize for Literature [YONHAP]

Han is the first Korean author to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature. She is also the first female Asian to win the 123-year-old accolade and the second Korean to receive a Nobel Prize, following President Kim Dae-jung (1924-2009), who won the Peace Prize in 2000.

She is set to continue celebrating her win in Stockholm throughout next week, giving a lecture and attending the Nobel Prize ceremony on Dec. 10 at the Konserthuset concert hall.

“When I first heard that I had won the Nobel Prize, I was anxious and heavy-hearted with the attention that I was getting. But a month later, I started thinking that this award was being given to literature as a whole and I just happened to receive it this time, and I became more at ease. I am ready to set aside any burden or discomfort and continue writing," she said.

The teacup that Han Kang donated to the Nobel Prize Museum in Stockholm, Sweden, on Friday [NEWS1]

Earlier in the day, Han visited the Nobel Prize Museum for the Swedish award's traditional artifact donations. She submitted a small turquoise teacup.

"I chose the teacup because it was the most intimate object related to writing," she said. "Whenever I tried to return to my desk during the day, I would fill that teacup with black tea and sit down. I drank just that one cup, and that became my routine. It also kept me going back to my desk to write."

The teacup also represented the "hardest-working times" of Han's career.

"This is the 31st winter that I've been working as an author, but it would be a huge lie to say that I always kept my routine during those years," she said. "I was lost a lot of the time and spent many hours pondering what to write about. Sometimes, I couldn't work out the book and would close my notebook and take a walk. These times outnumber the hours I spent actually writing.

"But when I used the teacup, I was working diligently."

Korean author Han Kang answers questions from reporters at the Nobel Prize Museum in Sweden on Dec. 6 during her first official press conference since winning the Nobel Prize in Literature. [YONHAP]

Han's final message to her readers was to be inquisitive and let their questions lead the way.

“The most important scene in ‘The Vegetarian’ is when Yeong-hye is force-fed meat by her family. I wrote about it three times in the book because I thought it was so critical. Isn’t it such a weird scenario? What, and who, is normal, and who is crazy? I wanted to throw these questions out there. In Yeong-hye’s universe, she may be a perfectly sane being. She is also a character who, to save herself and reject violence, refuses to be part of human society and goes forward, risking death. She may seem bizarre, but her actions make one think about the possibility that society’s violence is even wackier.

“We live in a world today that compels us to ask many questions. Sometimes, that makes me think about whether or not there is hope. But since a few months ago, or it may have been even further in the past, I began to think that hoping that there is hope left is still, well... Hope.”

BY LEE JIAN [[email protected]]