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Han Kang says 1979 martial law in hometown of Gwangju still affects her

Published: 08 Dec. 2024, 02:21 Updated: 08 Dec. 2024, 13:27

LEE JIAN
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Nobel laureate in literature Han Kang speaks during this year's Nobel Prize lecture in literature at the Swedish Academy on Saturday in Stockholm, Sweden. [AP]

Nobel laureate Han Kang said that much of the pain in her works was derived from the last martial law declaration in her hometown, Gwangju, in 1979.

Not long after "Greek Lessons" (2011) was published, "I told myself I would write a novel that takes another step toward light and warmth [...] but realized that something within was preventing me from writing this novel.

"Until then, I hadn’t considered writing about Gwangju," Han said during the livestreamed lecture at The Swedish Academy in Stockholm on Sunday.

Han was nine years old when her family left Gwangju in January 1980, roughly four months before the 1980 May 18 Gwangju Democratization Movement and massacre. At 12 years old, she encountered a photo book that recorded the violent incidents of her hometown crisis, and she hasn't been able to forget it since.

Han Kang receives applause on stage next to Mats Malm, Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy during this year's Nobel Prize lecture in literature at the Swedish Academy, on Saturday in Stockholm, Sweden. [AFP]

Looking at the images of civilians being hit by armed forces, she thought to herself, "Is this the act of one human toward another?" And then after seeing a photo of an endless queue of people waiting to donate blood outside a university hospital: "Is this the act of one human toward another?

"These two questions clashed and seemed irreconcilable, their incompatibility a knot I couldn’t undo," she said.

"So one spring day in 2012, as I tried my hand at writing a radiant, life-affirming novel, I was once again confronted by this unresolved problem.

"I had long lost the sense of deep-rooted trust in humans."

Han Kang gives autographs after this year's Nobel Prize lecture in literature at the Swedish Academy, on Saturday in Stockholm, Sweden. [AFP]

Realizing she needed to face her conflict squarely, Han studied the Gwangju Uprising deeply. It led to the publication of "Human Acts" in 2014.

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

Han Kang speaks during this year's Nobel Prize lecture in literature at the Swedish Academy on Saturday in Stockholm, Sweden. [AFP]

Han was given the Nobel Prize earlier this year "for her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life," according to the Swedish Academy. She 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.

BY LEE JIAN [[email protected]]