Author Wins Nobel Prize After Confronting ‘Historical Traumas’
By: Grace Hall
October 20, 2024
MorningHoney.com has discovered that South Korean writer Han Kang has been granted a Nobel Prize in Literature. Kang was rewarded in recognition of her “intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life.” South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol praised Han’s achievement as a significant moment in the history of Korean literature. Han’s accomplishment is “a great achievement in the history of Korean literature” and a “national occasion,” Yeol said. “Han has turned the painful scars of our modern history into great literature,” Yeol added.
Han, the first South Korean laureate and only the 18th woman to receive this prize, gained international recognition with her novel “The Vegetarian,” which reflects on themes of existence and cruelty.
Han’s writing exudes a “unique awareness of the connections between body and soul, the living and the dead,” the Swedish Academy stated. Han “has become an innovator in contemporary prose,” the Academy added.
“We start with a very long list of around 220 names,” committee member Ellen Mattson said. “Then we have to navigate through this enormous mass of names – and there we need the help of experts from different parts of the world.” Han’s “Human Acts” reveals how “the living and the dead are always intertwined and how these kinds of traumas stay in a population for generations,” Nobel Committee for literature member Anna-Karin Palm stated. Following the announcement, Han’s books surged in sales, occupying the top spots on South Korea’s bestseller lists. Han was “having an ordinary day” and had “just finished supper with her son” when Swedish Academy permanent secretary Mats Malm reached out to inform her of the award. “She wasn’t really prepared for this, but we have begun to discuss preparations for December,” Malm said.
