The 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature Goes to South Korean write Han Kang

October 10, 2024 4:22 AM

Han Kang is this year's Nobel laureate in literature. She is best known internationally for her novel The Vegetarian, which won the International Booker in Deborah Smith's translation, but she has published steadily since 1993. You can read one of her short stories in The New Yorker, as well as a short interview with her about it, and another story in Granta. She was interviewed a few years ago in the White Review, when Human Acts was published. Her latest novel is Greek Lessons, which has been called a departure from her otherwise transgressive, intense novels, reaching for something unspeakable. For news updates, the Literary Saloon will expand its blogpost throughout the day.
posted by Kattullus (11 comments total)

Neato, thank you for the post! A few months ago I read The Remains of the Day and it was very good and I was like "oh shit maybe these Nobel literature people know what they're talking about" so I've been reading books by recent Nobel winners. Some I've really liked and some haven't done it for me (and some ended up really gripping me for the last third only) but overall I'm really enjoying it and am excited to add Han Kang to the list. Thanks again for posting!
posted by an octopus IRL at 4:58 AM on October 10 [5 favorites]

I've read Human Acts, intense is the right word for it.
posted by subdee at 5:26 AM on October 10 [1 favorite]

The Vegetarian is amazingly good, if creepy. Haven't been able to get into Greek Lessons.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 7:06 AM on October 10

Oops, it’s been pointed out to me that the original Korean publication of Greek Lessons was in 2011, it’s not her latest.
posted by Kattullus at 9:01 AM on October 10 [1 favorite]

This is the best news headline I've seen in quite a while.
posted by bigendian at 9:44 AM on October 10 [1 favorite]

Alex Shephard and Mark Krotov wrote about the Nobel Prize for the New Republic. Excerpt:

For the second time in a decade, the winner of the Nobel Prize in literature is a challenging, self-obsessed singer-songwriter from the Midwest. Congratulations to Bon Iver!

Apologies, we’re getting reports that the winner is not Bon Iver, but rather the South Korean novelist Han Kang. We retract our congratulations to Bon Iver and extend them to Han Kang, who on Thursday was awarded the Nobel for her “intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life.” This is both an accurate descriptor of her subtle, unsettling work and one that could have easily come from ChatGPT. (There’s no reason to believe that the Swedish Academy employed A.I. to honor Kang. Their blurbs have always been cold and aloof—that’s just how Scandinavians talk.)

The fact that the Academy has alighted on a deserving, interesting winner of the prize continues to be strange and miraculous, even if the 21st century has had far more hits than misses, many more recipients in the Doris Lessing zone—i.e. timeless—rather than the Rudyard Kipling zone—i.e. timeful (pejorative). After the prize’s annus horribilis (the prize was not awarded in 2018 due to intertwined gambling and sexual assault scandals that led to a shake-up and, ultimately, a rebrand), the Nobel has rebounded, and Kang’s selection reflects some clear trends that have made themselves felt in subsequent years.

The first Asian Laureate since the the Chinese novelist Mo Yan’s controversial selection in 2012, Kang reflects the Academy’s growing attention to representation. The Nobel Prize: it’s no longer just for Scandanavians reflecting dolefully on their lives while gazing at their reflections in fjords, or French novelists reminiscing about their mistress cheating on them with their other mistresses. At the same time, the decision also reflects the Prize’s larger turn toward seriousness and away from celebrity. Kang is, by the Prize’s recent standards, a star. But she is not a star on the level of 2017 Laureate Kazuo Ishiguro (awarded for his “striking novels about robots sort of feeling sad”) or, for that matter, 2016 Laureate Bob Dylan (honored for “shooting his shot with Alicia Keys and also that 14-minute song about the movie Titanic where the accordion is way too loud in the mix”).

posted by Kattullus at 11:41 AM on October 10 [1 favorite]

I know many young people who are excited about this award today.
BTS ARMYs (fans of Bangtan Sonyeondon) are familiar with Han Kang's books -- in 2017 *RM (Kim Namjoon) recommended Kang's "Human Acts" (i.e., "The Boy is Coming"). Today two BTS members posted their congratulations and admiration of Han Kang.

Also, BTS member Suga (Min Yoongi) has a rap song "518-062" which is about the Guanjiu Massacre, the setting for "The Boy is Coming". Member J-Hope (Jung Ho-seok) has also rapped about the 1980 massacre in his hometown. (As an aside, ARMY's are sharing many posts about J-Hope this week -- The boy is coming! -- as he will finish his military duty on the 17th.)

*There are libraries and bookstores around the world that have set up displays of RM's Reading List
posted by Surfurrus at 12:31 PM on October 10 [5 favorites]

Many thanks, I am rubbing my hands together gleefully.
posted by Phanx at 4:39 AM on October 11

Korea Times: Han Kang declines press conference, refuses to celebrate award while people die in wars

Han Kang, the first Korean to win the Nobel Prize in literature, has declined to hold a press conference, citing the global tragedies of the Ukraine-Russia war and the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Her father, the renowned novelist Han Seung-won, 85, conveyed her message during a press conference at the Han Seung-won Literary School in Jangheung, South Jeolla Province.

"(Han Kang) told me, 'With the war intensifying and people being carried out dead every day, how can we have a celebration or a press conference?' She said she won't hold a press conference," he said.
posted by cendawanita at 11:03 AM on October 11 [4 favorites]

Excellent choice. The Vegetarian blew my mind (there really isn't a better term for it; I'm open to one) when I read it a few years ago.
posted by jokeefe at 8:52 PM on October 11

(the prize was not awarded in 2018 due to intertwined gambling and sexual assault scandals that led to a shake-up and, ultimately, a rebrand)

And, you know, that whole thing where they gave the prize to Bob Dylan, of all fucking people. Because there were no writers in 2016, not a single one, no matter how hard they looked! They couldn't find a writer anywhere! Yes, I'm still pissed off.
posted by jokeefe at 8:56 PM on October 11 [1 favorite]