Han Kang of South Korea has been awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in literature. The Swedish Academy noted her "intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life."

Her win also marks a couple of firsts: She is not only the first South Korean to win the award, but also the first Asian woman to do so. 

From poems to prose

The 53-year-old Han Kang hails from a literary background, with her father being a well-regarded novelist. She began her career in 1993 with the publication of a number of poems in the magazine Literature and Society, while her prose debut came in 1995 with the short story collection "Love of Yeosu."

She later began writing longer prose works and had her major international breakthrough with "The Vegetarian." First published in Korean in 2007, the novel was translated into English in 2015 and won the Man Booker International Prize a year later.

It tells the story of Yeong-hye, a homemaker who, one day, decides to stop eating meat after having a series of dreams with images of animal slaughter. Her decision not to eat meat is met with diverse reactions; it eventually distances her from her family and society, and ultimately sees her descending into a psychosis-like condition.

"Human Acts" (2014) tells the stories of the survivors and victims of the 1980 Gwangju Uprising in South Korea. Having grown up in Gwangju herself, Han Kang's book captured the event where hundreds of students and unarmed civilians were murdered during a massacre carried out by the South Korean military.

The Swedish Academy stated: "In seeking to give voice to the victims of history, the book confronts this episode with brutal actualization and, in so doing, approaches the genre of witness literature." Some critics have cited this as Han's best novel. It won Korea's Manhae Prize for Literature in 2014 and Italy's Malaparte Prize in 2017. 

In "The White Book" (2016) the story's unnamed narrator moves to a European city where she is haunted by the story of her older sister, who had died a mere two hours after birth. This book about mourning, rebirth and the tenacity of the human spirit was short-listed for the Man Booker International Prize in 2018.

In their citation, the Swedish Academy lauded Han's work for her "unique awareness of the connections between body and soul, the living and the dead." Through her "poetic and experimental style," the academy said, Han "has become an innovator in contemporary prose."

Asian representation

With her win, Han Kang joins eight other Asians who have so far won the prize. Poet, philosopher, composer and visionary Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) was the first Asian to win the Nobel Prize in literature in 1913. 

Founded in 1786 by Swedish King Gustav III, the Swedish Academy is the body that is responsible for selecting the Nobel laureates in literature. Composed of 18 members — known as " De Aderton" (or The Eighteen) — with life tenure, current members include distinguished Swedish writers, linguists, literary scholars, historians and a prominent jurist.

The academy has long been criticized for the overrepresentation of European and North American and predominantly white, male authors among its laureates, and was rocked by a #MeToo scandal in 2018. Of 120 laureates, only 18 have been women, with eight of them awarded the prize in the past 20 years.

Han Kang follows Norwegian author Jon Fosse, a beloved playwright known for his avant-garde style. French author Annie Ernaux, who the academy praised for her "courage and critical acuity," was the 2022 winner; in 2021, the academy honored British Tanzanian-born writer Abdulrazak Gurnah, whose work explores exile, colonialism and racism. 

Edited by: Elizabeth Grenier