South Korean writer Han Kang, born in Kwangju on November 27, 1970, has been awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature. Han Kang was a virtual guest at Ca' Foscari in 2023 for a seminar on Korean literature. We spoke with Prof. Vincenza D'Urso about the style and themes of Han Kang's writing.
"In today's world, where relations between people, nations, and countries appear to be overshadowed by hatred and violence, the Swedish Academy's decision seems to signal the importance of nurturing hope. The millenary humanistic roots of Korean literature continue to thrive in Han Kang's poetic prose," explained the professor. In the announcement released by the Swedish Academy, Han Kang was awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature ‘for her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life’. This is the first time a South Korean author has received this honour and the second Nobel Prize for South Korea, following the Peace Prize awarded to the late President Kim Dae Jung in 2000.
On 10th October 2024, Han Kang also made history by becoming the first Asian woman writer to be honoured by the Swedish Academy. In an interview released immediately after the announcement in Stockholm, Han Kang expressed her surprise and gratitude, dedicating the prize to all the authors who had influenced and inspired her since childhood. This transformed the Nobel Prize into a collective award, a prestigious recognition long-awaited and dreamt of by all Koreans.
Han Kang is no stranger to collective vision and sharing. In 2016, she gained international recognition by winning the Man Booker International Prize with her book The Vegetarian (originally published in Seoul in 2007 and translated into English in 2015). The news caused a sensation partly because she decided to share the substantial prize money with her translator, Deborah Smith.
Han Kang comes from a family with a strong literary background. Her father, Han Sŭngwon, is the author of famous novels including Purŭi ttal (Daughter of Fire), 1983 and Aje, aje, bara aje, 1985, and her brother Han Tongnim (1968), and her husband, Hong Yonghŭi, are also esteemed authors of novels and short stories. Of her prose, her father, who is a giant literary figure in contemporary Korea, said: ‘Sometimes, reading [what my daughter writes], I am so surprised by the beauty that I almost feel a sense of jealousy towards her.’
In Italy, Han was awarded the Premio Malaparte in 2017 for Atti Umani (Huma Acts), which was followed by Convalescenza (short stories) in 2019 and L'ora di greco (Greek Lessons) in 2023. In November 2024, the Italian translation of Han’s latest work will be published as Non dico addio (forthcoming in English with the title We Do not Part). Originally published in 2021 by a major South Korean publishing house, Munhakdongne Publishing Group, it was immediately declared ‘Book of the Year’.
We Do not Part is a ‘tale of an extreme love’, as the writer said during the book launch in 2021, five years after The White Book. "To those who asked me what I was writing, I would sometimes answer: 'The tale of an extreme love,' others 'the tale of the passage from death to life,' still others 'the tale of the events of 3 April in Cheju,' but the definition I love most is the first one."
Han Kang delves into the theme of "extreme love" with her introspective and dreamlike language. She reflects on the various facets of love, including the universal love between human beings, which she sees as “the only way to escape the horrors of war and hatred”. Han Kang is also the writer of catharsis: her reflection on the historical traumas suffered by Koreans began with Human Acts, an account of the bloody repression of the Kwangju uprising (1980), and continued in the following years with We Do not Part, dedicated to the massacre of ‘pro-communists’ that took place on Cheju Island between 3 April 1948 and May 1949. The story is set in Korea, which had just regained its independence after thirty-five years of colonial rule. However, the country was on the brink of an even greater tragedy—the Korean War and the division of the country at the thirty-eighth parallel.
According to some scholars, the events in Cheju from April 1948 to May 1949, described as 'haksal' (massacre) in Korean, can be seen as a precursor to the outbreak of the Korean War of 1950-53. This period marked the beginning of the struggle between two ideologies and opposing sides, representing the first tangible consequences of the Cold War on the Korean peninsula. Between forty and sixty thousand people were murdered in the course of that year because they were communist sympathisers or only presumed to be such. We Do not Part tells their story, the story of their massacre, and of their redemption. It was a forbidden story in Korea until recently, when no less than two presidents of the republic, the late Roh Moo-hyun (2003-2008) and Moon Jae-in (2017-2022), publicly asked the people of Cheju for forgiveness for the ‘April 3rd massacre’. Another story, like that of Human Acts, with which Korea is slowly making peace. A story that, as Han Kang argues, ‘needs forgiveness and love to be overcome’."
Han Kang is a remarkable representative of trauma literature, particularly collective trauma. She gives voice to some of the most painful episodes in contemporary Korean history and celebrates the cathartic power of the written word. She accomplishes this with a dreamlike language that is delicate and elegantly poetic.
Han Kang addresses the weighty and challenging topic of pain and hatred among humans, and what endures when violence ceases. In her own words, her literature represents "the memory of an intense love that materialises as a dream; ultimately, it is a message of hope, the triumph of love over violence and pain."
“In today's world, where relations between people, nations, and countries are often filled with hatred and violence, the Swedish Academy's choice to recognise Han Kang's poetic prose seems to be a deliberate effort to promote and emphasise the importance of nurturing hope. The millenary humanistic roots of Korean literature continue to thrive and endure in Han Kang's writing."
Han Kang and Ca' Foscari
Han Kang participated in the second edition of the Overseas Workshop on Korean Literature Translation in May 2023. The workshop was titled Translating Contemporary Korean Poetry and was organised as part of the Korean Literature 3 seminar course held by Vincenza D'Urso. The workshop was dedicated to two important figures in contemporary Korean Literature: the poet Moon Chung Hee, whose work was translated into Italian for the first time in 2022 (in a collection entitled Il mare che cuce by Tab Edizioni), and Han Kang, who is known worldwide for her award-winning novels but less well-known for her niche poetic production. Han Kang's collection of poems, I Put Dinner in the Drawer, was published in Korea in 2013 but is still unpublished in Italian or English.
The seminar on poetic translation featured a creative session where participants were invited not only to translate poetry from Korean to Italian but also to compose their own original verses in Korean, drawing from their imagination.
