Han Kang, a 53-year-old South Korean author, has been awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature for her “intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life”. This historic achievement marks the first time a South Korean author has received this prestigious accolade, and only the 18th woman out of 117 laureates since 1901. Han’s literary journey began with poetry before transitioning to prose, with her novel “The Vegetarian” gaining international recognition after winning the Man Booker International Prize in 2016. Her works often explore themes of human vulnerability, historical trauma, and the complex relationships between body and spirit.
The Swedish Academy praised Han’s unique style and innovative approach to contemporary prose. Her win has been celebrated across South Korea, with President Yoon Suk Yeol describing it as “a great achievement in the history of Korean literature”.
Here are one poem by Hang Kang to give readers a sense of her work.
Pitch-Black House of Light
That day in Ui-dong
sleet fell
and my body, companion to my soul
shivered with each falling tear.
Get on your way.
Are you hesitating?
What are you dreaming, hovering like that?
Two-storey houses lit like flowers,
beneath them I learned agony
and towards a land of joy as yet untouched
foolishly reached out a hand.
Get on your way.
What are you dreaming? Keep walking.
Towards memories forming on a streetlamp, I walked.
There I looked up and inside the lightshade
was a pitch-black house. Pitch-black
house of light
The sky was dark and in that darkness
resident birds
flew up casting off the weight of their bodies.
How many times would I have to die to fly like that?
Nobody could hold my hand.
What dream is so lovely?
What memory
shines so brightly?
Sleet, like the tips of mother’s fingers,
raking through my dishevelled eyebrows
striking frozen cheeks and again
stroking that same spot,
Hurry up and get on your way.
