Han Kang, a Laureate of Nobel Literature Prize

[허만]

Toward the greatest joy of the nation

Professor Emeritus Mane Heo

Han Kang is the true Korean voice of more than the fragility of human life. In the Korean dystopia, many stroies have long remained unsaid and suppressed. Han Kang spoke boldly and sharply but  softly about the Kwangju Uprising and the Jeju Rebellion, etc. As a writer,  she  herself seemed to have felt sufferings and inhumanity.  It is our great admiration that her Nobel Prize poetic proses revealed such dark and bright memories in our times.  Her poetic expressions in particular might have been the strognest merit to allure the Swidish Nobel Academy  to select Han Kang as the Nobel  literature laureate.   As to the aspect of  trauma, she stood up to the historic traumas in particular, revealing the fragility of human life in her all masterpieces.  Han's writings of poetic and experimental styles truly deserve our great admiration. The former represents the rule of the Korean military governemtns and the latter, democratization by the Koreans. The Nobel PrIze winner hints that the Koreans themselves are the primary proud actors for the democratization and moving forward in their own will what they have accomplished through a series of their long sacrifices of life. In addition,  moreover, Swedish Nobel Academy permanent officer Martz Malm said that "Han truly has not expected at all a Nobel Prize Award."

I feel, however, very happy that through her masterpieces, Han Kang is a full and hard witness of brightness and darkness in the historical dystopia. In addition, the 201st century great award for writer Han Kang speaks without ambiguity that North Korea is beaten and defeated onesidedly, in all respects of competition, by South Korea. 

As another aspect of our great admiration, Han Kang, the laureate of Nobel Literature Prize has refrained from making appearence before the public. She has not held even interviews  that many Koreans repeatedly have demanded. Moreover, her father publicly said that any celebation is not needed at this time as many people have been killed  in the battlefields in Ukraine and the Middle East. Tragic deaths are still going on.  To be brief,  I  see something greater, refined and deeper in her character. Her behavoirs are truely worth our great admiration.

Han Kang's father, also a novelist thought that the news about his daugher's win of the Nobel Literature Prize was  a fake news when it was first announced. Novelist Han was also surprised by the news as her father was  when she first  talked with the official of the Nobel Prize Office.  It is the fact that Han is the first winner of the prize in Korea,  thanks to the reputation of her works. Her win represents that influenced by her typical literary style, the Korean literature has reached the level of poetic prose characters capable of accommodaing  subjectively international magnitude at the level of global values in interature. 

The K-Culture created, continuously developed and spread out at high speed by Korean artists, has reached the level capable of moving people around the world. It has opened the way to live in peace, sharing a sense of mutual advancement with them rather than a sense  of selfish-minded thinking. Such thoughts now are well reflected in the sectors of economy, diplomacy, national mind, and security, etc.  In brief, the Nobel Literature Award is, it may be estimated, one of the K-Culture accomplishments.

In her works, she has made remarkable efforts to unflinchingly address suffering, trauma, silence, and darkness, both in public and private spheres. Globally, her poetic proses have been recognized for its clear potential to captivate broader readers. I believe that Korean readers, in particular, take comfort and joy in the ability to engage with her writings, free from fear, and with a sense of happiness. This represents a profound source of pride for the nation.