2024 Nobel Prize in Literature

Award

Award

2024 Nobel Prize in Literature

Han Kang

"for her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life."

Date|

* 10 October 2024
(announcement)
* 10 December 2024
(ceremony)

Location| Stockholm, Sweden
Presented by| Swedish Academy
First awarded| 1901
Website| 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature
| <- 2023 · | Nobel Prize in Literature | · 2025 ->

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The 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to the South Korean author Han Kang (born 1970) "for her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life". It was announced by the Swedish Academy in Stockholm, Sweden, on 10 October 2024 and will be awarded on 10 December 2024.[1]

She is the first South Korean and the first Asian female Nobel laureate in literature.[2]

## Laureate

[edit]

Main article: Han Kang

Han Kang grew up with a literary background in Seoul, her father, Han Seung-won, being a reputed novelist. Alongside her passion in writing, she spends time exploring arts and music, which reflects throughout her entire literary production. She started her career in 1993 with the publication of her poems in the literary magazine 'Literature and Society', and had her first debut prose in 1995 with the short story collection Love of Yeosu [여수의 사랑]. Her major breakthrough came with the 2007 novel The Vegetarian [채식주의자], a book that portrays the violent consequences that ensue when its protagonist started to totally refuses meat. Her experimental and often disturbing stories are characterized by a double exposure of pain and a correspondence between the mental and physical torment, confronting historical traumas and invisible sets of rules and fragility of human life. Among her other well known works include Human Acts [소년이 온다], The White Book [흰], Greek Lessons [희랍어 시간] and We Do Not Part [작별하지 않는다].[3][4]

## Prize announcement

[edit]

After the announcement, Anders Olsson, chairman of the Academy's Nobel Committee, said in a statement:

> "She has a unique awareness of the connections between body and soul, the living and the dead, and in her poetic and experimental style has become an innovator in contemporary prose."[5]

Anna-Karin Palm afterwards was interviewed by Carin Klaesson, a correspondent of the Nobel Prize Museum, and described Han Kang's writing with the following statement:

> "I would say this is a very rich and complex oeuvre that spans many genres, and [she] writes really intense lyrical prose that is both tender and brutal and, sometimes, slightly surrealistic as well... There's a continuity as to themes that is quite remarkable but at the same time a huge stylistic variation that makes every book a new aspect or a new expression of these central themes."[6]

## Reactions

[edit]

### Personal reactions

[edit]

Han Kang had just finished dinner with her son at her home in Seoul when she received the information. Both her and her son were greatly surprised that they did not even had the time to talk about it properly. She expressed she was truly honored and really appreciate the support of the prize. Being the first Nobel laureate in literature in South Korea, she said:

> "Yes. I grew up with books, you know, so since when I was a child, I grew up with books in Korean and translated as well. So I can say I grew up with Korean literature, which I feel very close to. So I hope this news is nice for Korean literature readers and my friends, writers... For me, since when I was a child, all writers have been collective. They are searching meanings in life. Sometimes they are lost and sometimes they are determined and all their efforts and all their strengths have been my inspiration. So it's very difficult for me to pick some names of the inspiration. It's very difficult for me."[7]

Asked by Nobel correspondent, Jenny Rydén, where to start with her works as someone starting, she suggested:

> "I think every writer likes his or her most recent book. So my most recent book is We Do Not Part or it is called I Do Not Bid Farewell or Impossible Goodbyes. I hope this book could be a start. And Human Acts is connected directly with this book We Do Not Part. And then The White Book, which is very personal book for me. Because it's quite autobiographical. And there is The Vegetarian. But I feel the start could be We Do Not Part.[7]

Later on, Han Kang said her celebrations would be low-key. "After this phone call I'd like to have tea with - I don't drink so - I'm going to have tea with my son and I'll celebrate it quietly tonight."[5][7]

### International reactions

[edit]

While visiting Laos for a meeting of Asian leaders, South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol, posted on his Facebook account his warmest greetings, saying:

> "It is a monumental achievement in the history of Korean literature and a national celebration that brings joy to all the people. You have transformed the painful wounds of our modern history into a great literary work. I extend my deepest respect to you for elevating the value of Korean literature."[8][9]

BTS member V shared in the news on Instagram, writing: "I read your book 'Human Act: A Novel' in the army. Congratulations" alongside a bowing emoji.[9] The literary critic Kim Seong-shin expressed that the Academy's choice of Han was beyond reproach, affirming: "I'd say she is the most deserving Korean novelist to be awarded the Nobel Prize."[9]

## Nobel Committee

[edit]

The 2024 Nobel Committee is composed of the following members:[10]

Committee Members

Seat No.  | Picture  | Name  | Elected  | Position  | Profession
4  |  | Anders Olsson
(b. 1949)  | 2008  | committee chair  | literary critic, literary historian
11  |  | Mats Malm
(b. 1964)  | 2018  | associate member
permanent secretary  | translator, literary historian, editor
9  |  | Ellen Mattson
(b. 1963)  | 2019  | member  | novelist, essayist
14  |  | Steve Sem-Sandberg
(b. 1958)  | 2021  | member  | journalist, author, translator
13  |  | Anne Swärd
(b. 1969)  | 2019  | member  | novelist
16  |  | Anna-Karin Palm
(b. 1961)  | 2023  | associate member  | novelist, culture writer

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "Prize announcement dates". nobelprize.org.
2. ^ Creamer, Ella (10 October 2024). "South Korean author Han Kang wins the 2024 Nobel prize in literature" - via The Guardian.
3. ^ Annabel Rackham (10 October 2024). "South Korea's Han Kang wins Nobel Literature Prize". BBC. Retrieved 10 October 2024.
4. ^ "Han Kang wins the Nobel prize in literature for 2024". The Economist. 10 October 2024. Retrieved 10 October 2024.
5. ^ a b Justyna Pawlak and Simon Johnson (10 October 2024). "Han Kang of South Korea wins Nobel literature prize 2024". Reuters. Retrieved 10 October 2024.
6. ^ "Nobel Prize in Literature 2024 – Prize announcement". nobelprize.org. Retrieved 10 October 2024.
7. ^ a b c "Han Kang – Interview". nobelprize.org. Retrieved 10 October 2024.
8. ^ Kim Eun-jung (10 October 2024). "Yoon celebrates Han Kang's winning of Nobel literature prize as 'monumental achievement'". Yonhap News Agency. Retrieved 10 October 2024.
9. ^ a b c "After K-pop, K-novels? South Korean Nobel win sparks joy, hope at home". France24. 10 October 2024. Retrieved 10 October 2024.
10. ^ The Nobel Committee 2024 – Nobel Prize in Literature svenskaakademien.se

## External links

[edit]

* The Nobel Prize in Literature nobelprize.org
* Swedish Academy svenskaakademien.se/en

* v
* t
* e

Laureates of the Nobel Prize in Literature

1901–1920|

* 1901: Sully Prudhomme
* 1902: Theodor Mommsen
* 1903: Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson
* 1904: Frédéric Mistral / José Echegaray
* 1905: Henryk Sienkiewicz
* 1906: Giosuè Carducci
* 1907: Rudyard Kipling
* 1908: Rudolf Eucken
* 1909: Selma Lagerlöf
* 1910: Paul Heyse
* 1911: Maurice Maeterlinck
* 1912: Gerhart Hauptmann
* 1913: Rabindranath Tagore
* 1914
* 1915: Romain Rolland
* 1916: Verner von Heidenstam
* 1917: Karl Gjellerup / Henrik Pontoppidan
* 1918
* 1919: Carl Spitteler
* 1920: Knut Hamsun

1921–1940|

* 1921: Anatole France
* 1922: Jacinto Benavente
* 1923: W. B. Yeats
* 1924: Władysław Reymont
* 1925: George Bernard Shaw
* 1926: Grazia Deledda
* 1927: Henri Bergson
* 1928: Sigrid Undset
* 1929: Thomas Mann
* 1930: Sinclair Lewis
* 1931: Erik Axel Karlfeldt (posthumously)
* 1932: John Galsworthy
* 1933: Ivan Bunin
* 1934: Luigi Pirandello
* 1935
* 1936: Eugene O'Neill
* 1937: Roger Martin du Gard
* 1938: Pearl S. Buck
* 1939: Frans Eemil Sillanpää
* 1940

1941–1960|

* 1941
* 1942
* 1943
* 1944: Johannes V. Jensen
* 1945: Gabriela Mistral
* 1946: Hermann Hesse
* 1947: André Gide
* 1948: T. S. Eliot
* 1949: William Faulkner
* 1950: Bertrand Russell
* 1951: Pär Lagerkvist
* 1952: François Mauriac
* 1953: Winston Churchill
* 1954: Ernest Hemingway
* 1955: Halldór Laxness
* 1956: Juan Ramón Jiménez
* 1957: Albert Camus
* 1958: Boris Pasternak
* 1959: Salvatore Quasimodo
* 1960: Saint-John Perse

1961–1980|

* 1961: Ivo Andrić
* 1962: John Steinbeck
* 1963: Giorgos Seferis
* 1964: Jean-Paul Sartre (declined award)
* 1965: Mikhail Sholokhov
* 1966: Shmuel Yosef Agnon / Nelly Sachs
* 1967: Miguel Ángel Asturias
* 1968: Yasunari Kawabata
* 1969: Samuel Beckett
* 1970: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
* 1971: Pablo Neruda
* 1972: Heinrich Böll
* 1973: Patrick White
* 1974: Eyvind Johnson / Harry Martinson
* 1975: Eugenio Montale
* 1976: Saul Bellow
* 1977: Vicente Aleixandre
* 1978: Isaac Bashevis Singer
* 1979: Odysseas Elytis
* 1980: Czesław Miłosz

1981–2000|

* 1981: Elias Canetti
* 1982: Gabriel García Márquez
* 1983: William Golding
* 1984: Jaroslav Seifert
* 1985: Claude Simon
* 1986: Wole Soyinka
* 1987: Joseph Brodsky
* 1988: Naguib Mahfouz
* 1989: Camilo José Cela
* 1990: Octavio Paz
* 1991: Nadine Gordimer
* 1992: Derek Walcott
* 1993: Toni Morrison
* 1994: Kenzaburō Ōe
* 1995: Seamus Heaney
* 1996: Wisława Szymborska
* 1997: Dario Fo
* 1998: José Saramago
* 1999: Günter Grass
* 2000: Gao Xingjian

2001–2020|

* 2001: V. S. Naipaul
* 2002: Imre Kertész
* 2003: J. M. Coetzee
* 2004: Elfriede Jelinek
* 2005: Harold Pinter
* 2006: Orhan Pamuk
* 2007: Doris Lessing
* 2008: J. M. G. Le Clézio
* 2009: Herta Müller
* 2010: Mario Vargas Llosa
* 2011: Tomas Tranströmer
* 2012: Mo Yan
* 2013: Alice Munro
* 2014: Patrick Modiano
* 2015: Svetlana Alexievich
* 2016: Bob Dylan
* 2017: Kazuo Ishiguro
* 2018: Olga Tokarczuk
* 2019: Peter Handke
* 2020: Louise Glück

2021–present|

* 2021: Abdulrazak Gurnah
* 2022: Annie Ernaux
* 2023: Jon Fosse
* 2024: Han Kang

* v
* t
* e

2024 Nobel Prize laureates

Chemistry|

* David Baker (United States)
* Demis Hassabis (United Kingdom)
* John M. Jumper (United States)

Literature (2024)|

* Han Kang (South Korea)

Peace (2024)|

To be announced Friday 11 October 2024, 11:00 CEST

Physics|

* Geoffrey Hinton (Canada/United Kingdom)
* John Hopfield (United States)

Physiology or Medicine|

* Victor Ambros (United States)
* Gary Ruvkun (United States)

Economic Sciences|

To be announced Monday 14 October 2024, 11:45 CEST at the earliest

Nobel Prize recipients
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
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