SEOUL (dpa-AFX) - The Nobel Prize in Literature 2024 has been awarded to the South Korean author Han Kang, 'for her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life.'
Announcing the award Thursday, Mats Malm, Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy, said, in her body of work, Han Kang confronts historical traumas and invisible sets of rules and, in each of her works, exposes the fragility of human life. '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'.
The daughter of a novelist, 53 year old Han is the first South Korean writer to win Nobel prize in literature, and only the 18th woman out of the 117 prizes awarded in this category since 1901.
She won the Man Booker International Prize in 2016 for her novel The Vegetarian, a novel about a woman's descent into mental illness and neglect from her family. The novel is also one of the first of her books to be translated into English.
Much of Han's work poses the question, asked by the protagonist in her 2019 short story 'Europa,' 'If you were able to live as you desire, what would you do with your life?' There is no room here for either fulfillment or atonement.
Han will take home a cash award of 11 million Swedish kronor, or $1.05 million.
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