South Korea’s Han Kang Becomes the First Asian Woman to Win the Nobel Prize for Literature

Han Kang of South Korea has been awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize for Literature. The Swedish Academy noted her "intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life."

Kang, 53, has been publishing to critical acclaim in her native country since 1995. She achieved greater international recognition for "The Vegetarian." Originally published in 2007, it was first published in English in 2015 and went on to win the International Man Booker Prize a year later.

Her novels often feature female protagonists feeling isolated or at odds with South Korea's rigid social norms.

Kang is the first Asian woman to win the award. She is also only the second Korean Nobel laureate after former President Kim Dae-jung won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2000 for his activism.

Founded in 1786 by Swedish King Gustav III, the Swedish Academy is the body that is responsible for selecting the Nobel laureates in literature. Composed of 18 members — known as " De Aderton" (or The Eighteen) — with life tenure, current members include distinguished Swedish writers, linguists, literary scholars, historians and a prominent jurist.

The academy has long been criticized for the overrepresentation of European and North American and predominantly white, male authors among its laureates, and was rocked by a #MeToo scandal in 2018. Of 120 laureates, only 17 have been women, with eight of them awarded the prize in the past 20 years.

Han Kang follows Norwegian author Jon Fosse, a beloved playwright known for his avant-garde style. French author Annie Ernaux, who the Academy praised for her "courage and critical acuity," was the 2022 winner; in 2021, the academy honored British Tanzanian-born writer Abdulrazak Gurnah, whose work explores exile, colonialism and racism.

This article was originally published on DW.

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