South Korean Han Kang receives Nobel Prize in Literature

This year’s Nobel Prize in Literature goes to the South Korean writer Han Kang. This was announced by the Swedish Academy in Stockholm. The decision for the 53-year-old is considered a surprise.

This year’s Nobel Prize in Literature goes to the South Korean writer Han Kang. This was announced by the Swedish Academy in Stockholm. The decision is considered a surprise; the 53-year-old was not one of the favorites.

She will receive the most prestigious literary prize on earth for “her intense poetic prose that confronts historical trauma and exposes the fragility of human life,” as the academy’s permanent secretary, Mats Malm, said at the announcement in Stockholm’s Old Town.

Man Booker Prize winner 2016

Han Kang was born in 1970 in Gwangju, southwest South Korea. At the age of ten, she moved to Seoul with her family. She studied Korean literature at Yonsei University. Han made her literary debut in 1993 with five poems, including “Winter in Seoul”, in the winter issue of the magazine “Literature and Society”. The following year she began her successful career as a novelist. In 1994 she won a literary competition in Seoul with “Red Anchor,” and further awards in South Korea followed.

Han received the prestigious British Man Booker Prize in 2016 for her 2007 novel The Vegetarian. The novel depicts the violent consequences that arise for the protagonist due to her refusal to submit to dietary norms.

Han’s other works include the short story collection “The Fruits of My Wife” from 2000 and novels such as “Your Cold Hands” from 2002, “White” (2016) and “Greek Lessons” (2011).

First South Korean award winner

The Nobel Prize in Literature is currently endowed with eleven million Swedish crowns (currently around 967,000 euros) and has been awarded since 1901. Since then, 117 awards have been presented. Last year the Nobel Prize in Literature went to the Norwegian Jon Fosse. The year before, the Frenchwoman Annie Ernaux, another big name in world literature, was declared a Nobel Prize winner. Han Kang is the 18th woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature and the first South Korean.

The last German winners were Herta Müller 15 and Günter Grass 25 years ago, the last German-speaking Austrian Peter Handke five years ago.

The gala for this year’s winners traditionally takes place on December 10th in Sweden’s capital Stockholm, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death.