The 18 members of the Swedish Academy have delivered their long-awaited verdict. The prestigious Nobel Prize for Literature has been awarded to the South Korean writer Han Kang. The announcement took place from Stockholm this Thursday, October 10, 2024 at 1:00 p.m. Paris time.
The novelist was rewarded “for her poetic writing that confronts historical trauma and exposes the fragilities of human life“, announced the secretary of the Swedish Academy.
Several of these more recent novels have been translated into French. The first translation dates from 2007 for his work The Vegetariantranslated by Jeong Eun-Jin published by Le Serpent à Plumes. This is his first major global success. Following in the same publishing house: Greek lessons (2011) et The one who returns (2014). Also published in French: Leave, the wind is rising (Decrescenzo editions, 2014), Dogs in the Setting Sun, in Cocktail Sugar and other news from Corée (Zulma editions) and Impossible goodbyes (Grasset editions, 2023).
Other favorite feathers
Like every year, speculation within literary circles was rife. The Chinese writer Can Xue71, was the punters’ favorite on the eve of the announcement. Avant-garde and compared to Kafka and Borges for the unreal and dark atmosphere which permeates his novels and short stories, his experimental style transforms reality into a fantastic and absurd universe.
Her working method, which she has followed assiduously for 30 years, is particularly recognized. The author barely rereads herself and modifies very little of her texts, which she always writes with paper and pen, her husband taking care of typing everything. His name came up all the more insistently as the last Chinese pen to receive the Nobel was in 2012. It was Mo Yan.
Other names were mentioned, such as that of the Argentinian Cesar Airafrom the Canadian Margaret Atwoodfrom Hungarian Péter Nádasfrom the American Joyce Carol Oates or Somali Nuruddin Farah. The Australian Gerald Murnane figures in a good position on betting sites. The Ladbrokes site no longer allows betting on Alexis Wrightan Aboriginal writer from the island continent, suggesting a possible escape. As every year, the names of other nobles regularly cited circulate: the Hungarian Laszlo Krasznahorkaithe Romanian Mircea Cartarescuthe Kenyan Ngugi wa Thiong’othe American Thomas Pynchonthe Caribbean Jamaica Kincaid or the Japanese Haruki Murakami. And the Greek Ersi Sotiropoulos made a surprise appearance on betting sites.
Last year, the prize was awarded to the Norwegian playwright Jon Fosse.
Western and male domination
Since its creation, the Nobel Prize in Literature has been dominated by a Western and masculine vision. Out of a total of 120 winners, only 17 women won the prize. And a minority of award-winning authors use languages spoken in Asia, Africa or the Middle East, outside the English, French, Scandinavian, German, Slavic, Spanish or Italian domains.
Only one Arabic-speaking author has been distinguished – Naguib Mahfouz, an Egyptian, in 1988 – against 16 French-speaking authors.
After literature, the highly anticipated Nobel Peace Prize will be awarded on Friday in Oslo, more difficult than ever to predict as conflicts multiply in the world. The Nobel Prize in Economics, awarded for the first time in 1969, will close the ball on Monday October 14.
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