South Korean novelist Han Kang has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature 2024 by the Swedish Academy, Stockholm, Sweden, for his “profoundly poetic prose” that explores historical traumas and the fragility of life.
Han Kang is the first South Korean writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, a historic moment for South Korea’s literary landscape.
Hong Kong:
Born in 1970, Han Kang is a renowned novelist and poet, known for her deeply poetic prose, which combines lyricism and narrative. His style has redefined contemporary literature by uniquely blending physical and emotional empathy.
Major literary contributions:
The Vegetarian (2007):
The Vegetarian (2007) was her breakthrough novel, translated by Deborah Smith in 2015, and won the 2016 Man Booker International Prize.
The International Booker Prize, established in 2005 as the Man Booker International Prize, is awarded for a single novel translated into English as well as published in the United Kingdom or Ireland, with the aim of promoting global literature and encouraging the contributions of both author and translator.
Human Acts (2016):
Human Acts (2016) focuses on the 1980 Gwangju Massacre, where South Korean military forces killed protesting students and civilians.
The book explores trauma and collective memory in a far-sighted but concise manner.
Note:
In 1913, Rabindranath Tagore was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for “his extremely poignant and beautiful poetry”, which he expressed in his own English words and made a part of Western literature.
Rabindranath Tagore’s notable literary contributions include Manasi, Gitanjali, Sadhana: The Sense of Life, and Chitra: A Drama.
The Nobel Prize in Literature for 2023 has been awarded to Norwegian author and playwright John Fosse for his innovative plays and prose that give voice to the indescribable.
Other recent Nobel Prize winners in the field of literature:
Year 2023:
John Fosse, the voice of the unspeakable who expresses human emotions in simple words, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature-2023 for his innovative plays and prose.
Year 2022:
Annie Ernaux for “the courage and clinical acuity with which she exposes the roots of individual memory, isolation and collective barriers.”
Year 2021:
Abdulrazak Gurnah for his “compassionate and firm attitude towards the effects and cultures of colonialism and the situation of refugees in the Gulf countries of the continents.”
Year 2020:
Louise Gluck for “her unmistakable poetic voice that with solemn beauty makes individual existence universal.”
Nobel Prizes:
As early as the month of October, the Nobel Committees start announcing the winners of the annual awards in Stockholm and Oslo.
Nobel Prizes are counted among the most prestigious awards all over the world.
The King of Sweden gives this award every year at the grand ceremony held in Stockholm.
The awards are given annually in six categories.
The science of physics by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
Chemistry by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
Medical Sciences (Physiology and Medicine) by the Karolinska Institute.
The literature by the Swedish Academy.the peace (peace) by the Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo.
The economic science by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
Note: The awards were not given for two years during the Second World War.
Alfred Nobel:
The inventor of dynamite was born in Stockholm in 1833.
Alfred Nobel was sent to America to study chemistry when he was 18 years old.
He made a total of 355 inventions in his entire life.
However, his most revolutionary discovery was in the form of dynamite in 1867.
He had earned a lot of wealth and fame by inventing dynamite.
After completing his studies, he began to study explosives, especially nitroglycerin, at his father’s factory in Sweden.
On September 3, 1864, his father’s factory was destroyed due to a terrible explosion and Alfred’s younger brother was also killed in the incident.
The event behind the launch of the Nobel Prize:
There was an erroneous news published in a newspaper behind the launch of the Nobel Prize.
In 1888, a newspaper erroneously reported the death of the merchant of death, Alfred Nobel.
The newspaper also held Alfred responsible for the deaths of thousands of people due to inventing dynamite. Alfred himself read this false news of his death.
“But the term” “merchant of death” “used for him in this newspaper had shocked Alfred Nobel.”
Suddenly he thought that this news of his death would be true someday; Will the world know him by that name? He was determined to erase this stain on his personality.
Alfred Nobel wrote his will on 27 November 1895 in which he set aside the largest part of his estate to form a trust.
After deducting all taxes, 94% of Alfred Nobel’s total wealth i.e. 31,225,000 Swedish kronor was allocated for the establishment of five Nobel Prizes.
Alfred Nobel wanted the interest on this amount to be awarded every year to those whose work is found to be most beneficial to mankind.
Establishment of the Nobel Prize:
According to the will, the Nobel Foundation was established in June 1900 and the Nobel Prizes were first awarded in 1901.
Prizes are first announced in Medicine then Physics, Chemistry, Literature, Peace and Economics.
The awardee is given a medal, a diploma and a monetary award.
The first Nobel Prize was awarded in 1901, five years after his death.
In 1968, the 6th Prize for Economics was created by the Central Bank of Sweden.
The prize is funded by the bank, but the rest is overseen by a committee set up by the Nobel Foundation.
However, Nobel purists insist that the economics prize is not technically a Nobel Prize.
Alfred Nobel’s will declared that the Nobel Peace Prize would be awarded by a committee of five individuals selected by the Norwegian Storting (parliament).
The Storting took office in April 1897 and the Nobel Committee of the Norwegian Storting was established in August of the same year.
However, in Sweden, Nobel’s will trigger a long legal battle with parts of the Nobel family.
It was not until this conflict was resolved and financial matters were satisfactorily managed through the establishment of the Nobel Foundation in Sweden in 1900 that the Norwegian Nobel Committee and other prize-awarding bodies could begin their work.
