How Did the Nobel Literature Winner Narrate the Suppression of Protests in South Korea?

The Nobel Academy awarded the 2024 Literature Prize to Han Kang, a 54-year-old writer from South Korea, who is well-known in Iran due to the translation of her works. This marks the first time in over 120 years of Nobel history that a South Korean author has received such a prestigious award. The Nobel Literature Prize, valued at $1.1 million, will enhance the author's global recognition and lead to translations of her works into various languages. The Nobel Literary Committee described Ms. Kang's prose as 'poetic' and awarded her the prize for revealing 'historical traumas and the fragility of human life.' The statement praised Ms. Kang's 'unique awareness' of the 'connections between body and spirit, life and death,' emphasizing her innovative style in contemporary prose. Han Kang was born in 1970 in Gwangju, South Korea. Her father, Han Seong-won, was a writer. Kang moved to Seoul with her family at the age of 10 and studied Korean literature at university after graduating from high school. She began publishing her works in 1993 with poetry, and two years later, her first short story collection titled 'Love in Yeonuso' was published. Since 2013, she has been teaching creative writing at the Seoul Institute of Arts and achieved her first global literary success with the novel 'The Vegetarian.' The Korean version of this novel was published in 2007 in Seoul, but years later, its English translation led her to win the prestigious International Booker Prize in 2016. After receiving this award, Han Kang stated, 'I felt that only through this intensely narrative work could I question the nature of our humanity. I wanted to remain in this difficult question about the meaning of being human.' In this novel, which has been translated into various versions in Iran, a woman decides to stop eating meat to purify her mind. This decision leads the main character to begin a plant-like life, which is considered a shocking anomaly in a country with strong and vivid customs and traditions. In fact, 'The Vegetarian' addresses the obsessions, choices, and the shaky efforts of humans as prisoners of their bodies in understanding each other. However, what makes reading Han Kang's works appealing to Iranian readers is her writing about the suppression of protests in South Korea, which closely resembles the suppression of protests in Iran. In her novel 'Human Acts,' she narrates the tragic suppression of the Gwangju student uprising in 1980, describing how the violence of the suppression has impacted people's lives to this day. At that time, after the assassination of Park Chung-hee, Choi Kyu-hah assumed the presidency of South Korea and attempted to continue his oppressive policies. However, he faced widespread riots and protests from the people, especially students and youth. Han Kang centers her story around the killing of a young man named Dong-ho and instead of directly providing historical information to the reader, she seeks to convey events through her personal experiences. Han Kang, who was born and raised in Gwangju, is meticulous in reflecting the events and has tried to preserve and convey all the doubts and concerns present in the original incident. The Gwangju uprising is one of the significant political events in contemporary South Korea, and 'Human Acts,' by focusing on one of the bloodiest political events in contemporary South Korea, creates a story that is both moving and inspiring. In a part of this novel translated into Persian by Ali Qan'ee, it states: 'So what about those who are now in the gymnasium? Have their souls been freed from their bodies and flown like birds? Where could they have gone? Certainly not to a strange place, resembling heaven or hell, which you heard about on that Sunday you went to church; when you went there with your friends excited about the chocolate eggs of Easter. The historical dramatic stories on television never convinced you. The display of the souls of the dead with scary faces wandering in white clothes in a foggy space, with disheveled hair indicating their unrest and distress.' Han Kang was also on a 'blacklist' of 10,000 cultural figures for criticizing President Park Geun-hye during her presidency from 2013 to 2017. Now, with Han Kang's name becoming global, it is expected that more of her works will be translated and published, especially in Persian.