The Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded to South Korean writer Han Kang for her “rich poetic prose that confronts historical trauma and exposes the fragility of human life.”
Han Kang, 53, is the winner of the 2016 Man Booker Prize for her novel The Vegetarian and the daughter of South Korean writer Han Song Won. She has devoted herself to art and music, which is reflected in her literary work.
In her work, Kang confronts historical traumas and invisible sets of rules. In each of her works, she exposes the fragility of human life. The Nobel Committee notes that she has a unique awareness of the connections between body and soul, the living and the dead, and has become an innovator in contemporary prose through her poetic and experimental style.
Kang began her literary career in 1993, publishing poems in Literature and Society. In 1995, she published her first prose collection, Love for Yosu, a collection of short stories.
Kang’s work is characterized by a double exposition of pain, a correspondence between mental and physical torment, and close ties to Eastern thought.