Nobel Prize 2024: South Korean author Han Kang gets award in Literature for her ‘intense poetic prose’

NEW DELHI: The Nobel prize in Literature 2024 has been awarded to South Korean author Han Kang “for her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life.” The Nobel committee at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences made this announcement today, October 10.

The Nobel Prize on its X handle said that Kang's work is characterised by this double exposure of pain, a correspondence between mental and physical torment with close connections to Eastern thinking.

"The 2024 #NobelPrize in Literature is awarded to the South Korean author Han Kang “for her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life”, the Nobel Prize said on X.

Han Kang’s major international breakthrough came with the novel 채식주의자 (2007; The Vegetarian, 2015), Nobel mentions. “Written in three parts, the book portrays the violent consequences that ensue when its protagonist Yeong-hye refuses to submit to the norms of food intake,” it reads.

2024 Nobel Prize announcements commenced on Monday

The 2024 Nobel Prize announcements, which commenced on Monday, began with Americans Victor Ambros and Gary Rukun being awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine.

On Tuesday, the Nobel Prize in Physics was presented to John J. Hopfield and Geoffrey E. Hinton for their groundbreaking contributions to machine learning through artificial neural networks. Their pioneering work has played a key role in advancing modern machine learning technologies.

By Wednesday, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was bestowed upon David Baker for his work in computational protein design, while the other half of the award was jointly given to Demis Hassabis and John M. Jumper for their achievements in protein structure prediction.

As per the Nobel Press Conference, she is the first writer from South Korea to receive the award. Last year, the literature prize was awarded to Norwegian author Jon Olav Fosse for his "innovative plays and prose that express the inexpressible."