Han Kang, the South Korean author behind unflinching and provocative tales that deftly explore the depths of human violence and its impact on identity, has clinched the 2024 Nobel Prize in literature. The historic feat makes her the first Asian woman to be recognized with the distinguished literary honor.

The Swedish Academy, the prize-giving body, commended her lyrical mastery that “confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life.”

Born in Gwangju in 1970 to novelist Han Seung-won, Han moved to Seoul at age 9, just months before the 1980 Gwangju Uprising, which reportedly claimed as many as 2,000 civilian lives. Although the Nobel laureate didn’t witness the military junta’s 스포츠 brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protesters firsthand, a photograph her father shared of the violent suppression left an indelible mark on her understanding of humanity.

What both unsettled and captivated her was the vast spectrum of human behavior — the capacity for both unimaginable cruelty and selfless compassion. How can such stark dualities coexist in the same world? And how profoundly do these forms of violence shape an individual’s body and sense of identity?

These questions have driven much of her three-decade literary career — from the searingly direct portrayal of state-led violence in Gwangju in “Human Acts” to the more surreal and daringly experimental exploration of gendered violence in “The Vegetarian.”