It was her father, also the writer Han Seung-won, who spoke to the media in South Korea, and explained why his daughter was not going to participate in any press conference after the announcement this Thursday that Han Kang had been chosen by the Swedish Academy as winner of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature. At 85, Han Seung-won attended journalists at the writing school that bears his name in the city of Jangheaung. “She told me that with the war raging and people dying every day, how can we have a celebration or hold a press conference?” she explained in reference to her daughter’s decision.
According to The Korea Times, After the award was announced this Thursday at eight in the afternoon in South Korea, the writer’s father recommended that she choose the headquarters of one of the publishers that have published her work to hold a press conference. She said she would “try,” but that night she changed her mind. “His perspective has changed from that of an author living in Korea to that of a writer with a global consciousness. But I couldn’t shake this feeling of being the father of the award-winning writer and I ended up calling this press conference,” he said.
Han Kang also did not want his father to organize a banquet to celebrate the news at his writing school. “I wanted to organize a party for the people here, but my daughter asked me not to,” he explained. “She told me, ‘Please don’t celebrate while these tragedies are happening. The Swedish Academy gave me the award so that we could enjoy it, but so that we could remain clear-minded.”
For its part, the Nobel Prize website has posted a brief telephone interview that the award-winning writer had this Thursday with Jenny Rydén. Han Kang says she was very surprised and honored by being awarded the Nobel Prize. He received the call at his home in Seoul shortly after finishing dinner with his son, after having spent a quiet day in which he had neither written nor worked. “I have grown up with books by Korean authors and translated authors,” she says, when asked about the meaning of having been the first citizen of her country to receive this award. Han Kang claims to feel “very close” to South Korean literature.
Swedish influences
Among the readings that Han Kang says influenced her in her childhood is the book by Swedish writer Astrid Lindberg, creator of Pippi Longstocking. “When I was a child I loved his book. The Lionheart Brothers. When I read it I can relate it to the questions I ask myself about humans or life and death,” he explains.
Han Kang also recommends readers who do not know his work to start with his latest book, whose Spanish translation is not yet on sale. That work, he assures, is connected with human acts. “Also The white paper because it is very personal, quite autobiographical,” he says. About The vegetarianthe Nobel Prize winner confesses that she wrote it over three years, a time that was “difficult” for her. “I was trying to find the images for this protagonist, the people around her, the images of the trees and the sun.”
Would you make a toast with your family on Thursday to celebrate the news? “After this call I would like to have some tea, I don’t drink alcohol. “I’m going to have tea with my son and celebrate in a quiet way,” he says goodbye. There will be more pomp on December 10 when the handover ceremony takes place in Stockholm.