A special documentary commemorating Han Kang's Nobel Prize in Literature will be released.
On the 16th at 10:50 PM, MBC's special documentary 'Han Kang is Coming', produced in honor of Han Kang's Nobel Prize in Literature, will be aired.
On December 3, 2024, President Yoon Suk-yeol declared a state of emergency, which led to a large-scale civil uprising, and ultimately, on December 14, the National Assembly decided to impeach President Yoon. At the same time, Han Kang became the first South Korean to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature in Sweden. Han Kang's representative works, 'The Boy is Coming' and 'I Don't Say Goodbye', deal with the stories of large-scale civilian massacres and the surviving victims against the backdrop of the states of emergency that occurred in Gwangju in 1980 and Jeju in 1948, respectively. The fact that these two globally significant events occurred simultaneously is also historically noteworthy.
▶ May 18, 1980 and December 3, 2024 State of Emergency
The background of Han Kang's representative work 'The Boy is Coming' is the May 18 Democratic Uprising, during which numerous citizens were sacrificed due to the state of emergency in 1980. Han Kang's father, Han Seung-won, recalled bringing home a photo album related to the May 18 incident that was secretly circulated at the time. Han Kang, who was an elementary school student then, speculated that the shock of seeing the album would have remained with her "like a homework assignment or trauma." In fact, during her Nobel Prize commemorative lecture, Han Kang stated, "The damaged faces I saw in that photo album were engraved in me as a fundamental question about humanity." The mother of the actual protagonist of 'The Boy is Coming', Kim Gil-ja, who was the mother of the late Jeon Tae-il, expressed her emotions, saying, "What we couldn't inform the country about for decades, the author has made known to the world with a single book."
On the 6th, during the official press conference for the Nobel Prize in Literature, Han Kang shared her thoughts on the 2024 state of emergency. Until her departure for Sweden, Han Kang observed the state of emergency situation and noted that the biggest difference between the state of emergency from 1979 to 1980 and the one in 2024 was that "everything was broadcast live, and everyone could watch." Han Kang was particularly impressed by the attitudes of the police and soldiers. "I felt that they were trying to make judgments in unexpected situations and were moving as passively as possible while feeling some internal conflict." Han Kang's remarks resonate with the conscience declarations of the field commanders mobilized during the December 3 state of emergency, drawing attention.
▶ Han Kang's Nobel Prize in Literature is seen as a boost to the value of the Nobel Prize in Literature
Han Kang is the youngest recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature since Albert Camus and the first Asian woman to receive the award. While this can be seen as groundbreaking, there are also evaluations that her award will serve as a new turning point for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Tamima Anam, who was a judge for the Booker Prize in 2016, stated, "Han Kang is one of the greatest living writers," and revealed that during the 2016 Man Booker Prize judging, 'The Vegetarian' was unanimously chosen as the winning work by all judges in the first reading. Literary critic Jeong Yeoul evaluated that Han Kang's Nobel Prize win carries three significant meanings: Asia, women, and youth, and that it will elevate the status of the Nobel Prize in Literature, which has been criticized for being somewhat outdated.
As wars and state violence continue around the world, and democracy is threatened by a state of emergency in South Korea, Han Kang's Nobel Prize win takes on even more special significance.
The MBC special documentary commemorating Han Kang's Nobel Prize in Literature, 'Han Kang is Coming', will be broadcast on the 16th at 10:50 PM.
[Kim So-yeon, Star Today Reporter]
