Nobel Prize in literature is awarded to South Korean author Han Kang for her 'intense poetic prose'
Stockholm, Oct 10: South Korean author Han Kang was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature Thursday for what the Nobel committee called “her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life.”
Nobel committee chairman Anders Olsson praised Han's “physical empathy for the vulnerable, often female lives” of her characters.
“She has a unique awareness of the connections between body and soul, the living and the dead, and in a poetic and experimental style, has become an innovator in contemporary prose,” Olsson said.
Nobel literature committee member Anna-Karin Palm said Han writes “intense lyrical prose that is both tender and brutal, and sometimes slightly surrealistic as well.”
Han becomes the first Asian woman and the first South Korean writer to win the Nobel literature prize. She also becomes the second South Korean national to win a Nobel Prize, after late former President Kim Dae-jung won the peace prize in 2000. He was honoured for his efforts to restore democracy in South Korea during the country's previous military rule and improve relations with war-divided rival North Korea.
Han wins the Nobel at a time of growing global influence of South Korean culture, which in recent years has included the success of films like director Bong Joon-ho's Oscar-winning “ Parasite,” the Netflix survival drama “Squid Game” and the worldwide fame of K-pop groups like BTS and BLACKPINK.
Han, 53, won the International Booker Prize in 2016 for “The Vegetarian,” an unsettling novel in which a woman's decision to stop eating meat has devastating consequences.
At the time of winning that award, Han said writing novels “is a way of questioning for me.”
“I just try to complete my questions through the process of my writing and I try to stay in the questions, sometimes painful, sometimes - well - sometimes demanding,” she said.
With “The Vegetarian,” she said, ”I wanted to question about being human and I wanted to describe a woman who desperately didn't want to belong to the human race any longer."
Her novel “Human Acts” was an International Booker Prize finalist in 2018.
Han made her publishing debut as a poet in 1993; her first short story collection was published the following year and her first novel, “Black Deer,” in 1998. Works translated into English include “The Vegetarian,” “Greek Lessons,” “Human Acts” and “The White Book,” a poetic novel that draws on the death of Han's older sister shortly after birth. Her most recent novel, “We Do Not Part,” is due to be published in English next year.
Olsson, the committee chair, called “Human Acts” a work of “witness literature.” It is based on the real-life killing of pro-democracy protesters in Han's home city of Gwangju in 1980.
The literature prize has long faced criticism that it is too focused on European and North American writers of style-heavy, story-light prose. It has also been male-dominated, with just 17 women among its 119 laureates until this year's award. The last woman to win was Annie Ernaux of France, in 2022.
Six days of Nobel announcements opened Monday with Americans Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun winning the medicine prize. Two founding fathers of machine learning — John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton — won the physics prize on Tuesday. On Wednesday, three scientists who discovered powerful techniques to decode and even design novel proteins were awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry.
The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced Friday and the economics award next Monday.
The prize carries a cash award of 11 million Swedish kronor (USD 1 million) from a bequest left by the award's creator, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel. The laureates are invited to receive their awards at ceremonies on December 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Pollution: Delhi Transport Department mandates colour-coded fuel for vehicles
New Delhi (PTI): Delhi Transport Department has mandated vehicle owners in the National Capital Territory to affix colour-coded stickers on their vehicles to help identify fuel types to combat rising pollution levels.
According to a public notice issued by the department, the directive is in line with the Supreme Court's order dated August 12, 2018, and subsequent amendments to Rule 50 of the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989.
The vehicle owners in the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi will now be required to install chromium-based hologram stickers, the notice read.
The colour-coded stickers are designed to assist enforcement personnel in visually identifying a vehicle's fuel type during road checks.
The rule applies to both new vehicles, effective from April 1, 2019, and old vehicles, registered before March 31, 2019. Vehicle owners must ensure the stickers are affixed on their windscreens to comply with legal requirements, it said.
Owners of older vehicles are advised to contact their respective vehicle dealers for sticker installation, it read.
Additionally, an online booking facility is available for home installation of High-Security Registration Plates (HSRP) along with the fuel-based colour-coded stickers through the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) website or via the Transport Department's portal, the statement said.
Non-compliance will attract penalties under the Motor Vehicles Act and Rules, and vehicle owners are urged to act promptly to avoid prosecution and ensure their vehicles meet the regulatory standards, it added.
The stickers contain details like the registration number, registering authority, a laser-branded PIN, and the engine and chassis numbers of the vehicles.
