South Korean writer & novelist Han Kang won the Nobel Prize in Literature 2024 “for her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life.”
- She became the first South Korean to win a Nobel prize in literature and the 2nd Nobel laureate from South Korea after Former South Korean President Kim Dae Jung, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2000.
- The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, Sweden announced the award on 10th October 2024.
Prize amount: 11 million Swedish kronor.
Medal of Nobel Prize in Literature :
i.The medal was designed by Swedish sculptor and engraver Erik Lindberg.
ii.The Medal of Literature Prize features an enchanted young man sitting under a laurel tree who listens to and writes down the song of the Muse.
iii.The inscription on the medal is “Inventas vitam iuvat excoluisse per artes”, which means “It is beneficial to have improved (human) life through discovered arts
Winners of Nobel Prize in Literature 2024:
| Nobel Laureate | Awarded for |
|---|---|
| Han Kang | For her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life |
About Han Kang:
i.Han Kang was born on 27 November 1970 in Gwangju, a city in South Korea.
ii.She made her literary debut as a poet by publishing five poems, including “Winter in Seoul”, in Munhak-gwa-sahoe (Literature and Society) in 1993.
iii.She made her prose debut in 1995 with the short story collection “Love of Yeosu”.
iv.Most of Han Kang’s works are primarily written in Korean and a number of her works were translated into English and other languages.
Other awards:
i.’The Vegetarian’, her first novel to be translated into English, won the 2016 Man Booker International Prize (renamed as International Booker Prize in 2019).
ii.Her novel ‘I Do Not Bid Farewell’ (2023) won the Medicis prize in France and Émile Guimet prize in 2024.
Noted Works:
Her publications include a short story collection, Fruits of My Woman (2000), Fire Salamander (2012); novels such as Black Deer (1998), Your Cold Hands (2002), The Vegetarian (2007), Breath Fighting (2010), and Greek Lessons (2011), Human Acts (2014), The White Book (2016), and I Do Not Bid Farewell(2021);
Facts on Nobel Prize in Literature :
i.A total of 117 Nobel Prizes in Literature have been awarded to 121 laureates between 1901 and 2024. This also includes 18 women.
ii.The Nobel Prize in Literature has been shared between two laureates on four occasions only. No one has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature more than once.
iii.Nobel Prize in Literature was not awarded on 7 occasions: in 1914, 1918, 1935, 1940, 1941, 1942, and 1943.
Points to Note:
i.Youngest Laureate– Rudyard Kipling received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1907 at the age of 41 “in consideration of the power of observation, originality of imagination, virility of ideas and remarkable talent for narration which characterize the creations of this world-famous author”.
ii.Oldest Laureate– Doris Lessing received the prize in 2007 at the age of 87 “that epicist of the female experience, who with scepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilisation to scrutiny”.
iii.First Woman- Swedish author Selma Lagerlöf won the prize in 1909. She became the first woman and also the first Swedish writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.
iv.2023 Laureate- The 2023 prize was awarded to the Norwegian author Jon Fosse, “for his innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable.”
Indian Laureate:
Rabindranath Tagore was the first person from India and also the first Asian to win the Nobel Prize. He received the prize for Literature in 1913 “because of his profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse, by which, with consummate skill, he has made his poetic thought, expressed in his own English words, a part of the literature of the West”.
About the Nobel Prize:
i.The Nobel Prize is an international award administered by the Nobel Foundation in Stockholm, Sweden, recognising discoveries and achievements that benefit humanity.
ii.The award is based on the fortune of Alfred Nobel, a Swedish inventor and entrepreneur.
iii.Since 1901, the Nobel Prize has been awarded in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and peace.
- Sveriges Riksbank (Sweden’s central bank) established the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel in 1968.
Prize Money: Winners of the Nobel Prize will receive a medal, a personal diploma, and a cash award.
- The cash award of Nobel Prize 2024 is set at Swedish kronor (SEK) 11 million per full Nobel Prize.
Nobel Medal:
i.The front side of all medals features a portrait of Alfred Nobel in various versions and the reverse has some differences in design.
ii.The weight is set to 175 grams for all medals, except for the medal for economic sciences, its weight is set to 185 g.
Click here for Key facts about the Nobel Prize
