Novelist Han Kang, 54, reflected on his literary world during a lecture titled '2024 Nobel Prize in Literature Laureate,' held at the Swedish Academy on July 7 (local time), saying, "From my first novel to my most recent one, perhaps the deepest layer of all my questions has always been directed toward love."
In the lecture titled 'Light and Thread,' Han began, "While organizing a storage room for my move last January, I found an old shoe box." He discovered pieces of paper, which he named 'poetry collection,' that contained eight poems bundled with journals, and he shared two stanzas from the poems written inside.
He said, "Among the innocent and clumsy sentences, I saw the phrase, 'What is love? It is the consolidation that connects our hearts to each other,' and I felt that a few words used by that eight-year-old child are connected to me now."
That day, Han shared his constant anguish about fundamental themes such as life and death, violence, and love that permeate his works, ranging from 'The Vegetarian' to his latest work, 'I Don't Say Goodbye.'
He recalled about his 2014 publication 'The Boy Is Coming,' saying, "What surprised me was the pain that readers have confessed to feeling while reading this novel," and added, "I had to think about the fact that the pain felt in the process of writing the novel is consolidated with the pain that those who read the book have said they felt."
He also mentioned, "From the books I found in the old shoe box, the me of April 1979 was asking myself two questions: 'Where is love? What is love?'"
Han expressed his personal reflections and feelings about individual works that day. He also explained the works he is currently writing and his future plans. Regarding 'The Boy Is Coming,' he said, "When humans refer to the time and space where cruelty and dignity coexisted in extreme forms as Gwangju, I learned while writing this book that Gwangju no longer refers to a proper noun indicating a city, but has become a common noun."
Regarding his next work, he explained, "Three years have passed since the publication of 'I Don't Say Goodbye,' and I have not yet completed the next novel," adding, "Another novel I will write next has been waiting for me for a long time."
The lecture by the Nobel laureate corresponds to the 'acceptance speech' of that year. In particular, the lecture of the literature award winner is referred to as 'literature heard by ear' each year due to the nature of the field. The lecture texts of the Nobel Prize in Literature are sometimes compiled and published as a book.
Han's lecture, celebrating his Nobel Prize in Literature, attracted attention online as well. The lecture, which took place for about 1 hour and 10 minutes starting at 1 a.m. on the 8th, Korean time, was broadcast live on the Nobel Committee's YouTube channel and was viewed by over 900 people.