2024 노벨문학상을 수상한 작가 한강이 "문학작품을 읽고 쓰는 일은 필연적으로 생명을 파괴하는 모든 행위에 반대하는 일"이라고 밝혔다.
10일(현지 시각) 노벨상 시상식 연회가 진행된 스웨덴 스톡홀름 시청 '블루홀'에서 한강은 "가장 어두운 밤에도 언어는 우리가 무엇으로 만들어졌는지 묻고, 이 행성에 사는 사람의 관점에서 상상하기를 고집하며 우리를 서로 연결한다"고 했다.
이 자리에서 한강은 어린 시절 일화를 소개하기도 했다. 그는 "저는 여덟 살 때 오후 산수 수업을 마치고 돌아오던 중 갑자기 폭우가 쏟아져 다른 아이들과 건물 처마 밑에서 비를 피하던 일을 기억한다"고 입을 뗐다.
이어 "길 건너편에는 비슷한 건물의 처마 아래에 비를 피하는 사람들이 보여 마치 거울을 들여다보는 기분이 들었다"며 "내리는 비를 바라보고 그 비에 팔과 다리가 젖는 것을 느끼면서 그 순간 저는 갑자기 (모든 사람이 저마다 '나'로서 살고 있음을) 이해하게 됐다"고 했다.
이 일화를 통해 한강은 "이는 경이로운 순간이었고, 수많은 일인칭 시점을 경험했다"고 강조했다. 그러면서 "책을 읽고 글을 쓴 시간을 돌아보면 저는 이런 경이로운 순간을 되새기고 또 되새겼다"며 "언어의 실타래를 따라 마음의 깊은 곳에 들어가면 다른 내면과 마주한다"고 덧붙였다.
다음은 한강의 수상 소감 전문이다.
Your majesties, your royal highnesses, ladies and gentlemen.
I remember the day when I was eight years old. As I was leaving my afternoon abacus lesson, the skies opened in a sudden downpour. This rain was so fierce that two dozen children wound up huddled under the eaves of the building. Across the street was a similar building, and under those eaves I could see another small crowd— almost like looking into a mirror. Watching that streaming rain, the damp soaking my arms and calves, I suddenly understood. All these people standing with me, shoulder to shoulder, and all those people across the way — were living as an "I" in their own right. Each one was seeing this rain, just as I was. This damp on my face, they felt it as well. It was a moment of wonder, this experience of so many first-person perspectives.
Looking back over the time I have spent reading and writing, I have re-lived this moment of wonder, again and again. Following the thread of language into the depths of another heart, an encounter with another interior. Taking my most vital, and most urgent questions, trusting them to that thread, and sending them out to other selves.
Ever since I was a child, I have wanted to know. The reason we are born. The reason suffering and love exist. These questions have been asked by literature for thousands of years, and continue to be asked today. What is the meaning of our brief stay in this world? How difficult is it for us to remain human, come what may? In the darkest night, there is language that asks what we are made of, that insists on imagining into the first person perspectives of the people and living beings that inhabit this planet; language that connects us to one another. Literature that deals in this language inevitably holds a kind of body heat. Just as inevitably, the work of reading and writing literature stands in opposition to all acts that destroy life. I would like to share the meaning of this award, which is for literature, with you — standing here together. Thank you.