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Asian Studies

Currently, this subject guide primarily focuses on East Asia, and covers resources for the study of various social and humanities aspects (e.g. languages, literature, economics, history, politics, cultures...) of China, Japan, and Korea. Resources marked

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Han Kang's Literary World

The subject guide page is created to support the special event on Friday October 25, 2024: "Celebrating Korean Writer Han Kang", sponsored by UCI's Center for Critical Korean Studies (CCKS). The Center also organized "Precariousness and Ethics of Care:  Contemporary Korean Women’s Literature and Cinema", another event back on June 1, 2024, where Han Kang was a special guest in the Q/A session. Here is the recording.

Works by Han Kang 한강 韩江 ハンガン in Different Languages

Film Adaptions

Works about Han Kang

<The Vegetarian>

  • Kim, D. "Translations and Ghostings of History: The novels of Han Kang." New literary history 51(2), 2020, 375-399. Langson Library Periodicals PN 441 N4
  • Conte, J. "The work of being human transnational labor in contemporary south korean film and literature." University of California, Irvine, 2018. Available online
  • Casey, R. "Willed Arboreality: Feminist Worldmaking in Han Kang's The Vegetarian" Critique - Bolingbroke Society 62(3), 2021, 347-360. Available online
  • Godley, M. “The Feminization of Translation: Gender Politics in the Translation Controversy over Han, Kang’s The Vegetarian.” Meridians 20.1 (2021): 193–217. Available online

<Human Acts>

  • Choi, Chungmoo. “Ghostly Apparitions and the Face.” Healing Historical Trauma in South Korean Film and Literature. 1st ed. vol. 1. United Kingdom: Routledge, 2021. 83–139. Available online

  • Prihatiningsih, T. & Anwar, D. "Brutality in Han Kang's Novel Human Acts." English Language and Literature 8(3), 2019. Available onlin
  • Kim, Mijeong. “Han Kang’s Human Acts: Literary Testimony to Historical Blanks Created by State Violence.” The Midwest quarterly 64.1 2022. 108–129. Available online

<Korean Article>

  • Hwang, K. "A Study on Artist Consciousness in Han Kang’s novels - Focusing on "Greek Lessons" and " A Yellow Patterned Eternity." Journal of Korean Culture vol.45, 2019. 237-266. Available online
  • Yang, H. "Metatextuality and the Narrative of Healing in Han Gang’s Novels - Focusing on “While a Snowflake Melts”(2015), “Farewell”(2018), “Impossible Farewell(Impossibles Adieux." Journal of Korean Modern Literature no.83, 2024, 219-255. Available online
  • Joo, J. "The Violence of Disgust and the Ethics of Cohabitation in Han Gang's novel, 「Baby Buddha」." The Journal of Korean Fiction Research (86), 2022. 279-311. Available online
  • Park, S. "The escaping body subject & the abject suspicion -Focusing on 『The Vegetarian』 by Han Kang." The Journal of Korean Fiction Research (93), 2024. 33-58. Available online
  • Yun, J. "Research on ‘White’ Image and Transformation in ‘Han Kang’ novels." Literary Criticism,(78), 2020, 239-274, Available online
  • Yang, H. "The theme of the double and subjectivity in Han Gang's novels." The Journal of Korean Fiction Research (71), 2018. 247-280. Available online

Introduction

Portrait by The Nobel Prize

한 강 Han Kang

“For her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life” - The Nobel Prize in Literature 2024

 

Han Kang was born in Gwangju, South Korea in 1970. She studied Korean literature at Yonsei University. She made her literary debut as a poet by publishing five poems in 1993. She began her career as a novelist the next year by winning the 1994 Seoul Shinmun Spring Literary Contest with “Red Anchor”. She published her first short story collection entitled Yeosu in 1995.

In her oeuvre, Han Kang confronts historical traumas and invisible sets of rules and, in each of her works, exposes the fragility of human life. She has a unique awareness of the connections between body and soul, the living and the dead, and in her poetic and experimental style has become an innovator in contemporary prose.

 

Awards

  • The 25th Korean Novel Award with “Baby Buddha” in 1999
  • The Today’s Young Artist Award by Culture Ministry Korea in 2000
  • The YiSang Literary Award with “Mongol Spot” in 2005
  • The Dongri Literary Award with "The Wind is Blowing" in 2010
  • Manhae literary prize for "Human Acts" in 2014
  • Hwang Sun-won literary award with "While One Snowflake Melts" in 2015
  • The Man Booker International Prize for "The Vegetarian" in 2016
  • The Malaparte Prize in Italy for "Atti umani (Human Acts)" in 2017
  • The Kim Yujung Literary Prize for "Farewell" in 2018
  • San Clemete Prize in Spain for "The Vegetarian" in 2019
  • Selected as the fifth writer for the Future Library project in Norway in 2019. "Dear Son, My Beloved,"will be held in the Deichman Library in Oslo until its scheduled publication in 2114.
  • Medicis prize in France in 2023, Émile Guimet prize in 2024 for "I Do Not Bid Farewell"
  • The Nobel Prize in Literature 2024