[Robert Fouser] Random thoughts on Han Kang’s Nobel Prize

On October 10, the day after Hangeul Day, the Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded to Han Kang. The press stated that the award was given “for her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life.” As word of the award spread, South Koreans jumped for joy and having won a second Nobel Prize. Fans of Han Kang around the world were thrilled at her receiving the most prestigious literary award in the world.

The announcement dominated the news cycle for days as media outlets and commentators looked into various aspects of Ms. Han’s oeuvre and the meaning of the prize. Here are some random thoughts on the award; I’ll save my thoughts on Ms. Han’s work for another time.

The role of government support. The South Korean government’s interest in literary translation goes back to 1974 when the government started offering grants to translators and publishers for literary translation. Though not stated directly, the implicit goal was to create the conditions for a South Korean author to win a Nobel Prize. The programs expanded in the 1990s, leading to the foundation of the Literature Translation Institute of Korea in 1996.

Government support for literary translation was part of a broader push to promote awareness of South Korea abroad. Founded in 1991, the Korea Foundation has taken a leading role in those efforts with a series of programs to support Korean studies and Korean art collections. The push to raise the profile of the country in academic and cultural circles came from an interest in cultivating the country’s soft power after the democratization in the 1980s.

The role of translations and translators. These two aspects of translating Korean literature into English have often been controversial. Criticism of translations has centered on debates between those that focus on an accurate representation of the original and those that focus on the appeal of the text to readers. Fortunately, this question has died down in recent years as the popularity of Korean literature has grown and more translations have won awards. Instead, a good translation is now viewed as one that the translator and the author think will engage readers, as Ms. Han’s works have done.

Korean literature today is fortunate to have a growing pool of talented and dedicated translators. This means that works from different authors in different genres are now being translated into more languages. This has greatly expanded the range of quality translations available, which attracts a wider range of readers.

Government support for translation has contributed much to this growth, but the future is murkier. Budgetary constraints stemming from the aging of the population may make it difficult to sustain current levels of support. Then, there is also the danger that Ms. Han’s Nobel Prize may encourage some bureaucrats to declare “mission accomplished” and shift funding to other areas. This would be a mistake because translators need continued support and small publishers that depend on grants could step away. Ms. Han’s Nobel Prize will give Korean literature a big boost, but it will take time to see if that develops into a sustainable market without government support.

Urban regeneration. Media outlets have reported on lines forming in front of the bookshop that Ms. Han runs in the Seochon neighborhood sitting just to the west of Gyeongbokgung Palace. There have also been photos of flowers in front of her "hanok," a traditional Korean house, in the same neighborhood. In the late 2000s, plans to level the neighborhood and replace it with apartments were moving forward, but the city eventually put the brakes on those plans because of the neighborhood’s historic value.

In the 2010s, new residents began moving to the area and living in renovated hanok as older, long-term residents moved on. This helped maintain the residential component of the neighborhood that has been almost lost in Bukchon on the other side of the Palace. Ms. Han’s choice to live in a hanok has helped to maintain the viability of the residential component of the neighborhood.

A wave of commercialization starting in the mid-2010s has pushed out various local businesses, including bookshops, in favor of eateries and bars that cater to visitors. Ms. Han’s bookshop counters this trend and gives the neighborhood much-needed retail diversity. Her Nobel Prize has helped raise awareness of a historic neighborhood that was almost lost to bulldozers.

Robert J. Fouser

Robert J. Fouser, a former associate professor of Korean language education at Seoul National University, writes on Korea from Providence, Rhode Island. He can be reached at robertjfouser@gmail.com. The views expressed here are the writer’s own. -- Ed.