[New Square 10] Korea's first Nobel Prize in Literature, 'Miracle on the Han River'...New History of Korean Literature

■ Host: Anchor Na Kyung-chul and Anchor Um Ji-min
■ Starring: Jeong Yeo-ul Literary Critic

* The text below may differ from the actual broadcast content, so please check the broadcast for more accurate information. Please specify [YTN New Square 10AM] when quoting.

[Anchor]
You joined your father's press conference earlier. Finally, the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature has come out in Korea. The author Han Kang, who has dominated the world's major literary awards, is the main character. Let's take a look at the world of Han Kang's work and the meaning of winning the Nobel Prize for Literature. With Jeong Yeo-ul, a literary critic. Welcome.

Earlier, we delivered it live. Han Kang's father, Han Seung-won, also said in a press conference that he had not expected to win the award at all yesterday, and he was embarrassed. Did the critic expect it?

[JeongyeoWool]
Our writers and critics usually predict who will win the Nobel Prize in literature. I think I'll get it one day. But I think I'll get it within a few years, but I didn't know it was this year. Because the Nobel Prize for Literature was mainly given to writers who are somewhat older, Han Kang is still young, so I expected to receive it in a few years, but I'm more happy because it's this year. And there were a lot of people around me who cried and cried.

So, not at a bookstore, but there are a lot of readers who have a lot of works by Han Kang at home, so do I. So I'm really happy and moved that the artist's work, which I've always loved and touched, finally won the Nobel Prize for Literature. There are so many people who like it, so I think it's not the Nobel Prize itself, but the news that gives comfort and blessing to our lives. It's been a long time since I heard good news, so many people can gain courage and hope.

[Anchor]
There was a lot of excitement and excitement throughout the night, and Han Kang was already known all over the world when she won the Vegan Man Booker Prize. But you made your debut with a poem.

[JeongyeoWool]
That's right, he debuted as a poet first, and he also debuted as a novel the following year, and there are poetry collections. But mostly you wrote a lot more novels. So if you look at these works of fiction, there were many works that fought trauma from the beginning. That's why you struggle with wounds and this trauma doesn't go away.

Historical scars such as 5.18 and 4.3 in our lives do not disappear, but individual wounds are also evident through vegetarians, and ordinary people rarely have the opportunity to talk about trauma in their daily lives. But there are people who are sick like me in literary works. My pain is not abnormal. The readers are touched that there is someone who is equally sick like me, and we are more moved and comforted when the main characters who truly comfort and heal my pain, and give hope are in the works of literature. In that sense, Han Kang's work has always been by our side before the Nobel Prize for Literature and before the Booker Prize, and now that we receive the award, we should have run more to see people running to the bookstore.

So through this opportunity, more people love literary works and literary works have always been by our side. I want you to know that many writers still risk their lives to write novels, poems, and essays.

[Anchor]
It was a surprising answer for me, too. As writer Han Kang won the Nobel Prize for Literature, writer Han's family is also being illuminated. It's very famous as a family of writers, and we just broadcasted my father's press conference live. Can you introduce the family of Han Kang?

[JeongyeoWool]
I don't know my family in detail, but it's a literary family, and I think I've always liked books since I was young due to my father and mother's influence. So all three siblings are working on literature, storytelling. That's why his brother Han Dong-rim is also a writer who graduated from New Year's Literature. I once published a book. Kangin, the younger brother, is also working as a cartoonist. And as you all know, my father became the first to win the Ideal Literature Award with his father and daughter. So, there are many people who have always lived with books with paper books since they were young, but those people rarely talk about books when they watch entertainment programs or things like that.

So it's a pity, and many book programs were abolished, but there were always people around us who worked hard with literature, and I also thought it would be an opportunity for children to read books that give hope and courage to many children that such good things will finally happen.

[Anchor]
As you said, it seems to have energized our literary world a lot, but even before Han Kang won the Nobel Prize for Literature, he has a very colorful history. What kind of awards have you received and what kind of evaluations have you received?

[JeongyeoWool]
You've received so many awards that there's almost no award you haven't received in Korea. And in the Booker International category, a very young translator was awarded a vegetarian novel. At that time, it was only about three years after learning Korean, and a really young translator also received an award. Seeing them win the award with Deborah Smith, many people gained a lot of courage and hope. And after that, the Medici Literature Award is also a very big award.

That's why I received the Medici Literature Award and the Gimhae Literature Award. One of the reasons why I was so interested in Han Kang's literature from the beginning in Europe is the subject of history and human beings, the subject of human beings in history. In the case of May 18 and 4.3, there are many countries in Europe and Asia that have historical wounds. So I think it's a universal theme of humanity that's very relatable.

Especially in the case of "The Boy Coming," the trauma of May 18 Gwangju, where too many people are still hurting, was so sad and beautifully fictionalized that many people gave me a literature lecture by Han Kang even when I was in high school. But high school students really like boys coming. I was rather comforted by high school students. Our high school students read books. So it was really nice.

In addition, the case of the recent work, "Not Say Goodbye," deals with the 4.3 incident. And so this is the world's attention that shows that human beings in history are not powerless. So, it's not like you're fighting history because you have power, you're an elite, you're a middle school student who has no power and you're the main character.

So even if I really feel like I don't have any power, I can read in your work that we can show that we are humans who resist something in history, people who talk about hope, and people who can live a different life, so I think it's not just a literature and an award, but a story that really helps us in our lives.

[Anchor]
He pointed out the themes covered by the writer Han Kang, History and Humanity. What do you think of Han Kang's style? Earlier, the father expressed that his daughter's sentence was very delicate and beautiful and sad at the same time, what do you think of it as a critic?

[JeongyeoWool]
There are a lot of people who cried when they read the artist's work. One of the reasons is that those who didn't know much about the May 18 Gwangju Democratization Movement, especially those who didn't know much about the May 18 Gwangju Democratization Movement, read The Boy Coming and found out that this painful thing that really penetrated our hearts has actually happened in our history.

But the style is very poetic. There are a lot of metaphors and symbols, but it's not that difficult. It's a very deep sorrow in beautiful Korean. So, I think this opportunity will be a lot of opportunities to promote the beauty of Hangul. So there are a lot of people who are worried about their poor literacy these days, but if a lot of people read literature this time, they will improve their literacy by themselves.

That's why we have eyes that love works, and we love something, and when we get interested, we work hard. When you like Han Kang's work, you buy and read other artists' works, and it would be nice if people liked novels naturally and there were many people in the bookstore like today.

Then if a lot of people read books, there are a lot of practical books. How to make a lot of money There are many books like this, and literature was always at stake. But wouldn't it be a little warmer in a world where so many people of all ages visit literary works? I thought it would be a world where I could sympathize with the pain of others and talk about my pain.

[Anchor]
Thanks to this, it's been a long time since I saw the bookstore and especially the literature section so crowded. There are a lot of works by Han Kang, and there is a book that Han Kang especially recommends to read first.

[JeongyeoWool]
It's a recent book called Never Say Goodbye, which came out in 2021, and although the authors usually attach themselves to all of their works, they hope that their recent works will be loved. So since I was the last to ride it, there are traces of my most recent hard work. And in the case of not saying goodbye, the 4.3 Incident or the May 18 Democratic Movement should continue to be illuminated.

You have to continue to heal the wounds of the victims' bereaved families, and compensation has to be made, and many people should be blessed with such blessings to heal their wounds, but there are many people who can't. So some people said this.

Through this work, the historical events of 5.18 and 4.3 continue to appear in the news. That's why it's an opportunity for us to be interested, and people who didn't know well should continue to know about this historical event, that we should learn, understand, and empathize with this historical trauma through literature, and there are so many problems that we haven't solved yet. So I think it's better to think that we should solve the trauma of our group together.

[Anchor]
Author Han Kang recommended reading "Never Say Goodbye" first, and what book do you want to recommend?

[JeongyeoWool]
I like everything. I like everything, but vegetarian is the most exciting and feels a bit like a thriller. It was a lot of fun to go between dream and reality. And what we can't say is that even if we want to eat something, everyone around us says they eat jajangmyeon, but it's a very difficult world to say that I want to eat salad alone.

In particular, Korean society seems to be a society where people are very wary. But the main character in this novel is that when I declare that I will be a vegetarian, all the relationships around me change. Actually, it collapses. But it's savory even in the midst of the collapse. Even if I can't talk about my trauma well, I will go vegan. And the anger, the hurt, and the heart of the father who died of his beloved dog before his eyes still remained in the protagonist of the novel. So I think this topic has a big implication for us.

Because trauma is inherited and transmitted if we don't take good care of it. So the trauma can affect the person next to you, and the mother's pain is passed on to her daughter, and in this way, the trauma can continue to spread to the side. So I think one of the best ways to heal our wounds and overcome them is to read and write.

So you don't have to read good literature and do something grand. There are a lot of manuscript meetings these days. So I think many people will be helped just by reading and transcribing. After reading a vegetarian like this, you'll probably want to read other works by Han Kang. That's why the early work, "Love of Yeosu," is also very good. I like black deer, too. So many people confess that they are really big fans of Han Kang and show them their books on Instagram. There were a lot of people who piled it up and showed it to me. The people who brag about me reading it all. I thought that this was a good thing to brag about.

So, the time when many people love literature, and literature is by no means ineffective, not ineffective, but really to look back on my wounds in our lives, to look back on the pain of others, and to truly hold each other. I was so moved to see the protagonist risking his life to save his friend and ask how he was doing in this work called Never Say Goodbye.

So it seems that loving beings never disappear even when they die. I think it will be a great opportunity for us to know through literature that the beings we once loved will never disappear, even if we die, if we are lost, or if we are traumatized.

[Anchor]
I hope this vitality, this craze, will last a little longer.

[JeongyeoWool]
I hope we can go on for a long time. I hope it's a time to love books.

[Anchor]
That's all for today. So far, we have been with Jeong Yeo-ul, a literary critic. Thank you.

[JeongyeoWool]
Thank you.