The Nobel Prize for Literature, the whole process is 'private'...Translation is the best contributor.

■ Host: anchor Lee Hyun-woong
■ Appearance: Chung Myung-kyo, honorary professor of Korean at Yonsei University


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


[Anchor]
Han Kang's Nobel Prize in Literature was literally an unexpected "surprise show." It was even more so because unlike other literary awards, the Nobel Prize for Literature does not announce candidates or works separately. Some say that the translator who announced Han Kang's book to the overseas literary world is actually the first contributor. Let's talk about this award by connecting Yonsei University's Korean language professor and literary critic Chung Myung-kyo. Professor Jeong, you're out, right?

[Jungmyeonggyo]
Hello.

[Anchor]
It's the alma mater of novelist Han Kang. Yonsei University's Korean department, which produced the Nobel Prize in Literature, also seems to be a big surprise. Did you expect Han Kang to win the Nobel Prize in Literature?

[Jeongmyeonggyo]
No. I thought I'd get it someday, but I didn't know I'd get it this quickly. [Anchor] I thought I'd get it one day.

[Jungmyeonggyo]
It's not that I'll get it one day, but I thought I might get it. Usually, the Nobel Prize for Literature has been given to the finished writer, so Han Kang is still an evolving writer, so I thought I might get it later, but I got it too soon.

[Anchor]
Please understand that the sound quality of the call is a little uneven. This time, Chinese writers Chan Xue and Haruki Murakami were considered prominent, but some say that it was an unusual award that overturned expectations, and what do you think was the main factor in determining this award?

[Jungmyeonggyo]
I think there are a number of factors at play. There was a big change in the Nobel Prize judging committee in the late 2010s. Since then, a new system has been in the process of being established, and I think that's why I did an unconventional experiment there. This is a guess.

[Anchor]
Did you mention that a relatively young, active writer received it?

[Jungmyeonggyo]
That's right.

[Anchor]
The Booker Prize and the Medici Prize announce candidates separately before the winner is selected, but the Nobel Prize for Literature does not specify candidate selection or work. Many people are curious about how to judge and select winners when there are no nominees.

[Jungmyeonggyo]
In 2007, a reporter who was a literary journalist covered it in detail. We receive recommendations from all sides until May, and then there are 18 judges. Judges read intensively from May to September, followed by weekly review from September to early October, and then a final vote one day in October. The final vote will be in the morning and the announcement will be made in the afternoon. [Anchor] In a way, it was selected as the winner by several people who were not specific judges, but the first Korean and first Asian woman to win the award. It seems that it will have a significant impact on literature as well as on the history of Korean literature, what do you predict?

[Jungmyeonggyo]
It's a very important event. Korean literature has been known to the world since the 1990s, but until now, individual writers have been known mainly by major writers, but Korean literature has not been known together. However, the Nobel Prize is so big, and since Han Kang is a woman representing Asia and the first winner of Korean literature, I hope that Korean literature will finally enter the trajectory of world literature.

[Anchor]
The professor previously said that Han River is an avant-garde novelist rather than a popular novelist, what did this mean?

[Jungmyeonggyo]
Han River is a writer who has a very good style. It's not easy to understand because you're a writer who embraces a certain historical fact deep inside and presents it after a kind of internal reflection. But when I read it, I've written good works where I literally feel the language because the upheaval in Korean history, the painful lives of individuals who are sacrificed there, reflection on the painful lives, anger, and so on. So in that sense, it's far from a popular novel that generally conveys cases to us.
.
[Anchor]
As you mentioned, we have dealt with important events in Korean history such as 5.18 and 4.3, but aren't there many works dealing with such historical events? Then, what is different about Han Kang?

[Jungmyeonggyo]
First of all, Han Kang focuses on individuals who are victimized by the tyranny of history, so each individual's specific and intimate story, and then the feelings and feelings that arise in his head and rise from his heart are very well described. To make it a bit wider, I've used this anywhere in the Han River.Ma is the unique aesthetics of Korean literature. I've written such aesthetics that are quite aesthetically beautiful that go well with what's called the aesthetics of waiting and then the aesthetics of Jeonghwa to purify historical wounds. I think it's the factor that made the Han River novel stand out.

[Anchor]
It was the same when the announcement was made about the award. If you listen to various reviews, there seem to be a lot of expressions that are poetic, do you actually agree with that?

[Jungmyeonggyo]
[Voiceover] Right. It's quite poetic because it describes the flow of consciousness within it as if it were a very calm stream.

[Anchor]
Author Han Kang recommended not to say goodbye to her book introductory book. I think a lot of people are thinking about what to read first among the masterpieces, so why did you recommend not to say goodbye?

[Jungmyeonggyo]
I guess that's because the general public can access the content of the work a little more and it's an important record of an unknown event.

[Anchor]
Can I think of it as relatively easy to read?

[Jungmyeonggyo]
It's like that. It's easier for readers to access because they didn't say goodbye and put the historical facts to the fore.

[Anchor]
Then, what is the book that the professor recommends by Han Kang?

[Jungmyeonggyo]
Personally, I think vegetarian is a good piece of work. It really clearly depicted the violent clash between a woman who wanted to be a plant and then a saviour who undermined such a woman with a kind of animal greed. It was also the first time that Han River gained global fame, so I recommend that work.
But I think it may be a little too much for ordinary readers to read.

[Anchor]
A while ago, a vegetarian translator appeared on the screen, and I think this will be a future homework on how to systematically and strategically support our literary translation.

[Jungmyeonggyo]
That's a very difficult problem. Anyway, so the Korea Literature Translation Institute and the Daesang Cultural Foundation are intensively supporting translation, and the results can be seen this time. But I'm working hard right now, but there's always a limit to translation. So that's a problem we have to continue to consider in the future, and if there is a way for Westerners to read it themselves without going through the mediation of translation, that's the best. AI can help or literally go into the world's common language, but I think it's a problem that we still have to seriously think about and seek.

[Anchor]
The next day after the announcement of the award, it is called an open run in front of a large bookstore, and you could see a long line, which is quite heartbreaking, but I think it could be an unusual and unusual scene. Let's hear what I want to tell the literary world and readers.

[Jungmyeonggyo]
More than I would like to ask readers, I would like to ask the institutions in charge of the so-called policy, but I have to educate them so that they can have a habit of reading from a young age. So any country in the world almost forcibly memorizes its outstanding literary works in elementary school. And we are conducting such education that makes you read it hard, but in Korea, the word creative education is misunderstood, so I think that memorizing it is an instilled education, and I think that's the biggest significance that has caused the reading population of Korean literature to collapse. That's why readers should have experience reading books to read books. So it's not something I should ask readers to do, and I think young students should develop a new habit of reading books now.

[Anchor]
I see. With this award, I look forward to the literary boom's diary.