The Nobel Prize in Literature awarded to author Han Kang

(Stockholm) The Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded Thursday to South Korean author Han Kang, aged 53, the first South Korean to win the award in literature.

Han Kang, who writes poems, short stories and novels in Korean, was rewarded “for her intense poetic prose which confronts historical trauma and exposes the fragility of human life,” explained the jury in a press release.

Alongside writing, she also devoted herself to art and music, which is reflected in all of her literary output.

“Han Kang’s work is characterized by this double exposure of pain, a correspondence between mental torment and physical torment, in close connection with Eastern thought,” said the Swedish Academy.

The author, born November 27, 1970 in Gwangju, South Korea, has “a unique awareness of the links between the body and the soul, the living and the dead, and, through her poetic and experimental style, she is considered to be innovative in the field of contemporary prose,” Nobel committee president Anders Olsson told the press.

Han Kang broke through internationally with his novel The Vegetarian (2007). Written in three parts, the book depicts the violent consequences of its protagonist Yeong-hye’s refusal to eat meat, leading to her brutal rejection by those around her.

She is the first South Korean to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.

The only other South Korean to win a Nobel Peace Prize dates back to 2000, when former President (1998 to 2003) Kim Dae-Jung was crowned for “his work for peace and reconciliation with North Korea.

Last year, Norwegian playwright Jon Fosse won the prestigious Belles Lettres award.