This article on Han Kang is published in issue 43 of Vanity Fair on newsstands until 22 October 2024.
I was lucky, just a few days before the news of Nobel Prize for Literature to Han Kangto attend the rehearsals of Daria Deflorian’s show, which debuts on October 25th at the Teatro Arena del Sole in Bologna, based on the most famous work of the Korean writer, The vegetarian.
I had to write about it for the booklet Romaeuropa Festival (where it arrives on October 29th, until November 3rd) and I had just reread the novel published by Adelphi and all the interviews. In one, Han Kang said something beautiful: «A noble aspect of the human being is the ability to feel the pain of othersproof of the very dignity of man. We feel pain in the face of violence, in the face of injustice. Feeling pain means believing in humanity.”
In this Han Kang is very similar to another Nobel Prize winner for Literature (2015), Svetlana Alexievichwho knows how to listen and talk about the most unspeakable pains, those caused by wars or disasters like Chernobyl. «Humanity is harmful, furious, murderous, violent, all things that the protagonist Yeong-hye does not want to be. She doesn’t want to stop living. He wants to stop living like us and look for another way, the vegetal one» says Daria Deflorian, who plays the closest person to Yeong-hye, her sister, in the show.
To Marco Del Corona, who interviewed her for Human actsHan Kang had said: «Since I was a child I have experienced a conflict within myself. I was deeply intrigued by human nature, its complexity. Men can set up Auschwitz or sacrifice their lives to save a child who is about to be hit by a train. I have always puzzled over how to embrace humanity and its contradictions. Ever since I started writing fiction I have tried to express this conflict. In the Vegetarianfor example, the protagonist no longer wants to be human because rejects the violence that is typical of man».
A Nobel Prize that couldn’t be more contemporary.
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Source: Vanity Fair
I’m Susan Karen, a professional writer and editor at World Stock Market. I specialize in Entertainment news, writing stories that keep readers informed on all the latest developments in the industry. With over five years of experience in creating engaging content and copywriting for various media outlets, I have grown to become an invaluable asset to any team.
