A Nobel Prize Winner Who Exposes Human Vulnerability

Han Kang receives the prize for her “intense poetic prose, which confronts the traumas of history and exposes human vulnerability.” The first of her books to be translated into English was the novel The Vegetarian, about a young woman who refuses to eat meat and the consequences this has for her and those around her.

The book marked Han Kang’s international breakthrough and won the Man Booker International Prize in 2016. Several of her books have also been translated into Swedish, including Human Acts, The Vegetarian, The White Book, and Greek Lessons (all published by Natur & Kultur).

Johanna Lindbo earned her doctorate in literature at the University of Gothenburg last year and has written a lengthy essay on Han Kang’s The Vegetarian in the Norwegian journal Salongen, an online magazine for philosophy and the history of ideas.

“I was so happy when I heard that Han Kang was awarded the Nobel Prize. Often it’s a writer you haven’t read, but I think relatively many people have actually read Han Kang. She is also relatively young. I’ve read The Vegetarian extremely closely and many times,” says Johanna Lindbo.

Exciting Play with Narrative Perspectives

Lindbo agrees with the Swedish Academy’s description of Han Kang’s language as poetic and intense, laying bare human vulnerability.

“It’s written so beautifully that you almost don’t know if what’s happening in the book is beautiful or terrible. For me, the book raised many thoughts about having the right to own your own story. It evoked such strong emotions and is so fluid and easy to read – even though the theme is heavy and elusive.”

When you finish reading, you, as a reader, are not quite sure what has happened or who has told the story, says Johanna Lindbo.

“It’s an exciting play with narrative positions that creates uncertainty in the reader. It’s difficult to know what is violence and sexuality, what is healthy and what is sick."

Feminist Ecocriticism

Johanna Lindbo’s dissertation (2023) dealt with when the human ends and the “more than human” begins – landscapes, humans, the more-than-human, and the boundaries between them. Against that background, it’s perhaps not surprising that she was drawn to Han Kang’s The Vegetarian, where the woman in the novel transforms into a tree.

“The Vegetarian is very rewarding to read from a feminist ecocritical perspective. When I’ve included it in my teaching, it has sparked many discussions. It’s rewarding because it deals with femininity and violence, but also because of its narrative technique: whose gaze and whose words are we given? What do we know and what do we not know, and perhaps most importantly: Who has the right to own their own story? It offers so much to discuss and write about.”

Text: Johanna Hillgren