Books by South Korean writer Han Kang are displayed at the Swedish Academy in Stockholm, where it announced on Thursday that the author has won the 2024 Nobel Prize in literature. EPA-Yonhap

Han Kang, the South Korean author behind unflinching and provocative tales that deftly explore the depths of human violence and its impact on identity, has clinched the 2024 Nobel Prize in literature. The historic feat makes her the first Asian woman to be recognized with the distinguished literary honor.

The Swedish Academy, the prize-giving body, commended her lyrical mastery that “confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life.”

Born in Gwangju in 1970 to novelist Han Seung-won, Han moved to Seoul at age 9, just months before the 1980 Gwangju Uprising, which reportedly claimed as many as 2,000 civilian lives. Although the Nobel laureate didn't witness the military junta's brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protesters firsthand, a photograph her father shared of the violent suppression left an indelible mark on her understanding of humanity.

What both unsettled and captivated her was the vast spectrum of human behavior — the capacity for both unimaginable cruelty and selfless compassion. How can such stark dualities coexist in the same world? And how profoundly do these forms of violence shape an individual's body and sense of identity?

These questions have driven much of her three-decade literary career — from the searingly direct portrayal of state-led violence in Gwangju in “Human Acts” to the more surreal and daringly experimental exploration of gendered violence in “The Vegetarian.”

“The Vegetarian” is what brought Han her first belated global breakthrough when the 2007 novel was translated into English by Deborah Smith and went on to win the 2016 International Booker Prize.

It's a bizarre tale of Yeong-hye, a middle-aged housewife who, after a terrifying dream, suddenly quits eating meat altogether and eventually believes she is transforming into a tree.

The protagonist herself remains largely voiceless throughout the book. Instead, the three-part narrative unfolds through the perspectives of her appalled husband, her sexually obsessed brother-in-law and her jealous yet concerned older sister.

Yeong-hye's radical rejection of food and her body becomes a visceral symbol of rebellion against patriarchal control and society's repressive expectations.

“I wanted to deal with the questions I had about the world and humanity in the form of … two sisters crying out in silence: one who wants to stop being part of the human race … and the other who wants to hold her sister from death, conflicted and pained herself,” Han shared in a 2023 interview with the Booker Prize Foundation.

Nobel Prize-winning author Han Kang speaks about “I Do Not Bid Farewell" (or "We Do Not Part"), her novel that clinched last year's Prix Medicis for foreign literature in France, during a press conference in Seoul, Nov. 14, 2023. Yonhap

Another of Han's works, “The White Book,” was shortlisted for the 2018 International Booker Prize.

Penned as a poetic meditation on grief and loss, the plot follows a nameless narrator haunted by the memory of her elder sister, who died just two hours after birth.

As she grapples with the fragility of human existence, she lists 65 different white objects — such as a newborn's gown, breast milk, sugar cubes, rice, the moon, white hair and a shroud — each reflecting a sense of impermanence and emptiness.

And this theme of longing for connection in the shadow of loss carries over into the author's “Greek Lessons.”

The book depicts a tender bond between two equally vulnerable individuals — a woman who, after losing her mother and the custody of her young son, has become unable to speak, and a man whose vision is slowly fading due to a hereditary condition.

What brings them together is their study of Ancient Greek. For the man, it represents his return to Korea as a teacher after spending much of his life in Germany, leaving him suspended between two cultures. For the woman, this long-dead language, no longer spoken and therefore incapable of intimidating her, offers hope as she strives to regain her voice.

Han Kang's books are on view in a Tokyo bookstore in Japan, Thursday, after she was announced the winner of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature. Yonhap

While Han's aforementioned works delve more deeply into how personal traumas manifest in individual lives, her “Human Acts” and “We Do Not Part” confront historical traumas and violence head-on.

Each offers a harrowing yet lyrically compelling insight into the pivotal moments in Korea's modern history; “Human Acts” centers on the 1980 Gwangju Uprising, while “We Do Not Part” revisits the 1948 Jeju April 3 Uprising.

The latter examines, through the perspectives of three women, the tragic events on Jeju Island, where around 30,000 civilians — nearly 10 percent of the island's population at the time — were purged in an anti-communist military campaign.

Jointly translated into French by Choi Kyung-ran and Pierre Bisiou, the book nabbed the Prix Medicis for foreign literature in 2023. Its English translation, rendered by Emily Yae Won and Paige Aniyah Morris, is set for release in January 2025.

In a post-Nobel interview with the Swedish Academy, Han recommended “We Do Not Part” as a starting point for those new to her oeuvre.

“I think every writer likes his or her most recent book,” she said. “I hope this book ['We Do Not Part'] could be a start.”