LIVE: Winner of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature Is Announced

The Nobel Committee that have prepared this year's Nobel Prize in Literature are Ellen Mattson, Anna Karen Palme, Steve Samsonberg, and Anna Biswanger. Our co-opted committee member has been Mats Malm, Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Cabinet. After my presentation of the laureate's work in Swedish and English, my colleagues from the Nobel Committee, Ellen Mattson and Anna Karen Palme, will take individual interviews from the floor. More information about our laureate can be found on the Nobel Foundation's website www.nobelprize.org. The 2024 Nobel Prize winner in Literature, Han Kang, is the first author from South Korea to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature. She was born in 1970 in Gwangju, and in parallel with her writing, she also devoted herself to music and painting. This activity beyond the boundaries of the arts is clearly noticeable in her writing, which has a great impact on the genre. She made her debut as a lyricist in 1993 with poems in the journal Literature and Society. Two years later, she made her debut in a collection of stories. She made her international breakthrough with the novel Vegetarian, which was published in 2007. It is just as drastic as the poetically condensed depiction of the violent consequences of refusing to eat meat. Han Kang's physical appearance is vulnerable. Often the female lifeblood is tangible. She is strengthened by her metaphorically charged faith. In the novel Lessons in Greek from 2011, which is still untranslated into Swedish, a love affair develops between a woman who has lost her ability to speak and her teacher in classical Greek who is blind. The book becomes a beautiful meditation on loss, intimacy and language's ultimate conditions. Another political backbone of the novel Living and Dead from 2014, where Han Kang emerges from a historical event in the city of Guangzhou, where she grew up and where hundreds of students and unarmed civilians were murdered by massacres. With her brutal conclusion, Han Kang approaches the witness literature genre. In the white book from 2016, Han Kang's lyrical style is re-dominated. It is a sorrowful song dedicated to the person who would have been Jagget's big sister if she had not gone away just a few hours after her birth. Followed by short notes that all are about white objects, it is this color of sorrow that associatively builds up the book as a whole. It makes it less of a novel, but a kind of secular prayer book, as it has also been called. It is in addition to a dead person that the book brings forth with its last words. In the white, among all the white things, I will breathe in the last breath out of you. Another highlight in the authorship is finally I Do Not Say Goodbye from 2021, a story that takes place in the shadow of a massacre in South Korea that took place in 1950 on the small island of Jeju, where tens of thousands of people were archived, children and the elderly, suspected of being collaborators. The book is a masterful work of sorrow that the narrator performs together with his girlfriend, where both bear the catastrophe that struck the nation. With an equally dense imagery, he emphasizes Kang's power of displacement over the present, but equally strongly the girlfriend's attempt to solve the collective oblivion that surrounds them and transform the trauma into a joint art project whose name is in the title of the book. In his authorship, he confronts Kang with the words of prizemotivation, the historical trauma, and in all his works, he highlights man's vulnerability. She has a unique attention to the connections between body and soul, living and dead, and in her searching and poetic writing, she has become an innovator of contemporary prose. Four of the prose works I have mentioned are translated into Swedish. The Vegetarian, from 2016, living and dead the same year. The White Book, from 2019. And I Do Not Say Goodbye, from 2023. Pan Kang, the 2024 Nobel Laureate in Literature, is the first writer from South Korea to be awarded the Literature Prize. She was born in 1970 in Gwangju and has, alongside her authorship, also devoted herself to music and art. Her work in crossing the boundaries between art forms is clearly reflected in her writing, which has a broad span in terms of genre. In 1993, she debuted as a poet in the magazine Literature and Society, and two years later made her prose debut with a collection of short stories. Her major international breakthrough was the novel The Vegetarian, from 2007, a harshly effective yet poetic portrayal of the violent consequences that proceed from the protagonist's refusal to eat meat. Pan Kang's physical empathy for the vulnerable, often female, lives is palpable, and reinforced by her metaphorically charged prose. In the novel Greek Lessons, from 2011, love develops tenderly between a woman who has lost the power of speech and a teacher of ancient Greek who himself is losing his sight. The book becomes a beautiful meditation around loss, intimacy, and the ultimate conditions of language. In the novel Human Acts, from 2014, Pan Kang this time employs as a political foundation a historical event that took place in the city of Gwangju, where she herself grew up and where hundreds of students and unarmed civilians were murdered during a massacre in 1980. In her brutal actualization, Pan Kang approaches the genre of witness literature. In the White Book, from 2016, Pan Kang's poetic style once again dominates. The book is an elegy dedicated to the person who could have been herself's elder sister, but who passed away only a couple of hours after birth. In a sequence of short notes all concerning white objects, it is through this whiteness that the work as a whole is associatively constructive. This makes it less a novel and more a kind of secular prayer book, as it has also been described. It is in addressing the dead that the novel reaches its final words. Within that white, all of those white things, I will breathe in the last breath you released. Another highlight of her authorship is finally We Do Not Part, from 2021. The story unfolds in the shadow of a massacre that took place in the late 1940s on South Korea's Yeou Island, where tens of thousands of people, among them children and the elderly, were shot on suspicion of being collaborators. The book masterfully portrays the mourning process undertaken by the narrator and her female friend, who both carry with them the disaster that has befallen their relatives. With an imagery that is as precise as it is condensed, Pan Kang emphasizes not only the power of the past over the present, but also the friend's attempt to bring to light what has fallen into collective oblivion and transform that trauma into a joint art project which lends the book its title. In her era, Pan Kang, as expressed in the Academy citation, confronts historical traumas and in each of her works exposes the fragility of human life. She has a unique awareness of the connections between body and soul, the living and the dead, and in her poetic and experimental style has become an innovator in contemporary prose. Several works are translated to French and German. In English, we have Kamalescence 2013, The Vegetarian 2015, Human Acts 2016, The White Book 2017, Europa 2019, Greek Lessons 2023, and We Do Not Talk, which is planned to come out next year in 2023. Thank you for listening and for joining us today. And now I will give the word to Hélène Mattson and Anna-Karin Palm for individual interviews. Part of the briefing is over and we will move on to the interviews.