Translators as literary tastemakers

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 “Tolstoy’s greatest book is the way it is because he thought he was everybody. He had pretensions to philosophy – screen versions sensibly leave all that out – but his universality was not just intellectual, it was instinctive. No human feeling was unknown to him, but looking at the pictures can give you only some of that: you have to read the words.”

“We trouble our life by concern about death, and death by concern about life.  One torments us, the other frightens us. It is not against death that we prepare ourselves; that is too momentary a thing. A quarter hour of suffering, without consequence, without harm, does not deserve any particular precepts. To tell the truth, we prepare ourselves against the preparations for death.”

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Translators as literary tastemakers ?

       In The Japan Times Mike Fu suggests that Han Kang's Nobel win underscores essential role of translators as literary tastemakers -- noting:

Her meteoric rise since attests to the outsize influence that individual translators can exert on the literary world and a burgeoning global interest in East Asian storytelling.

       I'm never thrilled by individuals having "outsize influence" on what gets published, but that is (and will continue to be) one of the huge problems in publishing, as long as only a tiny percentage of books from any language is even considered for translation into English (or other languages). 

       (Han's international breakout success also contrasts interestingly with her father's lack thereof. Han Seung-won is apparently a quite highly regarded author in his own right, and has picked up any number of (local) prizes -- and was published in English before she was: his novel Father and Sonwas translated by Yu Young-nan and Julie Pickering in 2002, by Homa & Sekey Books -- see their publicity page -- but seems to have attracted ... well, basically no notice.
       Han Kang's writings may be more attractive to an international audience, but a lot -- not least: chance, timing, and circumstances -- goes into publishing success, especially in translation, and I suspect that, for example, Han Seung-won's work is worthy of at least more attention (and translation) than it's gotten. (Meanwhile, you can read an excerpt of Father and Son here.))

   Nobel afterthoughts

       As I mentioned yesterday, Han Kang has been named this year's Nobel laureate.
       In the aftermath of the Nobel, I'll re-up Álex Vicente's article on When receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature becomes a curse at El País, where he quotes Javier Aparicio Maydeu:

Getting a Nobel Prize never hurts, but authors who won it, such as Camilo José Cela, Nadine Gordimer, J. M. G. Le Clézio or Herta Müller, did not write anything significant after receiving it and today they are dead in literary terms, so to speak: very few people read them anymore

       (Some of these authors -- and many readers -- would beg to differ, but .....). 
       This guy also said:

Those who are awarded the prize for reasons that are not strictly artistic or literary, but for geopolitical reasons, such as Orhan Pamuk, can be affected. Many become luxury lecturers, lose their creative intensity and are wasted as authors

       Ouch ..... And, much as I love the term and idea of 'luxury lecturer', how many still-living laureates could be considered one ? Handke ? Ishiguro ? Vargas Llosa ? Maybe Jelinek ? Come on .....

       Meanwhile, at The New Republic Mark Krotov and Alex Shephard suggest that: 'The Swedish Academy's decision to award Korean novelist Han Kang is a minor victory in a world of consolidation' in considering Can The Nobel Prize Save Publishing From Itself ? -- arguing, generously, that: "The Swedish Academy has cast itself as an island of seriousness in a swirling ocean of garbage and filth"

       The 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature goes to ... Han Kang

       They've announced that Han Kang will receive this year's Nobel Prize in Literature, "for her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life"

       Two of her works are under review at the complete review:

• The Vegetarian
• The White Book

       She has an Official website; see also the RCW Literary Agency author page. 

       There are quite a few interviews with her available online; see, for example:

• First reactions. Telephone interview, October 2024 - the Nobel interview
• Han Kang, the star author of South Korean literature, returns: ‘I stopped writing for a year and forgot how to do it’ by Berna González Harbour in El País(23/9/2023)
• Han Kang: ‘That will be a problem when I die – I won’t be able to finish all my ideas’ (profile) by Annabel Nugent in The Independent (7/5/2023)
• Han Kang: ‘If I was 100% healthy I couldn’t have become a writer’ by Hannah Beckerman in The Guardian (17/12/2017)
• Korea's Kafka ? Interview with Man Booker winner Han Kang by Sabine Peschel at Deutsche Welle (9/12/2016)
• Interview with Han Kang by Sarah Shin in The White Review (3/2016)
• Don't Be Fooled, 'The Vegetarian' Serves Up Appetites For Fright by Linda Wertheimer at npr (13/2/2016)
• Han Kang Interview by PP Wong at Banana Writers 

       A new work of hers will conveniently be appearing in English in January in the US (and February in the UK), We Do Not Part, translated by e. yaewon and Paige Aniyah Morris -- see the publicity pages from Hogarth and Hamish Hamilton, and pre-order your copy at Amazon.com, Bookshop.org, or Amazon.co.uk. 
       At Asymptote Linnea Gradin has an interesting -- and particularly relevant (translation into Swedish !) -- piece on Risgröt or juk ? On Han Kang’s We Do Not Part and Translating Between Small Languages

       For early reactions to her win, see:

• Han Kang Is Awarded Nobel Prize in Literature by Alex Marshall and Alexandra Alter in The New York Times
• South Korean author Han Kang wins the 2024 Nobel prize in literature by Ella Creamer in The Guardian
• South Korea's Han Kang wins Nobel Literature Prize by Annabel Rackham at the BBC
• South Korean author Han Kang wins 2024 Nobel Prize in literature by Neda Ulaby at npr

       More in-depth coverage should become available in the hours and days to come.

       To sample some of Han Kang's work, see:

• First Read — From “The White Book”
• White | State of Mind (excerpt from The White Book)
• The Vegetarian (excerpt)
• The Fruit of My Woman

       Han Kang also attended the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa, in 1998.