In 2024, South Korean author Han Kang became the first Asian woman ever to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. This was a monumental achievement for South Koreans, not only because of the sheer prestige of the award, but because of the immense importance her works have for Korea’s past and present. Kang is mostly known for her groundbreaking novels, The Vegetarian and Greek Lessons.
However, this article shines the spotlight on her 2014 novel, Human Acts. She compiles a series of impactful testimonies from victims of the 1980 Gwangju Massacre, retelling their stories with a prosaic writing style. The readers are immediately thrown into the middle of the violence. It’s 1980, we are in Gwangju, a small city in the South East of the peninsula. Students have gathered to protest their right to democracy. No one truly expects to what extent the state is willing to repress these voices.
To give some historical context, on 26 October 1979, the Korean dictator Park Chun-hee was assassinated at his own dinner table. The South Korean population waited with bated breath for a democracy to be proclaimed in their country, only to be met with a violent coup d’etat by aspiring dictator Chun Doo-hwan. No main cities were able to bravely stand up to the newly instituted order of martial law. Only the small city of Gwangju continued with their fight for democracy. The outcomes of this choice would prove to be disastrous.
All streets that led to the city were barricaded. The phone lines were all cut. Media was not permitted to enter the premises, nor even contact those in the proximity. Propaganda was spread about how the government needed to deal with North Korean spies in the city of Gwangju. The entire population was oblivious to the massacre of over 200 people, and the torture and imprisonment of another 1,394.
To this day, there is little to no acknowledgement of this event. Families still search for the bodies of their loved ones, for their own peace.
Han Kang tells their stories. She speaks for both the dead and the living. She expresses anger as much as sorrow. But above all, she prioritizes the truth. She recounts the shock of witnessing the police, sworn to serve and protect, aiming a rifle to the forehead of unarmed students. She does an excellent job of humanizing and putting into perspective each and every one of the victims of this massacre. The legacy of the brave souls sacrificed live on in Han Kang’s Noble Prize win. With this, I encourage you to read Human Acts.
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