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The poetic violence of Han Kang’s Nobel Prize-winning literature – what to read, watch and do this week

The poetic violence of Han Kang’s Nobel Prize-winning literature – what to read, watch and do this week

I didn’t search for The Vegetarian when I first read it. I was banned from buying books and was lucky enough to live with a collector. As I browsed through our combined books, a slim volume by an author I’d never heard of caught my eye, and I’m glad it did. “The Vegetarian” by Han Kang is exactly my kind of story: dark, disturbing and beautifully crafted.

Yeong-hye is, as her husband charmingly says, “completely unremarkable in every way” – until she becomes a vegetarian. This decision aggressively disrupts her world and that of her extended family. You may think this is a bit dramatic (vegetarianism is normal), and it is.

The Korean satirical sensibility is often disturbing and makes one realize that humanity is in chaos. “Parasite” (winner of the 2020 Best Picture Oscar), “Oldboy” (the 2003 thriller that inspired John Wick) and “The Vegetarian” were born out of the same urgency to expose our shared capacity for violence, which, how They testify, is always present and bubbling just beneath the surface.

The Vegetarian won the Man Booker International Prize in 2016 and Kang has now emerged as the surprise winner of this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature. She is one of the youngest writers to win. Artful is a word that comes to mind when you think of her prose, which is sparse and beautiful but also manages to have such a dense meaning. It makes sense that Kang is a poet, and this quality of her translations is a testament to her translator, Deborah Smith.

As our writer Jenni Ramone notes, The Vegetarian was probably the work that most influenced the judges. Kang manages to pack a lot of horror into this slim text (it clocks in at less than 200 pages) without making it feel overwhelming. It is a gripping novel, profound and wild in its images, described so elegantly and sparingly.

I’m currently fortunate enough to own an early reading copy of Kang’s latest novel, We Do Not Part, out next year. I’m so excited to join in. Until then, I highly recommend you read The Vegetarian and delve deeper into Kang’s catalog, particularly her poetry.

This got us thinking about the difference between writing poetry and prose. Is it obvious that a good poet would write good prose and vice versa? Take our survey and respond to this email with your thoughts and examples of where poets have written good or bad prose and prose writers have written bad or good poetry.

Read more: Han Kang: innovative South Korean author wins 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature

Korean art and British horror

Hallyu, the wave of Korean art and culture that has taken the West by storm, is on the rise. Literature is currently at its peak, and perhaps Korean art will be next. If you want to get ahead of the curve, head to London’s Southbank, where you can see artist Haegue Yang’s Leap Year exhibition at the Hayward Gallery.

The work is bright and bold, Yang is certainly original and radical. The exhibition is a large retrospective of her work, where you will find collages, sculptures and installations with sound and even scents. Our reviewer Martin Lang writes: “Yang’s work suggests that art also has the power to bridge divides, promote empathy and break down barriers between cultures.”

Read more: Haegue Yang’s Leap Year is a bold and diverse show that mixes cultural references and folk traditions

“I remember watching it in a school lesson as a teenager and once was enough,” writes political scientist Mark Lacy of the BBC film “Threads,” a truly frightening take on the impact of nuclear war on a city North of England from 1984. The film hasn’t been seen for decades, but was recently put on iPlayer so we can all relive its horror.

Lacy describes it this way: “It’s a brutal and dark tour of the consequences of nuclear war that anyone who saw it when it first aired might find it difficult to watch again.” Lacy saw it at a time when there was the possibility of one Escalation of Cold War tensions was very real. While we’ve certainly learned more stories about nuclear fallout since then, the film is available to watch again at a time when fears of attacks on nuclear facilities are back in the news.

Read more: Threads: The harrowing 1984 BBC docudrama is back on our screens – frightening but appropriate for our uncertain times

The making of legends

The film “The Apprentice” also comes at a time of great nervousness as the US elections draw ever closer. Set in the 1970s and 1980s, the film traces the business career of presidential candidate Donald Trump. The focus is on Trump’s relationship with prosecutor Roy Cohn, from whom he is said to have learned underhanded business practices and Machiavellian profiteering.

As our reviewer Michelle Bentley, a professor of international relations, writes, the election comes at a contentious time – less than three weeks until the election. “The film attempts to delve into Trump’s mindset, not only as a businessman, but also to explore what drove him to the White House, as well as the election he is now fighting,” writes Bentley, who goes on to explain whether the film has implications for the White House will have election at all. It is certainly an important event in this dramatic election.

Read more: The Apprentice: This Trump biopic being released so close to the election is bound to be political

There are so many brilliant music documentaries that give long-deserved honor to musicians who have been forgotten but have had a huge influence on so many artists and genres. Think of the films Searching For Sugarman and Getting It Back: The Story of Cymande. A wonderful innovation in this genre is Harder Than the Rock about the Cimarons.

This beautiful piece by sociologist Kenny Monrose is full of childhood anecdotes about their music. The group were Britain’s first reggae band, and when you look at the long list of people they’ve worked with, from Bob Marley to Paul McCartney, it’s startling how little known they are – even to the film’s director, Mark Warmington. My colleague Anna said she spent a wonderful afternoon editing Monrose’s piece while listening to the band’s music, which we highly recommend.

Read more: Why the Cimarons are one of the greatest British bands of all time – as the documentary Harder Than the Rock shows

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.