⬛ TEXTO
Han Kang Is Awarded Nobel Prize in Literature
Han Kang, the South Korean author best known for her surreal, subversive novel, “The Vegetarian,” was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature [2024] — the first writer from her country to receive the award.
Mats Malm, the permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, said that Han was receiving the honor “for her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life.”
“The Vegetarian,” published in Korea in 2007, won the 2016 International Booker Prize after it was translated into English. Porochista Khakpour, in a review of “The Vegetarian” for The New York Times, said that Han “has been rightfully celebrated as a visionary in South Korea.”
Han’s Nobel was a surprise. But the news was celebrated by authors and fans on social media, and greeted with fanfare in South Korea. “This is a great achievement for South Korean literature and an occasion for national celebration,” said President Yoon Suk Yeol in a statement, in which he noted Han’s ability to capture painful episodes from their country’s recent history. Members of the K-pop band BTS also celebrated, with one posting a crying-face emoji and a heart alongside a picture of Han. Han’s groundbreaking work has reshaped the literary landscape in South Korea, said Paige Aniyah Morris, co-translator of Han’s novel, “We Do Not Part,” which will be published by Hogarth in the United States in January.
“Han’s work has inspired a generation of Korean writers to be more truthful and more daring in their subject matter,” Morris said. “Time and time again, she has braved a culture of censorship and saving face, and she has come out of these attempts at silencing her with stronger, more unflinching work each time.”
Han, 53, was born in 1970 in Gwangju, South Korea. Her father was also a novelist, but much less successful. The family struggled financially and moved frequently. In a 2016 interview with The Times, Han said her transitory upbringing “was too much for a little child, but I was all right because I was surrounded by books.” When Han was 9, her family moved to Seoul just months before the Gwangju uprising, when government troops fired on crowds of pro-democracy protesters, killing hundreds. The event shaped her views on humanity’s capacity for violence, Han said in the 2016 interview, and its specter has haunted her writing. In her 2014 novel “Human Acts,” a writer observes a police raid on a group of activists.
She also recalled seeing images of people who lined up to donate their blood to those who were injured in the uprising. “It was like two unsolvable riddles imprinted on my mind: How can humans be so violent, and how can humans be so sublime?” she said. “When I write novels, I find myself always returning to the theme of what it means to be human.”
Han studied literature at Yonsei University in Korea, and her first published works were poems. Her debut novel, “Black Deer,” which came out in 1998, was a mystery about a missing woman. Following her debut, Han went on to write seven more novels, as well as several novellas and collections of essays and short stories. Among her other novels are “The White Book,” which was also nominated for the International Booker Prize, and “Greek Lessons,” published in English in 2023.
“Han Kang is a visionary — there’s no other word for it,” said Parisa Ebrahimi, executive editor at Hogarth, Han’s North American publisher, who noted that Han’s work reflects “remarkable insight into the inner lives of women.”
Han’s writing is now celebrated in South Korea, but that took some time. She had been publishing fiction and poetry for more than two decades before her work was issued in English, after Deborah Smith translated “The Vegetarian” and sold it to a British publisher based on the first 10 pages. “Her work, and the translation and success of her work, has led Korean literature in translation to be edgier and more experimental and daring,” said Anton Hur, a South Korean translator and author who is based in Seoul. “She changed the conversation about Korean literature.”
Ankhi Mukherjee, a literature professor at the University of Oxford, said that she had taught Han’s work “year in, year out” for almost two decades. “Her writing is relentlessly political — whether it’s the politics of the body, of gender, of people fighting against the state — but it never lets go of the literary imagination,” Mukherjee said, adding: “It’s never sanctimonious; it’s very playful, funny and surreal.”
The Nobel Prize is literature’s pre-eminent award, and winning it is a capstone to a writer. Along with the prestige and a huge boost in sales, the new laureate receives 11 million Swedish krona, about $1 million. In recent years, the academy has tried to increase the diversity of authors considered for the literature prize, after facing criticism over the low number of laureates who were female or came from outside Europe and North America.
Han is the 18th woman to receive the Nobel in literature, which has been awarded to 120 writers since 1901. Some scholars and translators said it was fitting that the first Korean writer to win a Nobel is a woman. Much of the most groundbreaking and provocative contemporary Korean literature is being written by female novelists, including some who are challenging and exposing misogyny and the burdens that are placed on women in South Korea.
🔗 Texto adaptado de: Han Kang Is Awarded Nobel Prize in Literature. The New York Times. Disponível em: nytimes.com. Acesso em: 10 out. 2024.
🟨 QUESTÃO 83
South Korean translator and author, Anton Hur, stated that Han Kang’s work contributed to make South Korean literature in translation
(A) more avant-garde and audacious.
(B) more sanctimonious and serious.
(C) less political and melodramatic.
(D) less humorous and less poetic.
Gabarito: A
🧭 1️⃣ Leitura orientada
O item cobra a interpretação direta da avaliação feita por Anton Hur sobre o impacto da obra de Han Kang na literatura coreana traduzida. A banca exige a correspondência semântica entre a fala original e a reformulação apresentada nas alternativas.
📝 2️⃣ Análise técnica das alternativas
(A) ✅ more avant-garde and audacious (mais vanguardista e ousada).
🔹"avant-garde" → vanguardista → vem do francês “avant-garde” (literalmente, “à frente da guarda”). Refere-se a algo inovador, experimental, fora dos padrões convencionais, especialmente nas artes e literatura.
🔹"audacious"→ ousado, destemido → indica coragem criativa, atitude provocante ou desafio às normas tradicionais.
🔹As expressões “edgier”, “more experimental”, e “daring” são sinônimos de “avant-garde” (vanguardista) e “audacious” (ousado).
🔹Assim, a tradução semântica perfeita dessa parte é justamente o que aparece na alternativa A.
📘 Trecho que comprova:
🔹“[...] has led Korean literature in translation to be edgier and more experimental and daring.” (fez com que a literatura coreana traduzida se tornasse mais ousada, experimental e de vanguarda.)
🚩 Pegadinha evitada: equivalência lexical. As expressões “edgier”, “experimental” e “daring” correspondem semanticamente a “avant-garde” e “audacious”.
(B) ❌ more sanctimonious and serious (mais moralista e sério).
🔹"Sanctimonious" significa “moralista”, “hipócrita”, ou alguém que finge virtude — nada a ver com o elogio feito por Anton Hur.
🔹Serious (“sério”) também destoa do contexto positivo e inovador que ele descreve.
🔹“Sanctimonious and serious” → forma uma collocation crítica. É usada para descrever discursos, livros ou comportamentos que se levam a sério demais e adotam uma postura moralizante, perdendo a leveza ou a autenticidade.
🚩 Pegadinha da banca: oposição semântica. O texto afirma exatamente o contrário de “sanctimonious”, termo que inclusive é negado explicitamente em outra parte do texto.
(C) ❌ less political and melodramatic (menos política e melodramática).
🔹O texto não menciona que a obra de Han tornou a literatura menos política — pelo contrário, mais adiante se diz que a escrita de Han é “relentlessly political”. 🔹“Melodramatic” também não aparece, e nada indica que sua influência tenha reduzido a emoção da literatura coreana.
🚩 Pegadinha da banca: distorção de sentido. Anton Hur não afirma redução do conteúdo político, mas sim maior ousadia e experimentação.
(D) ❌ less humorous and less poetic (menos bem-humorado e menos poético).
🔹O texto não relaciona a obra de Han a humor nem a poesia.
🔹Além disso, a professora de Oxford até afirma que sua escrita é “playful, funny and surreal”(brincalhona, engraçada e surreal) — o que contraria totalmente a ideia de “less humorous”.
🚩 Pegadinha da banca: extrapolação interpretativa. Não há qualquer menção à diminuição de humor ou poesia. A alternativa inventa características não discutidas no texto.
🚩 3️⃣ Armadilhas da banca
A banca explora sinônimos e antônimos avaliativos, testando a capacidade do candidato de reconhecer equivalência semântica em registro crítico-literário, sem cair em termos vagos ou avaliações inventadas.
🧠 4️⃣ Resumo B3GE™ Master
Anton Hur afirma que a obra de Han Kang tornou a literatura coreana traduzida mais ousada e experimental. Gabarito: (A).