SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Koreans reacted with pleasure and astonishment on Thursday after studying that homegrown author Han Kang gained the Nobel Prize in literature, an surprising second that stoked nationwide satisfaction in regards to the nation’s rising cultural affect.

Han, recognized for her experimental and sometimes disturbing tales that discover human traumas and violence and incorporate the brutal moments of South Korea’s trendy historical past, is the nation’s first author to win the preeminent award in world literature.

Han’s triumph provides to the rising international affect of South Korean tradition, which lately included the successes of director Bong Joon-ho’s Oscar-winning “Parasite,” the brutal Netflix survival drama “Squid Recreation” and Ok-pop teams like BTS and BLACKPINK.

“I’m so stunned and honored,” Han, 53, mentioned in a phone interview posted on the X account of the Nobel Prize.

Because the information unfold in South Korea, some on-line bookstores briefly froze following a sudden bounce in site visitors. South Korean social media had been flooded with jubilant messages expressing admiration and satisfaction. Some web customers discovered it significant that Han was the primary Asian lady to win the award and portrayed it as an announcement towards the nation’s historically male-dominated literature scene.

“It’s all the time the ladies who do the large issues,” one Fb person wrote.

In South Korea’s parliament, a number of authorities hearings had been paused as lawmakers cheered and applauded Han’s award.

Whereas visiting Laos for a gathering of Asian leaders, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol issued an announcement, congratulating Han on her award, calling it a “nice achievement within the historical past of Korean literature” and a “particular second for the nation.”

“You transformed the painful wounds of our trendy historical past into nice literature,” Yoon wrote. “I ship my respects to you for elevating the worth of Korean literature.”

Han, the daughter of famend South Korean novelist Han Seung-won, made her publishing debut as a poet in 1993. She gained the Worldwide Booker Prize in 2016 for the novel “The Vegetarian,” a narrative wherein a lady’s determination to cease consuming meat brings devastating penalties and raises concern amongst members of the family that she’s mentally ailing. The guide bought greater than 100,000 within the U.S.

One other one in all Han’s well-known novels is “Human Acts,” which is ready in 1980 in her start metropolis of Gwangju and follows a boy trying to find the physique of a buddy who was killed in a violent suppression of a scholar protest. South Korea’s former navy authorities that 12 months despatched troops to Gwangju for a bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters that left round 200 individuals useless and lots of of others injured.

“The choice got here all too sudden. I may additionally describe it as a sense of bewilderment,” Han Seung-won, Han’s father, instructed reporters Friday in regards to the second he heard the information that his daughter had gained the Nobel Prize.

He praised his daughter’s writing, which he described as poetic and exhibiting distinctive “fantastical realism,” and in addition counseled British translator Deborah Smith, who translated “The Vegetarian” and “The White E-book.”

“The translator has one way or the other managed to convey Han Kang’s sentences, bringing to life the fragile and exquisite prose and melancholic sensibility,” he mentioned.

Han Kang’s award generated pleasure amongst South Korean writers and critics, who in feedback to native media expressed hope that it will deliver extra international consideration to South Korean literature. Nevertheless it stays to be seen whether or not Han’s tales would turn into broadly fashionable amongst informal readers around the globe, mentioned Brother Anthony of Taize, a British-born scholar and prolific translator of Korean literature.

“It’s not all the time a simple learn,” he mentioned, describing how her novels are sometimes difficult tales about communication failures, misunderstandings, “sad individuals and troubled relationships and ache.”

If Han’s works have something in widespread with South Korea’s different cultural merchandise that garnered worldwide acclaim lately, it’s that they usually mirror the darkish aspect of the nation’s society. Each Parasite and Squid Recreation offered biting commentaries on the nation’s deepening inequality and different issues which have many younger and poor individuals describing their lives as a hellish nightmare.

South Korea has one of many largest gaps between wealthy and poor amongst developed economies and is grappling with decaying job markets, hovering family debt and a record-low start charge as struggling {couples} postpone having infants. The nation additionally struggles to cope with the pains of its brutal transition from dictatorship to democracy.

“Korean society is slightly darkish and it’s in all probability the facet that resonates,” Brother Anthony mentioned.

Jung Yoon-young, a 49-year-old resident in Seoul, mentioned Han’s triumph was a refreshing second for the nation throughout miserable instances.

“It’s a miraculous occasion and actually a breath of recent air,” she mentioned. “I’m grateful and proud.”