Han Kang, First Translated into English in the KI Journal Azalea, Wins 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature
Han Kang, author of The Vegetarian, has been awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature for her “intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life.”
The first published translation of The Vegetarian by Janet Hong was in the Harvard Korea Institute literary journal Azalea: Journal of Korean Literature & Culture, Volume 3 (2010). Established in 2007 by Professor David McCann (Korea Foundation Professor of Korean Literature, Emeritus, Harvard University) and Young-Jun Lee (Professor at Kyung Hee University, Emeritus), Azalea: Journal of Korean Literature & Culture was born out of an urgent mission to promote Korean literature among English-language readers: “Each issue may include works of contemporary Korean writers and poets, as well as essays and book reviews by Korean studies professors in the United States. Azalea introduces to the world new writers as well as promising translators, providing the academic community of Korean studies with well-translated texts for college courses. Writers from around the world also share their experience of Korean literature or culture with wider audiences.”
Azalea is supported by the International Communications Foundation (ICF) of Seoul, Korea. The International Communication Foundation “actively supports the publication of translated Korean literature and since 1982, in association with YBM (formerly Sisa-yong-o-sa), has published over 230 volumes of literary works, including poetry, traditional three-verse Korean Sijo poetry, full-length novels, short stories, and collections of dissertations on Korea’s traditional culture.” For more information on the ICF, please visit here.
To read Azalea journals online, please visit here. In particular, here is the link to the The Vegetarian excerpt in Azalea Volume 3 (2010) which was the first published translation of the work.
The role of Deborah Smith, the English translator of Han Kang’s novel The Vegetarian, cannot be overstated. In fact, Deborah Smith’s first published translation of Korean literature was also in Azalea, where she translated Young Hearts Never Grow Old by Kim Kyung-uk (link to Azalea Volume 6 (2013)). At the time of her first published translation in Azalea, Smith was a PhD candidate at The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London, majoring in contemporary Korean literature. Her doctoral thesis focused on narrative strategies in prose fiction, specifically in relation to contemporary modes of realism. She received a Translation Fellowship from the International Communication Foundation to launch her career in translation.
In conversation with former Azalea editor Young-Jun Lee who reflected on the journal’s pioneering role in promoting the translation of Korean literature in an op-ed in Chosun Ilbo (link), Professor David McCann shares his insights:
Q: What made you start the journal Azalea in 2006-7?
A: It wouldn’t be what, but who. Young-Jun had a vision, for building the journal and its readership. We talked about his idea, at a lunch get-together at Charlie’s Kitchen—as he noted in his piece—and they clicked with things I was trying to do with my own teaching, translating, and out-there lectures. But really, it was Young Jun who got it up and running.
Q: Looking back at the 17 volumes, how has the field of Korean literature and translation changed over time?
A: In the old days, Korean literature was even then lingering as a somewhat specialist course of scholarly study, analyzing trails of influence, mutual and otherwise; re-translating and re-representing the established figures. When it opened out it was often into discussions of national outlook, reaction to Japan, and other non-literary themes. And mostly male authors and their works. Then things began to change, it opened up, moved away from scholarly analysis, more out there to general readers, people in the world who enjoyed poetry and fiction and found in the examples of Korean literature very lively, compelling examples.
Q: How did you react to the news of Han Kang winning the Novel Prize in Literature?
A: I was delighted at the news of the Nobel. There have been other names that circled about, in years past. She really is out there in the world, widely read. And her name is such a delight too. Han Kang, which we all know is the Han River. Makes me think of Psy and South of the Han, Kang Nam Style.