Han Kang is one of the greatest writers working today. She won the International Booker Prize in 2016 with her novel The Vegetarian, a devastating portrait of the isolation a person can find themselves in when they change their life without the permission of others.
The South Korean author, born in Gwangju in 1970, has now published Greek Lesson. The novel is a cry of silence in which language fights against its destruction. The protagonist is a woman who has lost her voice, her mother and custody of her son. To combat these tragedies, she turns to a dead language – ancient Greek – and tries to regain what was taken from her. And in her class she will find a professor who is going blind… just like Borges, an author who is very present in this book. The relationship between the two forms the backbone of a story that raises many questions for the reader: How would we live without a voice? What if we knew we were going to lose our sight?
Han Kang spoke to EL PAÍS while passing through Madrid.
Ask. Does your latest novel come from personal experience?
Answer. After The Vegetarian, my third novel, I began writing the fourth. But when I reached the seventh chapter I couldn’t continue, I was blocked. I stopped writing for a year and forgot how to do it. I couldn’t read fiction either. After a long break I was able to do it again. And so came this fifth novel – Greek Lessons – which certainly emerged from the silence that I experienced.
Q Why do you think you have lost the ability to write?
TO. Maybe because I wasn’t sincere back then. I lacked sincerity in my writing – that’s why I couldn’t continue. Later I realized that truth can also be contained in fiction. Writing fiction doesn’t necessarily mean losing the truth. You have to look for these paths [that can lead you back to writing]even if they are narrow.
The author talks about the inner sincerity of the novel and his attempt at authenticity as a writer, which ultimately shapes his characters and his work. Language plays a key role in this area. And at the same time, language is the driving force of awakening, but also of collapse and silence. The reader must not forget that the protagonist has a son with whom she cannot speak.
Q What do voice and language mean to you and your protagonist?
TO. The protagonist has lost his language and is trying with all his might to regain it. This process of restoring language is the process of restoring your life.
Q How would you define language?
TO. It is a unique and important medium, but at the same time it is what makes me suffer. Since it is an impossible medium, it slips easily.
Q You once said that language is a double-edged sword that cannot be understood.
TO. Yes, that’s what I thought when I wrote this book. Language is the only medium that makes me embrace life and shed blood at the same time. I cling tightly to the language, but I also get tired of dealing with it.
The writer Han Kang during his interview.Claudio Álvarez
Q You are a poet and your book is also poetic. Is a writer without poetry a worse writer?
TO. There are authors who have never written poetry, but poetry is present in their own work. When I write a novel, I feel like poems seep into my work. Sometimes I use a poem itself and sometimes I use normal phrases with a poetic touch. Poetry has influenced me a lot.
Q You mention Borges and take inspiration from him. What does he mean to you?
TO. In addition to everything I love about his work, he said that the progressive loss of sight was equivalent to the summer night getting closer… that’s how he put it. And for me that is the story we have in common. It is the condition that we all have, all human beings.
Although she doesn’t want to define herself, Han Kang can be seen as a novelist about isolation and loss. In The Vegetarian, the protagonist loses all relationships. All that’s left is her sister, who doesn’t even understand her. Two isolated characters find each other in Greek class. “In silence we can feel the language more clearly,” notes Han.
When asked how to describe her latest book, she replied: “It is a novel that asks questions.” And she reveals the question that guided her: What is the softest part of humanity?
Well, the protagonist responds by writing in the palm of her teacher’s hand: This is how she communicates. “For me, the most important thing is to cut your nails well so as not to hurt the other person when you write on their hand in the dark and in the silence. This scene is the most important for me. “I speak of the softness and tenderness of the inner human being.”
Thanks to a conversation with a philosophical editor who taught her many attractive things about the language, they chose Ancient Greek. “One word has many meanings. That really attracted me. And at the same time it is a dead language. I was also very interested in this paradox.”
They wrote as soon as he woke up, even though she had barely opened her eyes. “That’s when my mind is clearest.” Her fourth novel – the one that caused her writer’s block – has finally been completed and will soon be published in English. Her unstoppable career has allowed her to connect with reading audiences in numerous countries. She is aware that the South Korean boom (in both literature and film) has also brought her success in the West, where she has recently been meeting more and more people who greet her in their language and say that they love it learn.
“The luck I have is that it feels like I have a button that I can turn on and off at any time. When I write, I don’t think about the readers… I leave this button turned off. And when it comes to writing, all I think about is: writing. “That’s my luck.”
Han Kang, at another point in the interview.Claudio Álvarez
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