The awarding of a Man Booker International Prize to Han Kang’s novel “The Vegetarian” is being cited as a major step forward in the globalization of South Korean literature.
Kwak Hyo-hwan, a poet and secretary general for the Daesan Foundation, which supported the English translation of “The Vegetarian,” told the Hankyoreh in a May 17 telephone interview that the award – considered one of the top honors in world literature alongside the Nobel Prize and Prix Goncourt – was “evidence that the support efforts of the Daesan Foundation since its 1992 founding and the Literature Translation Institute of Korea (LTIK) since its 2001 founding are paying off.”
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