Han Kang and Can Xue: Comparative Perspectives on Nobel Recognition and East Asian Women’s Literary Production

초록

The awarding of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature to South Korean novelist Han Kang marks a critical juncture in recognizing East Asian women’s voices on a global literary stage. Prior to this landmark decision, Chinese avant-garde writer Can Xue had frequently been positioned as the frontrunner among East Asian women writers predicted to win the Nobel Prize. Yet the committee’s ultimate selection of Han Kang instead of Can Xue invites deeper examination into the evolving preferences, criteria, and sensibilities shaping the global literary landscape and perception of East Asian women’s literature. This research critically analyzes the thematic concerns, narrative styles, and philosophical orientations that characterize the literary worlds of Han Kang and Can Xue, while situating their writing within broader historical and cultural transformations across recent decades of East Asian women’s literature. Focusing on two primary comparative dimensions—metaphorical realism and the surrealist Labyrinth, concrete historical narratives and abstract existential dilemma—this study seeks to unpack the underlying reasons why the Nobel Prize favored Han Kang’s intensely poetic yet historically rooted narratives over Can Xue’s surrealistic and highly experimental approach. By comparatively investigating the Nobel Prize’s shifting preference from Can Xue’s avant-garde obscurity towards Han Kang’s profound engagement with human fragility and collective trauma, the study will highlight significant shifts in East Asian women’s literary discourses. It aims to deepen scholarly understanding of the interplay between aesthetic innovation, political relevance, and ethical depth in contemporary East Asian women’s literature.

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