The Nobel Prize in Literature 2024 is awarded to the South Korean author Han Kang, “for her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life.”

The Nobel Prize in Literature 2024

In her oeuvre, Han Kang confronts historical traumas and invisible sets of rules and, in each of her works, exposes the fragility of human life. She has a unique awareness of the connections between body and soul, the living and the dead, and in her poetic and experimental style has become an innovator in contemporary prose.

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Alfred Nobel

                (1833-1896), the inventor of dynamite and holder of 355 patents, established the Nobel Prizes “for the Greatest Benefit to Mankind”. The foundations for the prize laid in 1895 when Alfred Nobel wrote his last will. Left much of his wealth to the establishment of the Nobel Prize.

The first Nobel Prizes awarded in 1901, five years after Nobel’s death. Since 1901, the Nobel Prize has been honoring men and women from all corners of the globe. For outstanding achievements in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, and for work in peace. In 1969,  another prize added “The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel”. The Prize includes a Nobel diploma, a medal, and 10 million Swedish crowns per prize. All Nobel Prizes awarded in Stockholm, Sweden, except for the Nobel Peace Prize, awarded in Oslo, Norway. Norway and Sweden  situated in Scandinavia, northern Europe. Oslo is the capital of Norway and Stockholm is the capital of Sweden.

ACTS AND FIGURES
• To date, the youngest Literature Laureate is Rudyard Kipling. Best known for The Jungle Book, awarded the Literature Prize in 1907.
• Swedish author Selma Lagerlöf (1858-1940) the first woman awarded in 1909.

Toni Morrison, became the first African American woman awarded a Nobel Prize literature prize in 1993.

Rabindranath Tagore, won Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913, wrote in Bengali and English.