The Anti-Humanism of Han Kang

In Greek Lessons, a new novel from Korean author Han Kang out in translation on April 18, a female protagonist—a poet and university lecturer known only as “the woman”—suffers a sudden and extreme loss of language, a condition that Kang deliciously and erotically probes with her trademark verse-like prose. The woman has recently lost her mother, who was abusive toward her, and she has also been defeated in a custody battle with a male partner that will soon mean the cruel and complete loss of her young child. Her psychiatrist considers her loss of speech the result of these traumas, but the woman, writing on a piece of paper, says: “No. It isn’t that simple.”