Reading ‘Human Acts’ by Han Kang

Thursday, May 15 – 7 pm ET

MEP’s Literature Reading Group will commemorate the 1980 South Korean pro-democracy uprising with a reading of Han Kang’s Human Acts.   

On May 18, 1980, the citizens of Gwangju, South Korea rose up in a ten-day revolt against the imposition of martial law. Factory workers, university and high school students, and ordinary citizens ran the city. On May 27, the South Korean army brutally put down “The Gwangju Commune” in a series of massacres and tortures.

Han Kang took as her theme the army’s devastating brutalities against survivors who had longed for justice. The book narrates in restrained and precise language the harrowing aftereffects of bodily violation and grief on survivors. 

In 2024, the Nobel Prize committee honored Han Kang for literature, and, to honor her and the Korean Democratic Movement, join us to read this powerful and controversial novel together. 

Convened by Jacqueline Cantwell and the MEP Literature Reading Group. Jacqueline Cantwell became involved with the MEP’s Literature Group because of her love of Victor Serge’s  novels. Participating in an MEP reading group led by Serge translator Richard Greeman eight years ago, Jacqueline found a community of readers eager to be challenged by the ambitions of international writers devoted to the creative potential of political fiction. Since the death of Michael Lardner, who hosted and organized the Literature Group for so many years, Jacqueline has taken the lead in furthering the group’s goals of exploring international fiction and encouraging thoughtful conversation.