South African novelist Damon Galgut, whose fiction explores his country's history, racial inequality and the lives shaped by both, has been named the recipient of the 15th Park Kyongni Prize.
At a news conference Wednesday in Seoul, Galgut spoke of his wish to write beyond the historical and political constraints that have long shaped South African literature, while acknowledging the obligation he feels to reckon with his country's turbulent past.
"To confess to you, I would love to be free of the political constraints that South Africa imposes on its writers. I would love to be able to write a love story or a story entirely free of historical context," Galgut said.
But he also explained why such freedom remains difficult to achieve.
"South Africa is one of those countries where the history is so turbulent and so powerful that there's a sense of obligation among South African writers to account for history. The wound of history is so fresh that any other topic can seem a little bit irrelevant."
Born in 1963, Galgut grew up under Apartheid, the system of institutionalized racial segregation and discrimination that governed South Africa until the country's first democratic election in 1994 brought Nelson Mandela to the presidency. Yet, in Galgut's view, the end of apartheid did not bring the transformation many had hoped for.
"In a certain sense everything has changed. All the Apartheid laws are gone, and a new set of laws are in place that theoretically give us an equal and just society," he said. "South Africa has great laws but practically speaking everyday life in South Africa is not very different to how it used to be under Apartheid."
The problem, he said, is that political power changed hands while economic power largely remained where it was.
"So economically, exactly the same divisions keep people apart but the economy, in that sense, is everything," he said, adding that the country's stark racial disparities remain visible in living conditions. "The very rich are still mostly white people and the very poor are still mostly Black people."
These unresolved divisions run through "The Promise," Galgut's 2021 Booker Prize-winning novel. It follows the white Swart family on the outskirts of Pretoria over roughly three decades. The family repeatedly postpones its pledge to transfer a house and land to Salome, its Black domestic worker. Only the youngest daughter, Amor, insists that the promise be honored.
Even seemingly apolitical stories, Galgut said, are difficult to separate from the country's past.
"I can't write a character without thinking: Is this a white person or a Black person? How does that change their background? What did their parents do during Apartheid? All of these sorts of moral questions immediately apply if you try to create an ordinary person, just as they apply, I guess, if you meet an ordinary person in South Africa."
Still, for Galgut, the novel's central concern is the human.
"History and politics are part of my subject, but they're only part. It seems to me most important to remember that novels are about people. All of us, as people, exist in an historical moment. So we have to give due acknowledgment to the history that shapes us."
He said writers must acknowledge the history that shapes their characters without allowing it to overshadow their humanity.
"But I also don't think it's the overwhelming element; human personality, human character, is really at the heart of the form of the novel. Novels can tell you how it feels to be a human being living in history."
The Park Kyongni Award is an international literary award established in 2011 by the Toji Cultural Foundation in honor of the late Korean novelist Pak Kyong-ni (1926-2008).
Galgut will receive a certificate, a plaque and a cash prize of 100 million won ($75,000). He is also scheduled to meet Korean readers at Pak Kyong-ni Literature Park in Wonju, Gangwon Province, on Friday, followed by a literary discussion in Seoul on Nov. 3.
