This paper explores Han Kang's Human Acts through the lens of ‘Cultures of Totalitarianism,’ examining how the novel critiques state-imposed violence, historical erasure, and collective trauma. Set against the backdrop of the May 18 Gwangju Uprising, Human Acts employs polyphonic narration, poetic prose, and symbolism to confront the mechanisms of authoritarian control while illuminating the resilience and resistance of marginalized voices. Drawing on theoretical frameworks from Hannah Arendt, Walter Benjamin, Cathy Caruth, and Michael Rothberg, the study situates the novel within global trauma literature, comparing it to Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, Imre Kertész's Fatelessness, and W. G. Sebald's Austerlitz. By bridging the local specificity of Gwangju with universal themes of memory and resilience, Human Acts establishes itself as a cornerstone of world literature, underscoring literature's capacity to preserve suppressed histories and foster cross-cultural understanding.
Jungeun Kim (Sun,) studied this question.