To Be a Woman or to Be a Plant? Forms of Subjectivity in Han Kang’s The Vegetarian Cover Image
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Да бъдеш жена или да бъдеш растение? За формите на субектност във „Вегетарианката“ на Хан Канг
To Be a Woman or to Be a Plant? Forms of Subjectivity in Han Kang’s The Vegetarian

Author(s): Zofia Jakubowicz-Prokop
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Theoretical Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Philology
Published by: Софийски университет »Св. Климент Охридски«
Keywords: Kang (Han); The Vegetarian; Korea; aesthetics; plant; becoming

Summary/Abstract: Examining Han Kang’s novel The Vegetarian, Jakubowicz-Prokop brings together two contextualizing perspectives, namely the position of women in Korean culture as seen mostly in contemporary literature, and the role of plants as presented in Western philosophy. The main goal of this article is to explain the protagonist’s transformation as a process of becoming-a-plant – a process that presents the only possible form of freedom in a world of rigorous gender roles and a dualistic concept of reality. Becoming-a-plant is portrayed as a way of being that eludes the metaphysical tradition and presents an attempt to rethink the subject anew.

  • Issue Year: XIX/2025
  • Issue No: 34
  • Page Range: 59-79
  • Page Count: 21
  • Language: Bulgarian
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