Deciphering Silences: Comprehending the discourses of victimisation in Han Kang’s The Vegetarian

Abstract

Trauma Studies, since its inception as a distinct interdisciplinary realm of study with Cathy Caruth’s Unclaimed Experience (1996), has been anatomizing fictional as well as autobiographical narratives with its proclaimed aim of delineating the complexly lodged memories of victimization that are conducive to trauma. However the multitudes of expression that victimization has found in the various feministic and post colonial discourses ideologically overlooks certain crucial dimensions of it, which has been addressed by the Man Booker International prize winning South Korean novel by Han Kang, The Vegetarian. A deft descend into the vortex-like depths of human psyche, the novel commingles multiple comprehensions of victimization and trauma often diverging from the anthropocentric touchstones. This paper essays to dismember and interpret the novel with an intention of claiming voice to the other dimensions of victimization and justifying their significance, in the light of certain concepts and statements by theoreticians including Jean Francois Lyotard, Jacques Lacan and Cathy Caruth.