Hyderabad:Han Kang, who became the first Korean to win a Nobel Prize for literature Thursday, earned international recognition for her three-part novel, The Vegetarian, originally written in her native language.
When was it published?
The novel hit the stands between 2004 and 2007 is about how deviance from conventional food choice affects the life of its central character. It deals with the violent consequences. Yeong-hye, the protagonist, endures when she refuses to submit to the norms. She decides not to eat meat and the path that it leads her down a path that is life-altering. It was translated into English in 2015 as The Vegetarianby Deborah Smith, a British translator of Korean works. The work according to reports has been translated into 23 languages.
The choice
She begins disposing of all the meat from her house much to the astonishment of her husband. She decides to restrict her food intake to vegetables. Her husband's attempt to convince her otherwise fails miserably.
The change in food choice has a negative bearing on her own physique too. In the process, she loses weight. It prompts her husband to get help from her maternal family. He calls her father, a Vietnam veteran, who is highly authoritarian. After all reconciliation efforts fail, they force-feed her with pork meat. She pukes and she inflicts self-harm.
Exploitation
Yeong-hye gets exploited erotically and aesthetically by her brother-in-law. He visualises an artistic scene of love-making with the individuals involved having flowers painted on their bodies. He later finds a Mongolian birthmark, which looks like a flower petal on Yeong-hye's body.
This gets him obsessed with his sister-in-law. He convinces her to model for him so he can bring to life the erotic scene that he has imagined. He then exploits her only to be found to be obsessed with her passive body.
Ultimately, she is committed to a psychiatric clinic, where her sister attempts to rescue her and bring her back to a 'normal' life. However, Yeong-hye sinks ever deeper into a psychosis-like condition expressed through the 'flaming trees', a symbol for a plant kingdom that is as enticing as it is dangerous.
About Han Kang And Her Works
Han Kang was born in 1970 in the South Korean city of Gwangju before, at the age of nine, moving with her family to Seoul. She comes from a literary background, her father being a reputed novelist. Alongside her writing, she has also devoted herself to art and music, which is reflected throughout her entire literary production.
She began her career in 1993 with the publication of a number of poems in the magazine 'Literature and Society'. Her prose debut came in 1995 with the short story collection (Love of Yeosu), followed soon afterwards by several other prose works, both novels and short stories.
Notable among these is the novel Your Cold Hands, which bears traces of her interest in art. Her international breakthrough came with the novel The Vegetarian.
Bibliography:
- Love of Yeosu (Short Stories)
- Black Deer (Novel)
- Baby Buddha (Novella)
- Fruits of My Woman (Short Stories)
- Your Cold Hands (Novel)
- My Name Is Sun Flower
- The Story Of The Red Flower
- Love and Things Surrounding Love (Essays)
- Quietly Sung Songs (Essays)
- Thunder Little Fairy Lightning Little Fairy
- The Vegetarian (Novel)
- Tear Basket (Short stories)
- The Wind Blows, Go (Novel)
- Greek Lessons (Novel)
- Fire Salamander (Short stories)
- I Put The Evening In The Drawer (Poetry)
- Convalescence (Novella)
- Human Acts (Novel)
- The White Book (Novel)
- We Do Not Part (Novel)
- Han Kang Series: The Essential Collection
