ABSTRACT

This essay argues that Han Kang’s novel The Vegetarian offers a model of radical non-mastery and transnational feminist world-being through protagonist Yeong-hye’s will to arboreality and Kang’s immersive aesthetics. I begin by drawing on feminist new materialisms to establish the philosophical and formal significance of Yeong-hye’s willed arboreality and the model of sociality it thus establishes. I turn then to show how Yeong-hye’s will to tree-life is propelled by her subjugation under both localized and globalized patriarchies, which Kang establishes as a constitutive influence on Yeong-hye. Finally, I define the political stakes of The Vegetarian’s immersive aesthetics by revealing the influence of feminist painter Yayoi Kusama. Much like Kusama’s paintings, Kang’s novel enacts feminist, non-dominative, radically pacific principles, and in the process establishes a slow reorientation toward being otherwise. The Vegetarian’s immersive aesthetics put its theoretical commitments into effect, affirming the urgency of a coalitional feminism that undermines the logic of mastery that can only be associated with violence.

摘要

本文认为，韩康的小说《素食主义者》通过主人公杨惠惠对植物性的意志和康的沉浸式美学，提供了一种激进的非掌控和跨国的女性主义世界的典范。首先，我将利用女权主义的新唯物主义来确立荣惠的意愿植物性的哲学和形式意义，以及由此建立的社会性模型。接下来，我将展示她在本地化和全球化父权制下的屈从，从而推动了她对树生命的意志。最后，我定义了素食主义者的政治利益揭示女性主义画家草间弥生的影响力的沉浸式美学。像草间弥生的画作一样，康的小说体现了女性主义的，非主导的，从根本上和平的原则，并且在此过程中确立了缓慢的重新定位方向。素食主义者的沉浸式美学实现了其理论上的承诺，肯定了联合女权主义的紧迫性，这种主义破坏了只能与暴力相关的精通逻辑。