ABSTRACT

In 2016, the English-language translation of Han Kang’s 2007 novel The Vegetarian was awarded the Booker group’s International Prize for fiction. Although reviewers have tended to interpret the novel’s plot pessimistically, as a perilous descent into starvation, literary critics have argued that The Vegetarian dramatises an ecofeminist refusal of carnism and patriarchy. Yet both of these interpretations neglect crucial textual and extra-textual features of Han’s novel. In fact, the text’s generic and narrative ambiguities on the one side, and its celebrated position within contemporary world literary publishing culture on the other, suggest that there are limits to reading The Vegetarian as a radically posthumanist tale of becoming-plant. This essay therefore reconsiders The Vegetarian in light of its narrative form and its incorporation into the world literary canon. By doing this I will not only complicate existing close readings of Han Kang’s work. I will also develop literary-sociological analyses of prize-giving and the publishing industry, while at the same time interrogating the extent to which contemporary literature challenges and becomes folded into global capital.

摘要

2016年，韩康2007年的小说《素食主义者》的英文译本获得了布克集团的国际小说奖。尽管评论家倾向于悲观地解释小说的情节，将其视为饥饿的危险下降，但文学评论家认为，素食主义者戏剧化了生态女性主义对肉食主义和父权制的拒绝。然而，这两种解释都忽略了韩小说的关键文本和文本外特征。事实上，一方面文本的通用性和叙述性模糊性，另一方面它在当代世界文学出版文化中享有盛誉的地位，表明阅读素食主义者是有限度的。作为一个激进的后人类主义关于成为植物的故事。因此，本文从叙事形式和融入世界文学经典的角度重新考虑素食主义者。通过这样做，我不仅会使现有的对韩康作品的仔细阅读变得复杂。我还将对颁奖和出版业进行文学社会学分析，同时探讨当代文学在多大程度上挑战并融入全球资本。