Memory, Trauma, and Desire: The depiction of the unspoken Past in Han Kangs novel “ The Vegetarian”

Abstract

This research paper is aimed to explores the intricate relationship between trauma, memory and desire in Han Kang’s 2007 novel “The Vegetarian”. It focuses on how the unspoken past is reconstructed and conveyed through the fragmented narrative structure of the novel. Yeong-hye: the protagonist of the novel, undergoes a radical transformation in the course of the narrative. She is an iconoclastic who rejects societal norms and embraces vegetarianism. This acts as both a symptom and a manifestation of unprocessed trauma and suppressed memories. This research investigates how Yeong-hye’s rejection of flesh and food signifies a larger denial of psychological and bodily suffering which is tied to a traumatic past. The novel reflects a deeper individual and societal struggle with repression. The paper employs trauma theory. It employs the concepts particularly proposed by scholars such as Cathy Caruth and Dori Laub to analyze the silences and gaps in the narrative. These suggestive gaps function as sites of unarticulated trauma. This study, through a close reading of the text, also engages with the portrayal of desire in the novel. Both the existential and sexual desires are identified as a driving force that shapes the interaction of the characters with the past. The work interests to explore how Han Kang’s novel uses the disruption of memory and the unspoken Past to reflect the emotional and psychological scars which are left by collective as well as personal histories.