한강의 『채식주의자』에 나타난 포스트휴먼적 변신 = Posthuman Metamorphosis in Han Kang’s The Vegetarian

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This article opens questions of humanism and the human subject by examining posthuman metamorphosis from Han Kang’s The Vegetarian(2007). Today, the notion of ‘human’ is under attack as it demands more ethical and eco-philosophical accountability. While this article examines the possibility of an emerging trope of posthuman, it contends that humanism needs to be re-examined in order to elucidate and resolve the problems inherent in humanistic values. To challenge the so-called “human exceptionalism” and “anthropocentrism,” Han Kang frames the posthuman metamorphosis in The Vegetarian, in which the protagonist transforms into the posthuman subject, thereby offering the‘other’ conception of the human. From the ordinary wife to the life form of vegetal, Yeong-hye oscillates between human and non-human and challenges a given system heavily predicated upon humanistic values. As the protagonist transforms into non-human vegetal, she severs herself from the cycle of human violence and transmutes that negativity into affirmation―supplanting liberal humanist subject with the “dignified and relational” human subject. This article aims to cast light on the possibility of the ‘other’ conception of a human subject while examining posthuman metamorphosis as the literary trope that overcomes and rewrites humanism, in an affirmative, albeit critical, way.