Experiencing the ‘Other’: An Ethical and Ontological Inquiry into the Characterization of Yeong-hye in Han Kang’s The Vegetarian

Authors

  • Ayush Chakraborty Research Assistant, The English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad, India.
  • Jagadish Babu M Post-Doctoral Research Assistant, Goldsmiths, University of London, United Kingdom.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.47631/ijecls.v4i3.641

Keywords:

Experience, Plurality, Confucianism, Difference, Dialogue, Self, Other

Abstract

Any discussion on the concept of ‘difference’ entails within itself the understanding of the subject’s existence in the world through his experience of the ‘other’. What branches out as a result of this encounter is a myriad of possible experiences through which one tries to apprehend the world in which they live. Han Kang’s The Vegetarian, published in Korea in 2007, is in her own words, an attempt to contemplate the ‘spectrum’ that is humanity. To do so, the author delves into a deeper inquiry into the ontology of human existence as validated by the perspective of the other. The three-part novel, narrating the perspectives of three different people in their attempts to understand its principal character, Yeong-hye, provides a broader methodological framework for the author’s exegesis. This paper seeks to engage closely with these narratives to probe a further inquiry into the ethics of subjective expression and its consequent effect on the ‘other’.  

Author Biographies

Ayush Chakraborty, Research Assistant, The English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad, India.

Ayush Chakraborty is a Research Assitant at The English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU), Hyderabad. He is a part of the ‘Integrative Humanities’ research cluster which currently seeks to understand the ontology of religion and religious ideas in the world. His interests also include and are not limited to film and media studies, comparative literature, and post-colonial studies with a particular focus on its relation to Indian cinema.

Jagadish Babu M, Post-Doctoral Research Assistant, Goldsmiths, University of London, United Kingdom.

M. Jagadish Babu is a Postdoctoral Research Assistant at Goldsmiths, University of London. His work includes Archiving, Documentation, and Translation of fictional and non-fictional texts on Alcohol Narratives from the 20th century. Currently, he is working on a translation volume that is in the process of getting published. His research areas include comparative literary theory and practice, translation studies, religious studies, and cultures, folk art forms, and ritual theories of Telangana.

Downloads

Published

2023-08-13

How to Cite

Chakraborty, A., & M, J. B. (2023). Experiencing the ‘Other’: An Ethical and Ontological Inquiry into the Characterization of Yeong-hye in Han Kang’s The Vegetarian. International Journal of English and Comparative Literary Studies , 4(3), 1-12. https://doi.org/10.47631/ijecls.v4i3.641