BECOMING TREE OR BECOMING A BODY OF PURE INTENSITY: AN INDICATIVE READING OF HAN KANG’S THE VEGETARIAN

South Korean culture has its roots embedded and embodied in the doctrines of Confucius. Thus, its society follows patriarchal lineage and subjugates the female community in terms of education, employment, parenthood and so on. Even though there are laws assuring women’s equality, the customs and practices demand women to stick with the domestic roles that Confucianism promoted. Moreover, Korea is one of the countries where the largest number of cosmetic surgeries happen along with strict oblique rules such as, a girl should not exceed her weight over 50kg and she should have flawless skin, etc. When many are comfortable with these societal rules, a few fights against all the commoditisation of the female body. Korean women start to use film, literature and art as a platform to question the gender inequality prevailing around them. This article undertakes a theoretical analysis of the Booker-Prize winning South Korean novel, The Vegetarian (2016), written by Han Kang, using Deleuzian concept of Body without Organs (BwO) to study how the protagonist Yeong-hye uses her body as a weapon for self-expression and freedom from the conservative South Korean patriarchal powers.