@article{ART003270333},
author={Park, Shin-hye},
title={Cracks and Reconstruction of Gendered Spaces: Focusing on Han Kang’s The Vegetarian},
journal={Korean Language & Literature},
issn={1229-1730},
year={2025},
number={131},
pages={131-153}
TY - JOUR
AU - Park, Shin-hye
TI - Cracks and Reconstruction of Gendered Spaces: Focusing on Han Kang’s The Vegetarian
JO - Korean Language & Literature
PY - 2025
VL - null
IS - 131
PB - Korean Language & Literature
SP - 131
EP - 153
SN - 1229-1730
AB - This study examines Han Kang’s The Vegetarian through the lens of gender geography to analyze how gendered spaces are cracked and reconstructed through women’s bodily resistance. Using the theoretical framework of deterritorialization and reterritorialization, this paper investigates how Young-hye’s body functions as a mediator that transforms the meanings of social spaces.
In The Vegetarian, the home operates as a hierarchical space reinforcing patriarchal order, where Young-hye’s refusal of meat consumption initiates the first crack in normalized gender roles. In Mongolian Mark, the studio and Young-hye’s apartment temporarily become spaces where abnormality is permitted through the act of painting flowers on bodies, though this deterritorialization proves unstable with the intervention of normalizing forces. In Flaming Trees, Young-hye’s handstand in the psychiatric hospital represents her attempt to deterritorialize the disciplinary space, and this resistance transfers to her sister In-hye, extending the transformation to family structures.
The study reveals that Young-hye’s body serves not merely as a site of individual resistance but as a medium through which abnormality spreads from personal space to social structures. Through the process of becoming-plant, her body deterritorializes the fixed territories of gendered spaces and attempts to reterritorialize them with new meanings. This research contributes to understanding how women’s bodily agency can crack and reconstruct gendered spatial orders, demonstrating that despite hegemonic spatial arrangements, women as active subjects can gradually transform social spaces.
KW - Han Kang;The Vegetarian;Gender geography;Gendered space;Deterritorialization;Reterritorialization;Bodily resistance
DO -
UR -
ER -
Park, Shin-hye. (2025). Cracks and Reconstruction of Gendered Spaces: Focusing on Han Kang’s The Vegetarian. Korean Language & Literature, 131, 131-153.
Park, Shin-hye. 2025, "Cracks and Reconstruction of Gendered Spaces: Focusing on Han Kang’s The Vegetarian", Korean Language & Literature, no.131, pp.131-153.
Park, Shin-hye "Cracks and Reconstruction of Gendered Spaces: Focusing on Han Kang’s The Vegetarian" Korean Language & Literature 131 pp.131-153 (2025) : 131.
Park, Shin-hye. Cracks and Reconstruction of Gendered Spaces: Focusing on Han Kang’s The Vegetarian. 2025; 131 : 131-153.
Park, Shin-hye. "Cracks and Reconstruction of Gendered Spaces: Focusing on Han Kang’s The Vegetarian" Korean Language & Literature no.131(2025) : 131-153.
Park, Shin-hye. Cracks and Reconstruction of Gendered Spaces: Focusing on Han Kang’s The Vegetarian. Korean Language & Literature, 131, 131-153.
Park, Shin-hye. Cracks and Reconstruction of Gendered Spaces: Focusing on Han Kang’s The Vegetarian. Korean Language & Literature. 2025; 131 131-153.
Park, Shin-hye. Cracks and Reconstruction of Gendered Spaces: Focusing on Han Kang’s The Vegetarian. 2025; 131 : 131-153.
Park, Shin-hye. "Cracks and Reconstruction of Gendered Spaces: Focusing on Han Kang’s The Vegetarian" Korean Language & Literature no.131(2025) : 131-153.
