THE VOICE OF THE BODY AND IDENTITY CONSTRUCTION IN THE NOVELS BY HAN KANG

Abstract

Han Kang – the South Korean writer and recipient of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature – stands as one of the most prominent figures in contemporary East Asian literature. In her works, the body consistently emerges as a central motif, serving not merely as a subject of depiction, but as an active agent performing Han Kang’s discourses on South Korean culture, society, and politics. Drawing upon theoretical perspectives on the body by Michel Foucault and Judith Butler, this study focuses on analyzing and interpreting the manifestations and roles of the body in the construction of female identity across three works: Your Cold Hands (2002), The Vegetarian (2007) and Greek Lessons (2011). The research demonstrates that the body in Han Kang’s oeuvre functions as a “social text” that records and archives power discourses and cultural norms of the era. Simultaneously, it serves as a medium for the subject to express resistance, assert self – determination, and reconstruct identity in the face of external control and oppression. The findings reveal that Han Kang endeavors to “demythologize” the idealized, submissive female body under the patriarchal gaze, thereby exposing the limitations of dominant discourses and asserting a novel, distinctive feminist voice within the current landscape of contemporary literature. 

Keywords: Body, contemporary South Korean literature, Han Kang, identity, disciplinary power.