Wounded Bodies: Vulnerability and Violence in Han Kang's The Vegetarian

Vulnerability is a universal shared experience that is experienced by humans and animals alike by the virtue of their embodiment. Yet vulnerability is experienced in complex, even contradictory ways with particular markers of identity like sex or species aggravating one's condition of vulnerability. Korean author Han Kang's provocative novel The Vegetarian (2007) is a subtle study in vulnerability, weaving together the oppression experienced by women and animals in a patriarchal meat -eating society while problematising the traditional dichotomies of victim/oppressor and passivity/resistance. Using the ethical theory of Cora Diamond as a critical foundation, the present article focuses on Han's portrayal of vulnerability in The Vegetarian , exploring the complex ways in which the text enacts the experience of and exposure to the condition of vulnerability.