Published Paper Details:

This paper examines how The Vegetarian by Han Kang articulates the psychological and embodied consequences of trauma through its protagonist, Yeong-hye, whose abrupt refusal to eat meat serves as both a personal act of resistance and a manifestation of unresolved psychological wounds. Drawing on foundational and contemporary trauma studies, feminist theory, postcolonial criticism, and affect theory, this study analyzes how the novel presents trauma as an experience that resists coherence, manifesting through fragmented memory, bodily withdrawal, and intergenerational transmission of suffering. The paper explores how Han Kang's lyrical yet disjointed prose reflects the destabilizing effects of traumatic memory-not only for Yeong-hye but also for her family members, whose recollections are marked by denial, shame, and repression. Employing the theoretical concept of the irrepresentability of traumatic experience as articulated by Cathy Caruth, and extending this framework through Judith Butler's theory of precarious life, Sara Ahmed's affective economies of shame, and Marianne Hirsch's postmemory, this paper argues that The Vegetarian is not merely a case study in individual pathology but a structural critique of patriarchal, familial, and national systems that produce, sustain, and silence traumatized subjects. Through this lens, The Vegetarian emerges as a powerful contribution to trauma studies, interrogating how violent personal and collective histories linger in the psyche, disrupt identity, and challenge the boundaries of empathy and understanding within familial and social structures.