소설에 나타난 음식과 권력의 문화기호학 -김이태 「식성」과 한강「채식주의자」를 중심으로

Abstract

As mentioned above, you have looked into relation between food and authority to be given to 「food habit」 of Kim I tae and 「the vegetarians」 of Han Kang. Food is not primary in take substance but is used nowadays to symbols of the cultural taste and various forms of symbol. Specially, meat-eating culture has brought out the dichotomy composition such as androcentric power and subordinate position of women. This paper has looked into visual art theory of Jacques Lacan in order to inquire the relation between meat-eating and authority to be given to 「food habit」 and 「the vegetarian」. Jacques Lacan explains a category of the examples with a concept called gaze and stare. The gaze is a step having a limit of the recognition the subject just can read the object but cannot know that other can read themselves. On the other hand, the stare is a step extending the recognition of the subject can not only read the object, but also recognize that other can read them, likewise. The younger sister who is ‘me’ in 「food habit」, and the husband who is ‘me’ in 「the vegetarian」 read their sister and wife only on their places so stay at the step that they cannot know why they were changed to a vegetarian carry the limit of recognition. However, the elder sister of 「food habit」 and the wife of 「the vegetarian」 are extensible of their recognition as they go forward to the steps of stare to read themselves standing on others' places. Moreover, their stay at their gaze and expansion of stare are connected to recognition or not about meat-eating and authority, meat-eating and identity problem. The sister of 「food habit」 is a person studying a doctor course which is the highest degree of study, and the wife of a vegetarian is engaged in a simple low class position. Their present professional states are connected to meat-eating and the authority aspects. The elder sister of 「food habit」 is presented as a sexless woman like the authorities that she has, as experts are producing knowledge over the range of whole society, and the world is proceeded with the base of the knowledge. On the other hand, the wife of 「the vegetarian」 stay at the lowest in home as like she is engaged in lower-class labor, and appears with figure of the typical popular class. By the way, both of these women recognize the ‘identity’ called woman while realizing the oppression that meat-eating has. While the elder sister of 「food habit」 is studying in the United States which is the base of meat, she recognizes the violence of meat-eating as she recognizing the meat standardization work of multinational corporations symbolized semen intake and standardization of international food culture through it. The wife of 「the vegetarian」 recognize violence in our society relating the figure of her father who killed cruelly the dog which grew in home in her childhood, her husband who regards meat-eating as right, and eyes of surrounding people with the image called murder. In addition, it ends in they deny the patriarchy value system of the ruling class, and support feminine power and reverence regarding the nature that their food habits changed into vegetarians.