한강 「채식주의자」의 언어기호론적 해석

Abstract

The Vegetarian, authored by Han Kang, is a serial novel that won the 2016 Man Booker Prize. While the previous studies focused on the contents of The Vegetarian, this paper provides a new, glossematic interpretation of The Vegetarian. Focusing on the variation of the linguistic symbols contained in The Vegetarian such as the personage nouns, the problems between the tense and the viewpoint, transcription style, and so forth, this paper illustrates the prominent role of In-hye, who tends to be regarded as a background character. By shifting the focus, this paper proposes In-hye’s role as another main character in The Vegetarian along with Yeong-hye. Also, this paper redefines the topic of The Vegetarian through the analyses of the symbolic value of the “White-Eye event” and the difference between “becoming a flower” (in Mongolian Spot) and “becoming a tree” (in Tree Flame). That is, a true vegetarian refers to a state of living a life in harmony with nature, by overcoming the inherent predatory nature of humankind, the top-of-the-food chain predator. The Vegetarian illustrates how the two sisters, Yeong-hye and In-hye, overcome such inherent predatory nature of humankind, and in so doing suggests that an ideal state of living a life is to become “coexisting tree-like brothers.”