“An Analysis of Politics of Representation in Han Kang's Novels”

Abstract

Han Kang is the fiction author and among the most powerful modern South Korean writers that narrate the tale about the deep psychological, social and political realities of human experiencing in her fiction. The problem of identity, violence, gender, trauma, and memory have been touched upon in her works, The Vegetarian (2007), Human Acts (2014), and The White Book (2016). The paper will also examine the politics of representation in the writings of Han Kang, and how she uses her works to create the voices of the marginalized and experience of trauma of the history, through the experimental style of narration and poetic minimalism. The study aims to appreciate the fact that Han Kang literary vision criticizes dominant systems of culture and politics but still allows one the opportunity to empathize and be imaginative in thinking about the problem. By analyzing her silence, fragmentation and embodiment, this paper will explore Han Kang in ways that redefine the meaning of representation that is not shaped by the language and history as well as reveal the stratified meaning of personal and political in response to post-war Korean writing.