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Asian Studies

Currently, this subject guide primarily focuses on East Asia, and covers resources for the study of various social and humanities aspects (e.g. languages, literature, economics, history, politics, cultures...) of China, Japan, and Korea. Resources marked

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Han Kang's Literary World

The subject guide page is created to support the special event on Friday October 25, 2024: "Celebrating Korean Writer Han Kang", sponsored by UCI's Center for Critical Korean Studies (CCKS). The Center also organized "Precariousness and Ethics of Care:  Contemporary Korean Women’s Literature and Cinema", another event back on June 1, 2024, where Han Kang was a special guest in the Q/A session. Here is the recording.

Works by Han Kang 한강 韩江 ハンガン in Different Languages

Film Adaptions

Literature Criticism on Han Kang's Work

<채식주의자>

  • 신수정. (2010). 한강 소설에 나타나는 ‘채식’의 의미. 문학과환경, 9(2), 193-211. Available online
  • 정미숙. (2008). 욕망, 무너지기 쉬운 절대성: 한강 연작소설 '채식주의자'의 욕망분석. 코기토,(64), 7-32. Available online
  • 김예림. (2008, 3). ‘식물-되기’의 고통 혹은 아름다움에 관하여. 창작과비평, 36(1), 349-352. Available online
  • 신샛별. (2016, 06). 식물적 주체성과 공동체적 상상력: 『채식주의자』에서 『소년이 온다』까지, 한강 소설의 궤적과 의의. 창작과비평, 44(2), 355-373. Available online
  • 양현진. (2018). 한강 소설의 분신(分身) 구조와 주체성. 현대소설연구,(71), 247-280. Available online
  • 한금윤, 김용성. (2019). 한강의 『채식주의자』 : 인간의 분열과 신의 부재. 동서비교문학저널,(48), 277-304. Available online
  • 박선경. (2024). 탈주하는 ‘몸주체’와 회의를 시작하는 비체 －한강의 『채식주의자』를 중심으로. 현대소설연구,(93), 33-58. Available online

<소년이 온다>

  • 강진호. (2016). 5.18과 현대소설. 현대소설연구,(64), 5-33. Available online
  • 최윤경. (2016). 소설이 ‘오월-죽음’을 사유하는 방식. 민주주의와 인권, 16(2), 173-197. Available online
  • 박숙자. (2022). ‘5·18 이후’의 문학: 고통과 책임: 『소년이 온다』(한강)를 중심으로. 민주주의와 인권, 22(1), 45-75. Available online
  • 조연정. (2014). ‘광주’를 현재화하는 일 －권여선의 『레가토』(2012)와 한강의 『소년이 온다』(2014)를 중심으로. 대중서사연구, 20(3), 101-138. Available online
  • 강소희. (2015). 오월을 호명하는 문학의 윤리 - 임철우의 『백년여관』과 한강의 『소년이 온다』를 중심으로 -. 현대문학이론연구,(62), 5-31. Available online
  • 이숙. (2015). 예술가의 사회적 책무: 폭력의 기억과 인간의 본질 ― 한강의 『소년이 온다』를 중심으로(2014) ―. 현대문학이론연구,(60), 439-462. Available online

<Others>

  • 최성윤. (2022). 유폐된 생명, 초월 욕망의 좌절 - 「내 여자의 열매」에 나타난 ‘식물적 상상력’. 한국근대문학연구, 23(1), 131-149. Available online
  • 주지영. (2022). 한강의 ｢아기부처｣에 나타난 혐오의 폭력성과 공거의 윤리. 현대소설연구,(86), 279-311. Available online
  • 김영찬. (2024). 불가능한 장소에서, 고통의 미메시스와 글쓰기의 드라마 －한강의 『작별하지 않는다』를 중심으로. 현대소설연구,(94), 79-104. Available online
  • 윤정화. (2020). 한강 소설에 나타나는 ‘흰’ 색채 이미지와 변이 양상. 비평문학,(78), 239-274. Available online
  • 이하은. (2023). 소통의 불가능성과 가능성의 형식 －한강의 『희랍어 시간』을 중심으로. 현대소설연구,(89), 133-160. Available online

<The Vegetarian>

  • Park Soo Jin. (2019). Posthuman Metamorphosis in Han Kang’s The Vegetarian. Comparative Korean Studies, 27(1). Available online
  • Sanjukta Dasgupta. (2016). THE VEGETARIAN. Asian Women, 32(3), 125-128. Available online
  • Woo, Kyongjo. (2019). A Comparative Analysis of Han Kang’s The Vegetarian and its Translation from the Perspective of Ecofeminist Themes. 번역학연구, 20(1), 279-282. Available online
  • Yoo Jin Choi. (2013). Male Violence and Female Body in Kang Han’s “Vegetarian”. Feminist Studies in English Literature, 21(3), 205 - 235. Available online
  • Myung Joo Kim. (2014). Homo Amans in Precarious but Pertinacious Pursuit of Love in HAN Kang’s The Vegetarian. 문학과 종교, 19(4), 91-110. Available online
  • Kim, Won-Chung. (2019). Eating and Suffering in Han Kang’s The Vegetarian." CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 21.5. Available online
  • Caitlin E Stobie. (2017). The Good Wife? Sibling Species in Han Kang’s The Vegetarian, ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, 24(4), 787–802. Available online
  • Casey, R. (2020). Willed Arboreality: Feminist Worldmaking in Han Kang’s The Vegetarian. Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction, 62(3), 347–360. Available online
  • O’Key, D. (2021). Han Kang’s The Vegetarian and the International Booker Prize: reading with and against world literary prestige. Textual Practice, 36(8), 1262–1288. Available online

<Human Acts>

  • Chungmoo Choi. (2021). Ghostly apparitions and the face. In Healing Historical Trauma in South Korean Film and Literature (1st ed., Vol. 1, pp. 83–139). Routledge. Available online 
  • Lee, J. E. (2022). (Dis) Embodiment of Memory: Gender, Memory, and Ethics in Human Acts by Han Kang. In The Routledge Companion to Korean Literature (pp. 357-370). Routledge. Available online 
  • Fiaz, M. K., Nawaz, R., & Irfan, S. (2023). Ghosts of Gwangju: Affective Resistance and Necropolitics in Han Kang's Human Acts. Journal of Historical Studies, 9, 96-115. Available online 
  • Kim, M. (2022). Han kang's human acts: Literary testimony to historical blanks created by state violence. The Midwest Quarterly, 64(1), 108-129. Available online 
  • Chung, Heewon. (2023). Photography, Poetry, and Polyphony: Postmemory of The Gwangju Massacre in Han Kang’s Human Acts. Wasafiri, 38(3), 27-37. Available online 
  • Thakur, M. (2021). Idea of Han in Human Acts (2014) (Doctoral dissertation, University of Delhi). Available online 

<Others>

  • Kim, D. Y. (2020). Translations and Ghostings of History: The Novels of Han Kang. New Literary History, 51(2), 375-399. Available online 
  • Kim, M. (2020). A Deleuzian Reading of “Becoming-plant” in Han Kang’s Writing: “The Fruit of My Woman” and The Vegetarian. Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction, 61(3), 327–340. Available online 
  • Judd, R. (2020). Wit (h) nessing trauma in Han Kang’s the white book (2016) (Doctoral dissertation). Available online 

 

<La vegetariana>

  • Morales, P. C., & Kang, E. K. (2024). Mujer, familia y sociedad en''La vegetariana''de Han Kang. Revista Internacional de Culturas y Literaturas, (27), 165-180. Available online
  • Higueras, S. C. (2024). La violencia y la creación de espacios de luto en la obra novelística de Han Kang. Revista Internacional de Culturas y Literaturas, (27), 181-191. Available online
  • Benamí Barros García, and Jimena Villazón Busta. (2023). “Morir En Árbol Para Matar al Monstruo. Lo Fantástico Como Resistencia a La Violencia y El Androcentrismo En La Vegetariana de Han Kang.” Brumal : Revista de Investigación sobre lo Fantástico = research journal on the fantastic 11.1 (2023): 105–125. Available online
  • Guimarães, Carolina de Mello. (2020) “A Representação Do Feminino Em Duas Traduções Para o Português Brasileiro de A Vegetariana, de Han Kang.” Revista criação & crítica 1.27 (2020): 285–307.

<The Vegetarian>

  • 房向东."无处可逃，哪怕成为韩江的那棵树." 文学自由谈 .01(2025):152-155.  Available online
  • 王子鸣, 张维鹏,and 李美英."符号矩阵视域下小说《素食者》的多重主题解读." 长江小说鉴赏 .01(2025):104-108..Available online
  • 刘力."《素食者》中的女性形象塑造分析." 嘉应文学 .13(2024):57-59. doi:CNKI:SUN:JYWX.0.2024-13-019. Available online
  • 赵璞."生死皆自然——韩江《素食者》自然观的解读." 韩国语教学与研究 .03(2024):74-79. Available online
  • 侯家琦."“吃与被吃”视域下《素食者》中的女性困境书写." 今古文创 .39(2023):16-18. Available online
  • 王子鸣,and 张方明."父权下自我毁灭式女性文学形象——以韩江《素食者》中“鸟”的象征意义为中心." 名家名作 .19(2023):116-118. Available online
  • 唐雪."韩江小说《素食者》中的身体书写." 湖北工业职业技术学院学报 35.01(2022):58-62.Available online
  • 吴娟. “从小说《素食主义者》来看女性的身份认同转换和伦理困境. Interdisciplinary Studies of Literature, vol. 5, no. 2, June 2021, pp. 229–40.
  • 池水涌. “韩国小说《素食主义者》中的家庭暴力与伦理反思. Interdisciplinary Studies of Literature, vol. 4, no. 4, Dec. 2020, pp. 91–103.

<Human Acts>

  • 何佳容.韩江小说中的暴力主题研究.2024.河北大学, MA thesis. Available online

  • 韩晓."凋零的少年之花与暴力的历史记忆——评韩国作家韩江新作《少年来了》." 外国文学动态研究 .01(2016):71-78. Available online

<Others>

  • 杜秋,and 叶雨其."论韩江诗歌中的身体感知." 世界文学评论(高教版) .03(2024):23-29. Available online
  • 麾少."捕食者韩江." 中原文学 .37(2024):72-73. Available online
  • 李娜.韩江小说的女性人物形象研究.2019.南宁师范大学,MA thesis. Available online
  • 王虹.韩江小说中的女性意识变化研究.2018.大连外国语大学,MA thesis. Available online

<The Vegetarian>

  • 辻 吉祥. 比較、あるいは媒介なき他者性へ : 暴力の彼岸をめぐる、宮澤賢治の〈動物〉論と「革トランク」、韓江(Han Kang)「菜食主義者」,  青山学院女子短期大学総合文化研究所年報 25 47-69, 2017-12-04 .  Available online

Introduction

Portrait by The Nobel Prize

한 강 Han Kang

“For her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life” - The Nobel Prize in Literature 2024

 

Han Kang was born in Gwangju, South Korea in 1970. She studied Korean literature at Yonsei University. She made her literary debut as a poet by publishing five poems in 1993. She began her career as a novelist the next year by winning the 1994 Seoul Shinmun Spring Literary Contest with “Red Anchor”. She published her first short story collection entitled Yeosu in 1995.

In her oeuvre, Han Kang confronts historical traumas and invisible sets of rules and, in each of her works, exposes the fragility of human life. She has a unique awareness of the connections between body and soul, the living and the dead, and in her poetic and experimental style has become an innovator in contemporary prose.

 

Awards

  • The 25th Korean Novel Award with “Baby Buddha” in 1999
  • The Today’s Young Artist Award by Culture Ministry Korea in 2000
  • The YiSang Literary Award with “Mongol Spot” in 2005
  • The Dongri Literary Award with "The Wind is Blowing" in 2010
  • Manhae literary prize for "Human Acts" in 2014
  • Hwang Sun-won literary award with "While One Snowflake Melts" in 2015
  • The Man Booker International Prize for "The Vegetarian" in 2016
  • The Malaparte Prize in Italy for "Atti umani (Human Acts)" in 2017
  • The Kim Yujung Literary Prize for "Farewell" in 2018
  • San Clemete Prize in Spain for "The Vegetarian" in 2019
  • Selected as the fifth writer for the Future Library project in Norway in 2019. "Dear Son, My Beloved,"will be held in the Deichman Library in Oslo until its scheduled publication in 2114.
  • Medicis prize in France in 2023, Émile Guimet prize in 2024 for "I Do Not Bid Farewell"
  • The Nobel Prize in Literature 2024