Abstract
ABSTRACT Through a reading of Han Kang’s 2007 novel The Vegetarian, this article critiques two prevailing approaches to world literature and the politics of memory: a liberal cosmopolitan celebration of cross-cultural legibility and a postcolonial politics of “melancholic” resistance to globalization. It argues that both employ an opposition between legibility and illegibility, either celebrating world literature for its potential to make unfamiliar histories accessible, or for its ability to disrupt a globalized present through illegible fragments of past trauma. Illustrating how this opposition also animates debates around memory politics in postcolonial South Korea, the article suggests this oppositional approach to the past emerges from the histories and ideological logics of colonial modernity and remains normative across varied contexts. In contrast, The Vegetarian evokes new possibilities for world literary “resistance”, reimagining it as a form of material-discursive friction which transforms normative structures through encounters in the present.
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.