變成植物: 《素食者》中的生命政治與植物性生命

Abstract

這篇論文以米歇爾·傅柯的生物政治理論為基礎，分析韓江的《素食者》中，女性身體是如何透過肉食主義、男性凝視和精神病院等機制而被規訓。此外，本論文還引入了喬治歐·阿岡本的「裸命」概念和厄文·高夫曼的全制度分析進一步探討女主角英惠是如何在政治與倫理框架中同時被包含與排除，成為一種被沉默與被治理的生命形式。在此基礎上，又結合邁克爾·馬德的「植物思維」和傑佛瑞·尼倫的「植物靈魂」概念，論證英惠的植物轉變既不是瘋狂的表現，也不是撤退，而是一種超越傳統生物政治批判範疇的本體實踐。她的存在方式──以沉默、非線性和根莖式生長為特徵被展示為對生命規範性理解的抵抗。最終，小說呈現植物生命不再是被動的背景，而是一種有感知能力和抵抗性的存在方式。英惠的植物化過程為思考非語言性、非人類的感知和存在形式開辟了一條新的概念路徑。本文主張，《素食者》中的植物生命顛覆了生物政治治理的邏輯，並呼籲重新思考以超越傳統生物政治的框架。

This thesis draws on Michel Foucault’s theory of biopolitics to analyze how female body is regulated in Han Kang’s The Vegetarian through mechanisms such as carnivorism, the male gaze, and psychiatric institutions. Additionally, it incorporates Giorgio Agamben’s concept of “bare life” and Erving Goffman’s analysis of total institutions to further explore how the protagonist, Yeong-hye, is simultaneously included in and excluded from political and ethical frameworks, becoming a silenced and governed form of life. Building upon this foundation, Michael Marder’s “plant-thinking” and Jeffrey Nealon’s notion of the “vegetable psukhē” are engaged to argue that Yeong-hye’s vegetal transformation is neither madness nor withdrawal, but an ontological practice that exceeds the scope of traditional biopolitical critique. Her mode of existence—characterized by silence, non-linearity, and rhizomatic growth—is shown to resist normative understandings of life. Ultimately, the novel presents plant life not as passive background, but as a sentient and resistant mode of being. Yeong-hye’s becoming-plant opens up a new conceptual pathway for thinking about nonlinguistic, nonhuman forms of perception and existence. It is contended in this thesis that vegetal life in The Vegetarian disrupts the logic of biopolitical governance and calls for a rethinking that moves beyond the framework of traditional biopolitics.