Yeong-hye - beslutsam kvinna eller galen mentalpatient? : En läsning av Vegetarianen av Han Kang och Yeong-hye som aktör i sin egen sjukdom

Sammanfattning: This essay is investigating the main character Yeong-hye in The vegetarian (2016) by Han Kang. The starting point will be the non-fiction book Den sårade divan written by Karin Johannisson. Johannisson writes about how mentally ill women are portrayed. Up until now there have been two stories when talking about women’s mental illness. The first one is the medical story, medikaliseringsberättelsen, where the woman is sick, and that’s that. The second one, the victim story, offerberättelsen, explains the sickness as a consequence of oppression or abuse. Johannisson introduces a third story, the actor story, aktörsberättelsen. She argues that the woman may have some influence on her own sickness. By using these three stories this essay analyzes Yeong-hye and how she can be placed in these three categories.