Who Comes After the Woman: Becoming-Plant in Han Kang’s the Vegetarian

Abstract

This chapter asks whether the concept of Becoming, as articulated by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari in A thousand plateaus: Capitalism and schizophrenia, and specifically the notion of becoming-plant, is useful as an analytical tool. Although becoming-animal is only one among many of the suggested becomings, becoming-plant is not substantially considered in Deleuzian thought. The concept of Becoming, but also the correlated concepts of Deleuzian thought such as lines of flight, anomaly, rhizosphere and Body without Organs (BwO) will be referenced in an analysis of Han Kang’s The vegetarian. It is proposed that A thousand plateaus offers a much more philosophically constructive tool when chapters are not considered independently. This rhizomatic approach will also avail itself of Rosi Braidotti’s thoughts on becoming-woman, and Jacques Derrida’s carnophallogocentrism, in its exploration of Han Kang’s text.