The Vegetarian by Han Kang won the 2016 Booker International Prize for fiction, in which a vegetarian named Yeong-hye is ethically accused in the society until identified as a madman clinically in the end. But the critical attention has focused on the linear narrative of plot development tracing the conflict created by the female rebelling against domestic violence. In this case, the medical narrative behind the plot development is destined to be ignored, which detracts from the medical ethical values of the fiction. Medical narrative breaks the conventional paradigm of the linear narrative in literature. This narrative looks at gender, dream and madness from a clinical perspective, which deconstructs the binary opposition in the plot development as well as reveals the medical ethical oppression when Yeong-hye is converted to vegetarianism from a meat-eater. It can be seen that medical narrative not only enters a new narrative field, but also challenges Logocentrism as such a new narrative view that the medical ethical values of the text can be unleashed.

Han Limin. The Medical Narrative of The Vegetarian from the Perspective of Ethical Literary Criticism. Academic Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences (2023) Vol. 6, Issue 17: 122-131. https://doi.org/10.25236/AJHSS.2023.061722.

[1] Charon, R. (2005). Narrative medicine: a model for empathy, reflection, profession, and trust. The journal of the American Medical Association, 286(15), 1897-1902.

[2] Chen, S. Y. (2019). The divine and brutish nature of Achilles. Foreign Literature, (4), 137-144.

[3] Engelhardt, H. T. (2006). The foundations of bioethics (R. P. Fan, Trans.). Peking University Press.

[4] Engels, V. F. (1972). Der Ursprung der Familie, des Privateigenthums und des Staats.  People's Publishing House.

[5] Fang, Z. H., Luo, G. Q. (2022). A study on the ethical risk and its countermeasures of executing agency consent in mental health field. Medicine & Philosophy, 43(7), 26-31.

[6] Grenhalgh, T. (1999). Narrative based medicine in an evidence based world, British Medical Journal, 318(7179), 323-325.

[7] Han, K. (2021). The vegetarian (J. T. Hu, Trans.). Sichuan Literature and Art Publishing House.

[8] Hope, T. (2015). Very short introduction: medical ethics (J. H. Wu, F. Li, et al., Trans.). Yilin Publishing House.

[9] Hunter, K. M. (1996). Narrative, literature, and the clinical exercise of practical reason. Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, 21(3), 303-320.

[10] Lin, H. S. (2007). On the introduction and Repetition of humanity. New Science, (2), 67-69.

[11] Nie, Z. Z. (2010). Ethical literary criticism: basic theories and terms. Foreign Literature Studies, 32(01), 12-22.

[12] Nie, Z. Z. (2013). Ethical literary criticism: oral literature and brain text. Foreign Literature Studies, 06(002), 8-11.

[13] Nie, Z. Z. (2014). Introduction to ethical literary criticism, Peking University Press.

[14] Nie, Z. Z. (2015). Towards an ethical literary criticism. Arcadia, 50(1), 83-101. 

[15] Nie, Z. Z. (2017).The forming mechanism of brain text and brain concept in theory of ethical literary criticism. Foreign Literature Studies, 05(003), 26-34.

[16] Nie, Z. Z. (2021). Ethical literary criticism: a basic theory. Forum for World Literature Studies, 13(2), 189.

[17] Nünning, A. (2015). Narratology and ethical criticism: strange bed-fellows or natural allies? Forum for World Literature Studies, 7(1), 34-35.

[18] Sontag, S. (2003). Illness as metaphor and AIDS and its metaphors (W. Cheng, Trans.). Shanghai Translation Publishing House. 

[19] Wang, M. A. (2018). The limits of Michel Foucault. Henan University Press.

[20] Xiao, W. (2014). New horizons of philosophy and psychiatry research. Chinese Medical Ethics, 27(6), 762-766.

[21] Zhao, L. (2015). Ethical and legal issues in the compulsory medical service of mental patient from “Diagnosing mental disorder but actually not”. Chinese Medical Ethics, 28(3), 364-368.

[22] Zhang, X. J. (2011). Narrative medicine: a new perspective on medical humanities. Medicine and Philosophy, 32(9), 8-10.

[23] Zhu, G. Q. (1979). On humanity, humanism, human interest and common beauty. Literature & Art Studies, 03, 39-42.