COMMODIFICATION AND COMPLICITY: A READING OF THE PATRIARCHAL BARGAIN IN THE VEGETARIAN BY HAN KANG

Abstract

This study investigates how compliance can be a structurally rational reaction to the very patriarchy-capitalism that triggers resistance. Drawing on Deniz Kandiyoti’s theory of Patriarchal Bargain—where women accept subordination in exchange for safety— and the Social Reproduction Theory articulated by Silvia Federici—which highlights the economic value of unpaid housework—this project achieves three main objectives. First, it explores how male characters exploit Yeong-hye for domestic, sexual and aesthetic value. Second, a concept of Matrilineal Complicity is introduced in order to describe an intergenerational practice where women who managed to make the deal with patriarchy become its structural enforcer. Third, it reinterprets Yeong-hye’s self-starvation as a delicate economic strike rather than mental decline.