HWABYEONG, A KOREAN CULTURAL SYNDROME: THE CASE OF THE VEGETARIAN BY HAN KANG AND KIM JIYEONG, BORN 1982 BY CHO NAM-JOO.

Hwabyeong is known as a Korean culturally-bound syndrome situated at the intersection of depression and anger. Translated as "anger illness" or "fire illness", hwabyeong is a mental illness resulted from repressed feelings, which has a specific somatization in middle-aged Korean women: lump in throat or chest, feeling of suffocation, palpitations, heat sensation, burning feeling in the stomach, insomnia, etc. While this syndrome is more frequently discussed as a clinical study case, representations of hwabyeong can also be found in Korean literature, proving the prominence it holds within the society. Two such cases from Korean contemporary literature are featured in The Vegetarian, by Han Kang, and Kim Jiyeong, born 1982, by Cho Nam-joo. Despite the fact that no one mentions hwabyeong, the main characters show clear symptoms of this disorder. At first glance, one might say that the characters have gone mad, but looking more closely at their background, symptoms and behavior, they are no different from many other Korean women suffering from hwabyeong: Yeong-hye and Kim Jiyeong are two women who experience bodily rebellion because of society's failure to let them express as individuals with their personal needs, ambitions and feelings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]