Medicine in the Mirror of Omaima al-Khamis’s Voyage of the Cranes in the Cities of Agate (Masra al-Gharaniq fi Mudun al-‘Aqiq) and Han Kang’s The Vegetarian

Abstract

The present study examines the representation of medicine in the mirror of two contemporary novels, The Voyage of the Cranes in the Cities of Agate (Masra al-Gharaniq fi Mudun al-‘Aqiq), written in Arabic in 2017 by the Saudi author Omaima al-Khamis and awarded the 2018 Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature, and The Vegetarian—a novel by the Korean novelist Han Kang, first published in Korean in  2007, then translated into English by Deborah Smith in 2015, and awarded the 2017 Man Booker Prize. Al-Khamis’s novel, set in the fifth century of the Hijri Calendar (the eleventh century C.E.), is a travelogue that engages with a highly turbulent era of the history of the Islamic Caliphate, teeming with political intrigue, sectarian strife, and religious and philosophical debate. While tracing the journey of its protagonist Mazeed al-Najdi al-Hanafi from his homeland in the heart of the Arabian Peninsula to the thriving cultural centers in Baghdad, Jerusalem, Cairo, and Andalusia, the novel depicts the multiple metamorphoses of the journey’s original purpose of gaining knowledge at the learning circles held by religious scholars in the major mosques, as Mazeed gets caught in a secret underground network of political and intellectual conspiracy. Medicine plays a paramount role in all the phases of Mazeed’s initiation narrative; it is: an authoritative discourse whose valuable manuscripts deserved their weight in gold and whose translations constituted a bridge between Greek and Islamic civilizations; an indicator of the degree of social, economic, and scientific progress of a country; a tool of political subversion against the mandates of a tyrannical despot; and above all, a highly respected profession influencing the personal and communal lives of people. On the other hand, Kang’s novel is set in present-day South Korea whose societal norms and cultural attitudes, as well as its environmental, political, and socioeconomic facts inform the narrative of the decline of the mental and physical condition of the protagonist Yeong-hye. Comparing the representation of Yeong-hye’s symptoms of Schizophrenia and Anorexia Nervosa, as well as the medical care she receives, with up-to-date medical research on the clinical picture and treatment of similar cases, the study highlights the intertwined medical accuracy and aesthetic literariness of the novel.