AustLit

'《深入北方的小路》是澳大利亚小说家理查德·弗兰纳根的第六部长篇小说,小说主体部分讲述了一群澳大利亚士兵在二战日本战俘营中的创伤故事,小说立足"死亡铁路"这一特定的背景,集中刻画了来自澳大利亚、日本和朝鲜的三组人物,充分表达了小说家对他们的态度和价值取向。在小说中,澳大利亚战俘不尊崇美德,不关心历史,更不需要尊严,表现出彻头彻尾的虚无主义;日本军士个个饱读诗书,身上承载着一种文化与精神,令人肃然起敬;相比之下,朝鲜人胸无点墨、缺少人性,是极恶的化身。《深入北方的小路》呈现的乾坤颠倒的创伤叙事背后暗藏着一种扭曲的后现代价值取向,本文结合小说的人物刻画针对其所传达的后现代伦理进行解读

'Richard Flanagan’s sixth novel, The Narrow Road to the Deep North, has attracted quite some criticisms in spite of all the celebratory rhetoric that came after it won the 2014 Man Booker Prize. This essay offers a critical reading of the novel’s treatment of trauma as a theme and the ethics it reveals by looking into the way in which three national groups of characters are portrayed. Flanagan portrays Australians as nihilistic creatures incapable of noble emotions. In the meantime, he depicts the Japanese as people with a special spirit that deserves understanding. And he presents the Koreans as demons capable of the most inhuman atrocities. Through such deliberate nullification of trauma, the novel communicates a set of values that one would associate with postmodern ethics. It is contended that what the story offers is perhaps a truly "narrow road" for Australia towards Asia.'

Source: CAOD.