Linh Truong Thi graduated from the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Ho Chi Minh City with a Bachelor of Vietnamese Literature and a Master of Vietnamese Literature. Since 2007, she has been working at the Faculty of Education, Thu Dau Mot University, Binh Duong Province. Her fields of interest are modern Vietnamese literature, literary criticism, and poetic studies. E-mail: linhtt@tdmu.edu.vn
Thu Ta Anh (PhD) graduated from the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Ho Chi Minh City with a Bachelor of Vietnamese Literature, Master and PhD in Vietnamese Literature. Since 2007, she has been working at the Department of Education, Thu Dau Mot University, Binh Duong Province. Her areas of interest are modern Vietnamese literature, literary criticism, and mass communication. E-mail: thuta@tdmu.edu.vn
The Ecological-Spiritual Complex in Novels of Southern Vietnam in the First Half of the 20th Century
Abstract: Ecocriticism began in the 1970s with the work of Raymond Williams but gained momentum in the 1990s. Facing the threat of increasingly harsh human living environments (drought, flood, earthquake, disease, etc.), ecological criticism places literary works in relation to the natural and social environment. It serves to clarify the interaction between people and the natural and social environment to overcome environmental problems affecting human life. This is a form of interdisciplinary research between literature and branches of social sciences, such as culture, politics, ethics, ideology, as well as natural sciences such as environment, geography, biology, etc. Many researchers have studied and implemented ecological and human issues in literature under many aspects such as spiritual ecology, moral ecology, religious ecology, ecological humanities, or feminist ecology. This paper explores southern Vietnamese novels in the first half of the 20th century. Through the analysis of the novels Thầy Lazarô Phiền [Master Lazaro Phien] (Nguyen Trong Quan, 1887), Người bán ngọc [The Seller of Pearls] (Le Hoang Muu, 1924), Đêm rốt của người tội tử hình [Last Night of the Death Penalty] (Le Hoang Muu, 1925), and Tôi Có Tội [I Am Guilty] (Phu Duc, 1935), the paper focuses on developing forms of mental ecology: the hatred complex, the tormented complex, and the regret complex.
Keywords: hatred, torment, regret, novels of southern Vietnam, spiritual ecology