GIẢI THIÊNG BẢN THỂ NGƯỜI TRONG TIỂU THUYẾT HƯ THỰC VÀ HỒ ĐỒ CỦA PHÙNG VĂN KHAI

Abstract

This article explores the demythologization of the human being in Hu thuc and Ho do, two novels by Phung Văn Khai. These novels vividly depict the condition of human life, crises of belief, and profound existential questions within contemporary Vietnamese literature. Applying a synthesis of Bakhtin’s theory of the grotesque, ecocriticism, postmodernist criticism, and existential philosophy, the article reveals how the author dismantles conventional character models shaped by idealism or traditional moral frameworks. In their place, he constructs alienated figures, stripped of personhood, and deformed in their being—representations of the fragmentation of absolutes. Through the analysis of different types of characters, this study contributes to a critical reassessment of Phung Văn Khai’s novels in its effort to reframe the question of the human being amidst a turbulent world fraught with ecological and existential dilemmas.