Survival ethicality in Nam Cao’s and Nguyen Huy Thiep’s short stories

Nguyễn Huy Thiệp. ethical literary criticism, survival ethicality, Nam Cao, Nguyen Huy Thiep, comparison.

Abstract

The theory of ethical literary criticism and its basic aspects has the potential to be widely applied to the practice of Vietnamese literary research. However, at present, this theory remains sensational in our country; as the result, there is not much research on it. This article, from the survey and analysis of short stories by Nam Cao and Nguyen Huy Thiep, initially explores some manifestations of survival ethicality in the short stories of the two writers, analyzes and interprets to emphasize the ethical sense and ethical decisions. According to some research, both writers did notice of the issues relating to survival ethicality in their works. Among those issues, three typical aspects are analyzed and compared: human behaviors when facing hunger and threats to life; human behaviors relating to sexual instinct; human behaviors in the event of that their moral of life and personality are threatened. Although both writers have their own ways to present survival ethicality, the same controversial issue is approached, which is that humans are willing to trade off everything to satisfy their natural needs, even if it is unethical.