The Survival Dilemma And Self-redemption Of The Narrator In The Sympathizer From The Perspective Of Spatial Criticism

Viet Thanh Nguyen(1971-),is an outstanding contemporary Vietnamese-American writer.In 2016,he won many international awards for his remarkable debut novel The Sympathizer,including the 100 th Pulitzer Prize.From the first person perspective,The Sympathizer describes the diaspora experience of an Viet Cong double agent in the United States as a refugee after the Vietnam War.Meanwhile,it reflects the author’s reflection on the history of Vietnam War,the physical and psychological trauma caused by the Vietnam War and survival dilemma of ethnic minorities.Based on spatial criticism by Lefebvre,this thesis analyzes the narrator’s sufferings in the triple space of geographical space,social space and psychological space,and reveals the root of his survival dilemma and self-redemption process.This thesis consists of five chapters.The first chapter briefly introduces the author’s creation process,the story outline,a review of domestic and foreign research,the origin and development of spatial criticism,etc.The second chapter presents the narrator’s rootless survival dilemma in geographical space,which is embodied in the devastated natural environment of Vietnam after the war as well as cramped living and working spaces in the United States.The third chapter discusses the narrator’s survival dilemma of marginalization in social space,which are specially manifested in his blind obedience to the Vietnamese chief,helpless flattery to American superiors,and exclusion from the family space.The fourth chapter investigates his spiritual alienation and self redemption in the psychological space.The rootlessness of geographical space and the marginalization of social space lead to his dilemma in psychological space,including inferiority complex and distorted views on love.Through self reflection and redemption of love,the narrator finally came to realize that only by abandoning all beliefs and transcending ideology,can he achieve reconciliation with himself.The last chapter concludes that the narrator’s survival dilemma is inseparable from the hypocrisy and selfishness of Western imperialism and the huge impact of the Vietnam war,as well as his blind worship of mainstream culture and abandonment of his own culture.This thesis chooses The Sympathizer as the research object,and also helps readers to understand the marginalized American writers from ethnic minority and their survival dilemma under the dual cultural conflict,opening a referential perspective for this type of novel.