DIỄN NGÔN MÊ CUNG TRONG TIỂU THUYẾT BỂ TRĂNG CÔI CỦA HUỲNH TRỌNG KHANG

Abstract

Embracing existential and postmodern aesthetics, several Vietnamese authors have adopted a labyrinthine narrative style characterized by fragmentation and overlapping stories told from multiple perspectives. With a dual-plot structure – one depicting a young novice's spiritual journey during a pandemic, and the other recounting Master Xuanzang's quest for sutras and truth, facing trials that test perseverance and compassion – “Bể trăng côi” (The lonely moon sea) exemplifies Huỳnh Trọng Khang's labyrinthine storytelling. Through intricate mazes of space, symbolism, philosophy, and religious mysticism, Huynh Trong Khang has identified the existential loneliness of human beings.  This article focuses on two prominent aspects of “Bể trăng côi”: the labyrinth and the absurdity of human existence—existential themes in Huỳnh Trọng Khang's novel; and the labyrinth as a formal structure, aiming to understand the author's artistic sensibility and creative identity in employing the labyrinth model to explore the dimensions of human fate.