Изковаването на Аз-а – универсален чужденец

Abstract

The article examines the first novel of the French writer of Vietnamese origin Anna Moï, which brought her success on the French and world stage. The plot of Black Rice uses a partly autobiographical story set in Saigon during a time of fire and bloodbaths, telling the tale of two sisters, Tan and Tao, who were captured during the siege of Têt and barely managed to survive. The novel discusses issues such as the place of women in history, their positon in society and the tragedy of a nation, it has the ambition to rewrite the story seen from the eyes of a female. Talking about the horror of the fifteen-year-old girl, the systematic harassment of the jailers, the torture, the tiger cages, the reader doesn’t see a victim crushed beyond recognition, but a fighter, a warrior who knows from an early age that they are strong and designed to survive. The uncertainty of the finale and the seemingly paradoxical sadness is the realization of the fact that part of the man himself, of his will to fight, is left behind in time. And yet we have the feeling that we are leaving behind a woman who has gone through inhuman trials, but preserved herself, forged her new self, a universal person, in opposition to the soulless patriarchal world, the daughter of the dragon, ready for new battles, ready to conquer the big world that awaits her.