Revisiting Human-Nature Boundary in Bao Ninh's "A River's Mystery": A Perspective on Posthuman Ecology

The objective of this research paper is to find how the short story of Bao Ninh exhibits a subtle human-nature bonding that the anthropocentric human civilization has long been ignoring and attempting to push to the periphery, devaluating it to the extent of dwindling nature’s existence along with its flora and fauna, and the rich biodiversity as the ‘other’. In this present anthropocentric world, Nature is regarded to retain some value only as long as it satisfies the human needs. An attempt has been made to explore how nature and the natural environment in the domain of human existence differ from the destructive and authoritative representation of nature in Bao Ninh’s “A River’s Mystery”. The Vietnamese writer, Bao Ninh represents in his work how nature appears in ferocious forms and victimizes human beings. Anthropocentrism is questioned in both the South Asian and Southeast Asian short stories. Theoretical concept of ecocriticism has been used in this study for examining the combined roles of human beings and the natural environment. This study uses a content analysis method and the study reveals that human beings affect nature differently and, also nature affects human beings differently, under varied circumstances and situations. The study also reveals that nature takes revenge and expresses its destructive authority over human beings irrespective of class, gender or societal identity. This study concludes that the actions, reactions and responses of human beings to nature and vice-versa confirm the theoretical relevance of Posthumanism differently with respect to the short story of Bao Ninh.