Failed Reconciliation in The Narrow Road to the Deep North

摘要

The Narrow Road to the Deep North,a novel composed by Richard Flanagan,a well-known Australian contemporary nov⁃elist,depicts a grand political picture of Australia,from the lens of individual’s psyche.The domination of the official history en⁃courages forgetting as a way to deal with the painful history,the Burma camp in the novel,while the minorities,who rise up,fighting against the imposed official history by constructing the counter memory,are trapped in the identity confusion.Literature is used by both the perpetrators and the survivors as means to pursuing for reconciliation but both failed for the perpetrators use it as a way of forgetting which contributes to the prevailing unforgiveness in the novel,and further contributes the victims’failed reconciliation.