The Naked and the Dead - Rasha Shisha (English spelling)

A full-length novel by American author Norman Mailer. Published in 1948. Set in the jungles of Anopopei, a fictional island in the Pacific Ocean, the novel depicts the ruthless human relationships of many soldiers, including General Cummings, a stern and intelligent commander fighting against the Japanese Toyaku troops, his subordinate Lieutenant Robert Hearn, a liberal intellectual, his subordinate Sergeant Sam Croft, who has a hunter-like sense of reality, Red, who attempts a futile rebellion against Croft, and the good-natured Jew Goldstein. The style of the novel is heavily influenced by naturalist writers such as Dos Passos and Steinbeck. Mailer's extraordinary originality can be seen in the characterization that delves into the side of Cummings and Croft, who are in power and suppress the rebellion of Lieutenant Hearn and his men, showing that they are not simply perpetrators but also victims of American society, as well as the satire that caricatures the fact that the military system is swept away by the insane everydayness of the system.

[Tobita Shigeo]

"The Naked and the Dead, translated by Eiichi Yamanishi, 3 volumes (Shincho Bunko)"

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

アメリカの作家ノーマン・メイラーの長編小説。1948年刊。太平洋上の架空の島アノポペイの密林で、日本軍トーヤク部隊と戦う峻厳(しゅんげん)な知将カミングズ将軍、その部下でリベラルなインテリ少尉ロバート・ハーン、またその部下で狩人(かりゅうど)的な現実感覚を備える鬼軍曹サム・クロフト、クロフトにむなしい反逆を試みるレッド、お人よしのユダヤ人ゴールドスタインなど多くの将兵の非情な人間関係が描かれる。作風はドス・パソス、スタインベックら自然主義作家の影響が濃い。ハーン少尉らの反逆を圧殺する権力側のカミングズやクロフトが、単なる加害者でなく、アメリカ社会の犠牲者でもある一面を掘り下げる性格描写、また軍隊機構が体制の常軌化された日常性によって押し流されている事実を戯画的にとらえる風刺性に、メイラーならではの非凡な独創力がうかがえる。

［飛田茂雄］

『山西英一訳『裸者と死者』全3巻（新潮文庫）』

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