Abstract: In the Heart of the Country is written by John Maxwell Coetzee, a famous South African writer who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 2003. In this novel, the author depicts an old ugly white spinster who seemingly imagines all the time on a desolate African farm. Reading this novel, one tends to feel that it is but randomly pieced together, but still maybe there is something determined lurking behind. So far few have tried to unveil the random and the determined in the story, which can be essential to the understanding of the novel. In the light of the chaos and complexity theory, this paper is an attempt to explore the random and the determined in the novel, unraveling which we may come to a better understanding of the novel.

Key words: the chaos and complexity theory, the random, the determined

摘要：《内陆深处》是南非著名作家库切的作品，他于2003年获得了诺贝尔文学奖。在这部小说中，作者刻画了荒凉的南非农庄上的一名沉浸于想象的又老又丑的白种女人。该小说看起来仿佛是一堆零乱的碎片，但读者总觉得零乱的背后有着神秘的确定。到目前为止，几乎没有人试图从该角度解读这部小说，尽管也许偶然和必然之谜的谜底是正确理解该小说的钥匙。本文运用混沌理论，试图探索小说中的偶然性和必然性，为该小说提供全新的阐释。

关键词：混沌理论，偶然性，必然性