Book contents
- The Cambridge History ofAsian American Literature
- The Cambridge History of Asian American Literature
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Notes on Contributors
- Introduction
- Part I Early Forms of Expression to the Start of the Twentieth Century
- Part II The Exclusion Era, World War II, and the Immediate Postwar Era
- Part III The Asian American Movement
- Part IV Canons
- Part V Post-1965 and the Twenty-First Century
- 22 Beyond Solitary Confinement: Rethinking the Sociopolitical Context of Local Literature in Hawai‘i
- 23 Contemporary Asian American Drama
- 24 “More Than You Ever Knew You Knew”: The Rising Prestige of Fiction
- 25 Asian American Poetry and the Politics of Form
- 26 The Forgotten War in Korea
- 27 The American War in Viet Nam and Its Diasporas
- 28 Refugee Aesthetics: Cambodia, Laos, and the Hmong
- Part VI Twenty-First Century: 9/11, Empire, and Other Challenges to Literature
- Bibliography
- Index
27 - The American War in Viet Nam and Its Diasporas
from Part V - Post-1965 and the Twenty-First Century
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 December 2015
Book contents
- The Cambridge History ofAsian American Literature
- The Cambridge History of Asian American Literature
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Notes on Contributors
- Introduction
- Part I Early Forms of Expression to the Start of the Twentieth Century
- Part II The Exclusion Era, World War II, and the Immediate Postwar Era
- Part III The Asian American Movement
- Part IV Canons
- Part V Post-1965 and the Twenty-First Century
- 22 Beyond Solitary Confinement: Rethinking the Sociopolitical Context of Local Literature in Hawai‘i
- 23 Contemporary Asian American Drama
- 24 “More Than You Ever Knew You Knew”: The Rising Prestige of Fiction
- 25 Asian American Poetry and the Politics of Form
- 26 The Forgotten War in Korea
- 27 The American War in Viet Nam and Its Diasporas
- 28 Refugee Aesthetics: Cambodia, Laos, and the Hmong
- Part VI Twenty-First Century: 9/11, Empire, and Other Challenges to Literature
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
This chapter focuses on five Vietnamese American writers of the 1.5 and second generation, who are located in the United States, Canada, France and Australia. The five writers include Andrew X. Pham, Kim Thuy, Monique Truong, Linda Lê and Nam Le. It is worth noticing that many of these writers are controversial figures in their own communities because they depart from the communal and societal expectations of what Vietnamese writers in the diaspora should write about, the war, Vietnamese refugees as victims, or nostalgia for the home country. Monique Truong, one of the most accomplished Vietnamese American writers, actively resists telling a refugee narrative to present different facets of the Vietnamese experience in the diaspora. Lê's writing, like that of Monique Truong, exceeds the refugee narrative, which focuses primarily on the passage from Viet Nam and the struggles in the new country, and ends with the refugee's settlement in the new homeland.
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- The Cambridge History of Asian American Literature , pp. 469 - 483Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2015