A collection of contemporary Vietnamese animal fiction that reveals the contested space between humans and animals
This volume consists of a critical introduction and translations of nine short stories on animals by prominent Vietnamese writers from the French colonial period (1885-1945) to the present-day. These stories have been in active circulation and have been highly regarded in literary circles in Vietnam since 1986, the 'Year of the Reform', when Vietnamese literary works were politically and culturally 'liberated' and engaged with greater commitment to criticizing, among other things, mainstream ideologies. Specifically, since the inception of ecocritical awareness in Vietnam from the start of the 21st Century, there has been an intellectual movement that has explored and recovered Vietnamese environmental, animal and climate crisis stories since medieval times.
These are valued as voices that challenge and counter mainstream socialist ideology that overlooks the survival and lives of marginalized beings, including ethnic minorities and non-human nature. The authors have carefully selected the best animal stories that have been identified as the most influential in Vietnamese literature, which are deserving of global recognition. They have been chosen from various short story collections and literary textbooks-prescribed in schools and colleges-in Vietnam.
The critical introduction begins by sketching the field of Animal Studies drawing upon various contemporary theoretical perspectives. It then goes on to examine the historical origins and formulations of animal stories in Vietnam. This section carefully traces the symbolic significance of animals in Vietnamese cultural imaginary. The ensuing section discusses the impact of ecocriticism and contemporary status of Animal Studies in Vietnam. The final section provides critical insights on the stories in the collection.
Author Biography:
Chi P. Pham is a Tenured Researcher at the Institute of Literature, Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences, Hanoi. She received her first Ph.D. degree in Literary Theory in Vietnam and her second Ph.D. degree in Comparative Literature in University of California, Riverside (USA). She is the secretary of the Association for the Study of Literature and Ecology in ASEAN (ASLE-ASEAN). Her publications include, Aesthetic Experience in Ramayana Epic (Hanoi National University Press, 2015); Literature and Nation-building in Vietnam- The Invisibilization of the Indians (Routledge, 2021). She is also the co-editor of Reading South Vietnam's Writers- The Reception of Western Thought in Journalism and Literature (Springer Nature, 2023). She has edited four collections of Indian and South East Asian folktales in Vietnamese translation, and has co-edited a collection of Vietnamese environmental short stories in English translation entitled Revenge of Gaia- Contemporary Vietnamese Ecofiction with Chitra Sankaran (Penguin Random House, 2021). She has also co-edited Ecologies in Southeast Asian Literatures- Histories, Myths and Societies with Chitra Sankaran and Gurpreet Kaur (Vernon Press, 2019) and The Vietnamese Literature- Readings from the Inside (special issue in SUVANNABHUMI Multi-disciplinary Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 14.1, 2022) with Uma Jayaraman. Her latest publications in the field of Environmental Humanities include "Political Orientation in Ecocriticism- National Allegory in Vietnamese Ecofiction by Tr_x1EA7_n Duy Phian." CLCWeb- Comparative Literature and Culture 24.5 (2022) and Environment and Narrative in Vietnam(co-edited with Ursula K. Heise, co-author of one chapter, and single author of another chapter) contracted for publication by Palgrave Macmillan
Chitra Sankaran (PhD London), has served as (acting) Head of Department and as Chair of Literature, Department of English, Linguistics and Theatre Studies, National University of Singapore. She is the Founding and Current President of the Association for the Study of Literature and Ecology in ASEAN (ASLE-ASEAN) and the Chief Editor of the Journal of Southeast Asian Ecocriticism (JSEAE). Her publications include three monographs, ten edited volumes, chapters-in-books and research articles in International Journals such asInterdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, (ISLE), Journal of Commonwealth Literature, ARIEL, Theatre Research International. Her recent publications include a monograph on Women, Subalterns and Ecologies in South and Southeast Asian Women's Fiction (University of Georgia Press, USA) and a co-authored volume, Revenge of Gaia- Contemporary Ecofictions from Vietnam (Penguin Random House).
