TY - JOUR
T1 - Aller-retour-détour
T2 - transdiasporic nomadism and the navigation of literary prescription in the work of Kim Thúy and Thanh-Van Tran-Nhut
AU - Kurmann, Alexandra
PY - 2018/4/20
Y1 - 2018/4/20
N2 - In Ru and Le Palais du Mandarin Kim Thúy and Thanh-Van Tran-Nhut respectively depict multiple homecomings and lateral mobility across the diaspora, signalling a transition in Vietnamese-Francophone Studies from an engagement with exile-writing to the production of a transdiasporic literature. Such a turn involves writing for the transnational Viêt Kiêu community as much as for readers across nations of settlement. Correspondingly, Thúy recounts her family's flight and her aller-retours to Vietnam, while expressing gratitude towards her North American readership, while Tran-Nhut's culinary travel stories whet the appetite of a Franco-French public at the same time as satiating the nostalgic desires of Vietnamese-Francophone readers. Yet both writers simultaneously resist such prescription of their work in Glissantian narrative detours that circumvent readerly claims on the text. A new transdiasporic nomadism offered here, which encompasses literary navigations across, within, and beyond the borders of the Vietnamese diaspora, facilitates literary resistance by providing a shared elsewhere whence to write.
AB - In Ru and Le Palais du Mandarin Kim Thúy and Thanh-Van Tran-Nhut respectively depict multiple homecomings and lateral mobility across the diaspora, signalling a transition in Vietnamese-Francophone Studies from an engagement with exile-writing to the production of a transdiasporic literature. Such a turn involves writing for the transnational Viêt Kiêu community as much as for readers across nations of settlement. Correspondingly, Thúy recounts her family's flight and her aller-retours to Vietnam, while expressing gratitude towards her North American readership, while Tran-Nhut's culinary travel stories whet the appetite of a Franco-French public at the same time as satiating the nostalgic desires of Vietnamese-Francophone readers. Yet both writers simultaneously resist such prescription of their work in Glissantian narrative detours that circumvent readerly claims on the text. A new transdiasporic nomadism offered here, which encompasses literary navigations across, within, and beyond the borders of the Vietnamese diaspora, facilitates literary resistance by providing a shared elsewhere whence to write.
KW - Vietnamese diaspora
KW - Francophone Literature
KW - Diaspora Studies
KW - Glissant
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85045952845&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3828/AJFS.2018.07
DO - 10.3828/AJFS.2018.07
M3 - Article
SN - 0004-9468
VL - 55
SP - 65
EP - 78
JO - Australian Journal of French Studies
JF - Australian Journal of French Studies
IS - 1
ER -