Mel Kritikopoulos L&S Arts & Humanities
Inherited language use in 21st c. Vietnamese diasporic autofiction
Diasporic storytelling is not without the acknowledgement of language shifts. My research focuses on how contemporary authors in the Vietnamese diaspora use their inherited languages (French and English) to create works of multigenerational autofiction that offer insight into the experiences of their respective diasporic communities through a literary analysis of Line Papin’s ‘Les Os des Filles’ and E.M. Tran’s ‘Daughters of the New Year.’ I will use close reading, bibliographic research, and person-based reportage to ask two major questions: first, how does the form of autofiction reveal these modern female authors’ conceptions of their gender and generation? Second, what is the impact of using a non-Vietnamese language to tell stories deeply tied to the Vietnamese experience? This project expands on topics that have been discussed separately and with older novels, combining varied methods and understandings under one proposal and bringing them into conversation with modern, women-focused texts.
Message To Sponsor
I would like to extend a note of gratitude for my donors and their support of my research. Their generosity will allow me to devote myself to a nascent and needed field. I am ecstatic at having the opportunity to dive into the social aspects of Vietnamese diasporic literature beyond what I can find in a library.