SOAS Research Online

Abstract

Many important changes have taken place in the domain of Vietnamese literature in the last two decades as the country embraced the new globalized consumer age. This article examines the ways in which contemporary Vietnamese literature responds to the new social and cultural milieu delineated by rapidly developing market economy, globalization, and rise in new technologies, mass media and the internet. It highlights the role of young generation of writers whose enthusiasm, unorthodox creativity, penchant for experiment and resentment of authority contributed to the transformation of Vietnamese literature from a ‘servant of revolution’ to the purveyor of entertainment, modernity and individualism. It also analyses the changes in the publishing industry and evaluates the role of the internet in Vietnam as a vital alternative space which can accommodate various forms of marginalized writing.