Abstract:
The aim of this thesis is to analyze the role of narrative and the condition of diaspora in literatures after the Cold War composed by Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Hmong-Lao writers. Three literatures from each of the three groups of authors are studied in terms of social context, culture, and politic after the Cold War effecting the dispersion of the Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Hmong-Lao from their original homeland. The study indicates that the literatures play important roles in providing new various meanings concerning diasporas experiences, many of which were related to social context and culture of the authors. These literatures from the three groups of the authors point out the formation of dispersion of people from their origin resulting from identities loss, losing families due the war, and living in between two cultures. In addition, the literatures uncover the importance of family narrative that they are being used as a tool to reflect the meaning of home which dynamically changed in their context. The Vietnamese authors have used home to symbolize the country and the culture of origins, whereas the Cambodian authors have used home to represent families. Home, as being used by Hmong-Loa authors, is embodied the community and culture relating to ethic. The literatures play essential roles in providing the understanding of identity in relation to various factors and context. The literatures by the Vietnamese authors, which were written in Vietnam, reflected the consciousness tied to the national ideology which conflicted with the individuality. The literatures, which were not written in the authors origin countries, reflected the awareness of resurrecting the culture of their ancestors and their national histories. The Cambodian literatures illustrate the creation of identity from traumatic memories, and use the narratives for demanding justice. The literatures by Homing-Lao diaspora, reflect the creation of identity from the memories of home. By reading about Hmong and American cultures, the Hmong-American identity has formed in context of diaspora. Literatures from the three groups are written in the context of traumatic memories of the writers due to the impacts of the Cold War. The study shows that there are differences between expressing the traumatic memories through narrative literatures and conveying memories through literatures in traditional ways. This is because, in expressing the traumatic memories through narrative literatures, the authors have combined forms of writings in order to connect experiences and memories, and using language to indirectly express what they want to say, such as using figurative language, all of which enable the authors to successfully convey their traumatic memories through literature.