Vietnam

The Kim Van Kieu of Nguyen Du

The "Kim Van Kieu" of Nguyen Du, written in the early nineteenth century and commonly considered to be a defining masterpiece of Vietnamese literature, is the story of an educated and beautiful young woman who suffers misfortune and degradation before obtaining justice and peace. It is a long poem in a complex metric and rhyme scheme that is distinctively Vietnamese.

Vietnam and the West: New Approaches

 

Phan Chau Trinh and His Political Writings

Phan Ch

Views of Seventeenth-Century Vietnam: Christoforo Borri on Cochinchina and Samuel Baron on Tonkin

This volume introduces two of the earliest writings about Vietnam to appear in the English language. The reports come from narrators with different interests who are viewing different parts of Vietnam at an early stage of European involvement in the region.

Possessed by the Spirits

Essays examining the resurgence of the Mother Goddess religion among contemporary Vietnamese following the economic "Renovation" period in Vietnam. Anthropologists explore the forces that compel individuals to become mediums and the social repercussions of their decisions and interactions.

Southern Vietnam under the Reign of Minh Mang (1820-1841): Central Policies and Local Response

This study of nineteenth-century Vietnam focuses on interactions between the Vietnamese king, Minh Mang, and the heterogeneous southern region of the country, which he sought to bring more firmly under state control through a series of polices intended to

Opusculum de Sectis apud Sinenses et Tunkinenses: A Small Treatise on the Sects among the Chinese and Tonkinese

This 1750 text, written by a Catholic missionary in Tonkin, is the earliest known systematic first-hand account of Vietnamese religious practice. It was recently discovered in a Paris archive and will be of interest to a broad array of scholars, including those of history, anthropology, and religious studies.

Gender, Household, State

A collection of essays addressing the state of women's lives in Viet Nam during doi moi, the period of market reforms in the 1990s. These fascinating and varied essays illuminate women's daily lives as they are shaped by culture, economics, and traditional ideals.

Intermediate Spoken Vietnamese

1980. 3rd printing 1994. 401 pages.

American War in Vietnam, The

As suggested by the title, this collection of essays focuses upon American involvement in the Vietnamese War. These essays were originally written for a symposium in 1988 in which (for the first time since 1975) scholars from both the U.S. and Vietnam met to discuss and debate the war and its impact on their respective nations. Thus, these works (by American authors) though alternately probing and guarded, are always thought-provoking. They display the mind at work in its search for answers, explanations, and meaning.