Critical Classicality in Vietnam and the Diaspora

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>This is the first book to study Vietnamese classicisms. Drawing on decolonial theory, critical refugee studies, and queer of color critique, Nguyen examines how Vietnamese thinkers have engaged with the Greco-Roman classical tradition across colonial, postcolonial, and diasporic contexts for different liberatory purposes. Through original archival work and fresh literary analysis that defies spatial, temporal, and epistemic borders, Nguyen presents a layered, fragmented exploration that centers diverse Vietnamese perspectives and resists totalizing accounts. Reading writers such as Phạm Quỳnh, Linda Lê, Ocean Vuong, and Viet Thanh Nguyen, Nguyen shows how thinking through Vietnamese classicisms redirect classicality—the ideological fuel behind “the classical”—from exclusionary, colonial deployments toward more plural, relational, and ethically grounded ends.</jats:p>