Literature and Postcolonial Capitalism in Contemporary Vietnam: Indian Characters in Hồ Anh Thái’s Writings

This paper explores the relationship between literary representation and nationalism in contemporary Vietnam, a socialist state which has opened up to capitalist formsof economic organization. It asks if Vietnamese literature has changedits political role in the context of Vietnam pursuing policiesof economic liberalization, engaging with global capitalist relations and opening to global private capitalist sectors. In other words, the paper askshow national literature, a body of literary works in the Vietnamese language that was historically constructed in anti-colonial, anti-imperial terms, has participated inthecontemporary cultural, economic and political projects that the Vietnamese state has undertaken in order to retain its socialist and nationalist goals,while practicing transnational negotiation and socialist flexibility. Incontinuingthe tradition of constructing Indian characters as “capitalists” and “foreign invaders,” Hồ Anh Thái’s writing suggests that the so-called political and economic relaxation of post-reform Vietnam is a strategy for the Vietnamese state to maintain itself on the pathof socialism and nationalism. Through its examination ofHồ Anh Thái’s novelsand short stories, focusing on theirconstruction of Indian characters, the paper argues that socialist realism remains theguidingprinciple of contemporary Vietnamese literature. The choice of Hồ Anh Thái and his writing about Indians is based on the fact that the authorand the Indian setting of his work embodyimportant political and economic characteristicsof post-reform Vietnam.