SPEAK NEARBY IN CONTEMPORARY VIETNAMESE WOMEN’S LITERATURE: LIVED EXPERIENCE AND RESISTANCE IN PRIVATE SPACES IN TIẾNG ĐÀN MÔI SAU BỜ RÀO ĐÁ AND TRĂNG NƠI ĐÁY GIẾNG

Abstract

This paper reads two acclaimed short stories in contemporary Vietnamese literature side by side: Đỗ Bích Thúy’s Tiếng đàn môi sau bờ rào đá and Trần Thùy Mai’s Trăng nơi đáy giếng. It argues that, through “speaking nearby,” understood both as a technique and as an attitute, the two works illuminate women’s lived experience and their resistance to gender norms. By examining the paradoxes of the discourse of “thiên tính nữ” (innate feminine nature), particularly the disjuncture between reproductive capacity and the burden of care, as well as women’s resistance enacted through private spaces and mobility, the paper demonstrates the potential of contemporary Vietnamese women’s literature to bring the lived experiences of Kinh women and ethnic minority women into closer proximity.