un\\martyred: [self-]vanishing presences in Vietnamese poetry
Nha Thuyen
Roof Books: 2019
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Nha Thuyen’s collection of essays has been described by scholar Tran Ngoc Hieu as displaying a “dishevelled crime scene created by the marginal pulse of poetry in the first decade of the twenty-first century”. Indeed, the effects of numerous political events and policies, as well as lingering traditional approaches to art, have resulted in a poetic landscape littered with scars, open wounds and missing limbs.

If one spends time with a writer in Vietnam, conversations will inevitably turn to censorship. One gets the sense that while the writer may prefer discussing elements of craft, politics forever lurk, demanding acknowledgement. In many ways un\\martyred reads like such a discussion; Nha Thuyen is committed to offering analysis and context for underappreciated writers and movements yet cannot entirely avoid the ways official oversight shapes their works.

When Vietnam gained independence from France in 1954, artists and thinkers in the north experienced a brief period of creative self-expression known as the Nhan Van–Giai Pham affair. Similar to China’s Hundred Flowers Campaign, this moment of optimistic experimentation was short-lived; the movement was brutally curtailed in 1958. Since then, authorities have banned, intimidated or imprisoned writers whose work is deemed dangerous or subversive.

• Tags: Issue 17, Nha Thuyen, Paul Arthur, Vietnam