What does this research mean for the field?

Trần Dần’s and Bảo Ninh’s novels challenge monolithic narratives on Vietnamese history while reflecting the influence of the police state on North Vietnamese writers. Novelty: ClaimNovelty.NOVEL_FINDING. Consensus alignment: ConsensusAlignment.NEUTRAL.

What question did this study set out to answer?

This article aims to analyze the narrative techniques in two North Vietnamese novels and their socio-political implications.

February 27, 2026

Writing and Policing

Key Points

This article aims to analyze the narrative techniques in two North Vietnamese novels and their socio-political implications.
Analyzed two novels: Trần Dần’s Crossroads and Bảo Ninh’s The Sorrow of War
Applied theoretical models to identify narrative characteristics
Explored the socio-political context influencing literary output.
Identified three key characteristics in the novels: heterogeneous time, patchwork narrative, and mysterious voices.
Demonstrated how these traits challenge traditional views on Vietnamese history.
Argued that the patchwork narrative reflects the constraints of the police state during the twentieth century.

Abstract

This article proposes a new approach to analyzing two unconventional North Vietnamese novels: Trần Dần’s Crossroads and Lampposts and Bảo Ninh’s The Sorrow of War. Drawing from two theoretical models, the article highlights three distinctive characteristics shared by these novels: heterogeneous time, patchwork narrative, and mysterious narrative voices. It argues that while the staging of time in Sorrow and Crossroads demonstrates Trần Dần’s and Bảo Ninh’s attempts to challenge monolithic narratives on Vietnamese history, their patchwork characteristic reflects the influence of the police state on North Vietnamese writers and thinkers throughout the second half of the twentieth century.

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Writing and Policing

Key Points

Abstract

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