From Memory to Post-memory: The Trauma of the Legacy of War in 'Viet and Nam'

Abstract

This article offers an analysis of Viet and Nam (Trương Minh Quý, 2024), examining the film’s alternative approach to the memory of the war between Vietnam and the United States. It begins with a brief overview of the films that consolidated the official interpretation of the conflict promoted by the Vietnamese government, and then considers the transformations brought about by films of both the Đổi mới era and the Vietnamese diaspora, which introduced new ways of thinking about trauma. A textual analysis of Viet and Nam shows how the film engages with these movements while taking a significantly different approach to the memory of war, highlighting the importance the film gives to the experience of grief, the exploration of post-memory, and the inscription of a queer gaze that destabilises dominant frameworks. At the same time, the film’s fragmentary sensory narrative is revealed to be a device for conveying the indirect experience of trauma, connecting the intimate with the historical and offering a reflection on memory from a generational and transnational perspective.