Critical Classicality and (De)Colonial Vietnamese Writings: A Sneak Peek

This talk offers a preview of my forthcoming book, which explores how Vietnamese writers from the French colonization era to contemporary times have engaged with the Greco-Roman classical tradition for different liberatory purposes. I will introduce my overarching theoretical framework, “critical classicality,” a decolonial approach that interrogates not what the classical is, but how it has been used as a tool of cultural hierarchization and epistemic exclusion. Critical classicality thus does not merely call for expansion of the canon or inclusion within existing structures, but rather for the deconstruction of exclusionary edifices and a reimagining of classicality itself. To demonstrate this theory in action, I will share the curious case study of Nguyễn Mạnh Tường, a prominent Vietnamese intellectual from the 20th century whose political actions were staunchly anti-colonial and, yet, whose writings betrayed his attachment to the yoke of cultural imperialism. From the colonial to the postcolonial period, Nguyễn Mạnh Tường repeatedly turned to the Greco-Roman classical tradition to inform his rhetoric for what Vietnamese liberation means in this rapidly changing political landscape. Nevertheless, his reasoning remained limited within the imperial imaginary, and as a result, his possibilities for liberation remained confined within an imperial framework.