Some Things Poetry Can Tell Us about the Process of Social Change in Vietnam

Abstract

The renovation process in Vietnam has been described as a dialogic process involving extensive negotiation. This paper explores the proposition that there may be a distinctly if not uniquely Vietnamese character to this dialogic process, significantly involving the way semantic gaps are intentionally left in messages so that various recipients can fill them in by selecting from multiple possible interpretations of meanings one that best suits their own situation and unique life experience. Some eighteenth- and nineteenth-century poetry is examined to reveal how such mutual involvement of author and reader produced effective social commentary using ambiguity. Other examples from recent times demonstrate how Vietnamese continue to use ambiguity not just in poetry but also in fiction, urban folklore, and scientific and government documents as a means of commenting on and influencing the nature of social change in contemporary Vietnam. It is suggested that more attention should be paid to how Vietnamese talk to and about each other, employing ambiguity in ways that are culturally specific, historically conditioned, and extremely sensitive to context. Understanding renovation requires us to attend to gaps in meaning, to what is not said as well as to what is. In daily life, in literature, and in the process of social change, in Vietnam it is often the second or third meaning, collaboratively produced by the originator and recipients of a message, that is ultimately the most important.