Lori Maybee Reagan

Literature, Drama and Film About the Vietnam War: Postmodern and Postcolonial Perspectives Lori Maybee Reagan

Although almost a quarter of a century has passed since the Vietnam War ended, the war seems as much a part of the American political [un]conscious today as it was during its course. While creative and "non-fiction" works written about the war abound, as do historical and sociological tracts, critical attention to the literature produced about the war, by Americans and South and North Vietnamese subjects, along with writers of other nationalities often viewing the war from a remove, has been sorely lagging. Many theories of Postmodernity aid our understanding of the "historical" moment that many authors writing about the Vietnam War attempt to "re"-construct. But the "post" in Postmodernism seems to imply a completion to the ideals of the Enlightenment, an idea easily attacked when one examines the large numbers of displaced and refugee, the inferior status of women and minorities, and the continuing political unrest in numerous countries. Thus, one needs greater sensitivity to local customs, events and individual plights of many "postmodern" subjects. My work seeks, then, to begin to fill in some of the gaps of critical inquiry.