Ghosts of War in Vietnam (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780521880619)

This is a fascinating study of the Vietnamese experience and memory of the Vietnam War through the lens of popular imaginings about the wandering souls of the war dead. These ghosts of war play an important part in postwar Vietnamese historical narrative and imagination and Heonik Kwon explores the intimate ritual ties with these unsettled identities which still survive in Vietnam today as well as the actions of those who hope to liberate these hidden but vital historical presences from their uprooted social existence. Taking a unique approach to the cultural history of war, he introduces gripping stories about spirits claiming social justice and about his own efforts to wrestle with the physical and spiritual presence of ghosts. Although these actions are fantastical, this book shows how examining their stories can illuminate critical issues of war and collective memory in Vietnam and the modern world more generally.

Author: Heonik Kwon
ISBN-10: 0521880610
ISBN-13: 9780521880619
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Language: English
Published: 03/24/2008
Pages: 234
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.05lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.20w x 0.90d

Review Citation(s):
London Review of Books 08/14/2008 pg. 11
New York Review of Books 11/20/2008 pg. 38