AN ANTHOLOGY OF CONTEMPORARY VIETNAMESE ANIMAL FICTION THAT EXPLORES THE CONTESTED SPACE BETWEEN HUMANS AND ANIMALS

This volume consists of a critical introduction and translations of nine short stories on animals by prominent Vietnamese writers from the French colonial period (1885-1945) to the present-day. Specifically, since the inception of ecocritical awareness in Vietnam from the start of the 21st Century, there has been an intellectual movement that has explored and recovered Vietnamese environmental, animal and climate crisis stories since medieval times. These are valued as voices that challenge and counter mainstream socialist ideology that overlooks the survival and lives of marginalized beings, including ethnic minorities and non-human nature.The authors have carefully selected the best animal stories that have been identified as the most influential in Vietnamese literature, which are deserving of global recognition. They have been chosen from various short story collections and literary textbooks— prescribed in schools and colleges— in Vietnam.