How do similarities/differences in gender, age, regional origin, socia
Based on any three of the assigned four memoirs/diary (Dang Thuy Tram, Lam Quang Thi, Le Ly Hayslip, and Truong Nhu Tang), write a tightly argued essay —with proper quotations/paraphrasing/citations— of 6 to (maximally) 7 pages, type-written, double-spaced, with 1 inch margins all sides, common 12 pt. font. Your essay should be a comparative, contrasting review of the three books, which is also informed by the historical information provided in Duiker’s textbook, the documentaries, other assigned articles, and lectures. You can focus primarily on any two books, but include some analysis of the third as well. Keeping descriptive passages to a minimum, focus your analysis on the following questions (not necessarily in that order; you can also add other analytical/interpretive foci): #How do similarities/differences in gender, age, regional origin, social and cultural background, political commitment, specific roles in the conflict, and specific experiences influence the authors? # How do these same similarities/differences shape the authors’ narratives? What is emphasized, de-emphasized, left out? How well do they represent, or how do they misrepresent, historical developments as you have come to understand them? # What are the most striking differences and similarities of the two books? What are the reasons for them? # What other/different groups of people/characters can you identify in the authors’ recollections? How are they portrayed? # What do the memoirs want to achieve; what are their purposes; what are their “messages”? Who are the intended “target audiences”? In this regard, how does the diary fit in with the other book(s)? # What scenes or themes of the books were the most striking or moving for you? What did they tell you fundamentally about revolutionary, war-time Viet Nam? Book list Dang Thuy Tram: Last Night I Dreamed of Peace, New York: Harmony Books/Random House, 2007. Duiker, William J.: Sacred War. Nationalism and Revolution in a Divided Vietnam, New York et al.: McGraw-Hill, 1995. Hayslip, Le Ly: When Heaven and Earth Changed Places. A Vietnamese Woman’s Journey From War To Peace, New York et al.: Plume, 1990. Lam Quang Thi: The Twenty-Five Year Century. A South Vietnamese General Remembers the Indochina War to the Fall of Saigon. Denton: Univ. of North Texas, 2001. Truong Nhu Tang: A Viet Cong Memoir. An Inside Account of the Vietnam War and Its Aftermath, New York: Vintage Books, 1986.
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