Ghosts of War in Vietnam

This book explores the collective memory of the Vietnam War through popular imaginings about ghosts of war.

Heonik Kwon (Author)

9780521880619, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 6 March 2008

234 pages
23.1 x 15.7 x 2.3 cm, 0.51 kg

'… richly detailed narratives… a strong and unique contribution to a growing body of anthropological and historical literature on war memory in late socialist Vietnam …' Journal of Asian Studies

This book 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.

Introduction
1. Ghosts of war
2. Mass excavation
3. Missing in action
4. The phantom leg
5. Death in the street
6. Transforming ghosts
7. Money for ghosts
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Vietnam War [HBWS2], Social & cultural history [HBTB], General & world history [HBG]