Socialist Realism in Vietnamese Literature: an Analysis of the Relationship Between Literature and Politics

In Vietnam, socialist realism is by nature more political than literary; in the domain of politics, it is more nationalistic than socialist; and in the domain of literature, it is more neoclassical than realist. It was consolidated during the wars against the French and the Americans but was strongly challenged in peacetime - after the 1954 Geneva Agreements and after the 1975 victory by the two best known dissident movements: the Nhan Van - Giai Pham affair and the perestroika-styled Doi Moi campaign. Although the Vietnamese government still holds a monopoly on publishing, and is trying to keep its strict control over literary life, socialist realism, both as a doctrine and a movement, has died. This death resulted from two non-literary elements: globalization and the market-oriented economy which has been adopted by the Vietnamese Communist Party since the late 1980s. It can be said that socialist realism was born of communism, nurtured by nationalism, developed at war, challenged in peacetime, and killed by the force of a free economy and globalization.