Overweening Pride
Abstract
by Vu Trong Phung (1912-1939)
Translated from the Vietnamese by Quan Manh Ha
University of Montana (USA)
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by Vu Trong Phung (1912-1939)
Translated from the Vietnamese by Quan Manh Ha
University of Montana (USA)
Vu Trong Phung (1912-1939) is a major voice in modern
Vietnamese literature of the early twentieth century. His writings often expose and criticize the ludicrous, corrupt, and decadent lifestyles and behavior of the Vietnamese people who attempted to adopt and practice Europeanization in their own lives. Recurring issues addressed in his fiction are concepts of progress, civilization, social reform, and modernity, which were introduced into colonized Vietnam by the French colonists. Vu Trong Phung is considered the
Balzac of early twentieth-century Vietnam under the French colonial occupation, and his works are best categorized under satire or parody. His most famous novel, Dumb Luck (1936), has been translated into English by Peter Zinoman and Nguyen Nguyet Cam (U of Michigan P, 2002).
