Date of Award
5-1-2025
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts
Department
Creative Writing
First Advisor
Jordan, Judy
Abstract
This thesis is a finished draft of a fiction manuscript for a literary, historical novel with elements of a lesbian romance between Mai, a long-established errand girl and secret sex worker, and Xuân, a beautiful newcomer to the Inn, who has mysteriously waltzed through the Inn’s doors. This novel is set in a fictional village/mountain near Sapa, Vietnam, immediately after the French takeover of Vietnam as the country is split into Tonkin, Annam, and Cochinchina as a part of the French Indochinese Empire. This novel sets out to explore the themes of lesbianism in 20th century Vietnam, the disappearance of women in the merging of French colonialism and patriarchal centering of marriage in Vietnamese culture, and to explore what survival meant to queer, Vietnamese women in the early 20th century.
Access
This thesis is only available for download to the SIUC community. Current SIUC affiliates may also access this paper off campus by searching Dissertations & Theses @ Southern Illinois University Carbondale from ProQuest. Others should contact the interlibrary loan department of your local library or contact ProQuest's Dissertation Express service.