TEXT CHOSEN: I am choosing to write about the prose poem “Nothing” from Ocean Vuong’s poetry collection, Time Is a Mother.
DESCRIPTION: In his previous poetry/prose publications, Ocean Vuong talks about his existence as a queer Vietnamese immigrant, with special attention to his relationships with his mother and absent father. This poetry collection, written shortly after his mother’s death, explores the idea of death through how individuals can think of it, versus how groups of people can share and have empathy in the face of death. “Nothing” covers the relationship between Vuong’s partner, as he (and by extension, the narrator) suffer and face intergenerational trauma as it manifests as collective mourning.
AUDIENCE: I think the audience may be anyone interested in the collectivity that grief and tragedy can create, especially among intergenerational immigrants who may have gone through similar experiences as Ocean Vuong.
CONVENTIONS:
Lee, Li-Young. “The City in Which I Love You.” The City in Which I Love You. American Poets Continuum, 1990.
Li-Young Lee’s poem covers an almost-mystical futuristic landscape where the narrator walks and considers his past relationships as it connects between generations and sorrow. As another poem written on loss and rediscovery by an Asian American refugee immigrant, it touches upon many similar sentiments as Vuong’s own poetry.
Fang, Helli, “”I Refuse to Die:” The Poetics of Intergenerational Trauma in the Works of Li-Young Lee, Ocean Vuong, Cathy Park Hong, and Emily Jungmin Yoon” (2019). Senior Projects Fall 2019. 42.
https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/senproj_f2019/42
Helli Fang’s paper analyzes the poetics of intergenerational trauma in Asian American poets, including Li-Young Lee and Ocean Vuong While not in the same ‘form’ as the poem, she offers insight as to the idea of memory and empathy present in Asian America literature.
COURSE THEMES: The poem intersects with the ideas of queerness in regards to racialization – as a queer Asian American poet writing about the experiences that have created the social identity and space that he writes in, Vuong is reading between the gaps of memory and reality to piece together a previously fragmented story of his and his family’s lives.
QUESTIONS: My biggest questions lies in how I can focus the paper when analyzing the poem. I feel as if there are so many approaches and themes (as well as connections through Vuong’s partner’s own life story) that cannot fit into one essay, and I want to be able to write a paper that centers around a specific aspect of the poem, but I’m having trouble choosing what that will be.