The writer Son Khanh in the literary field of Southern Vietnam from 1945 to 1950

Abstract

Son Khanh is often mentioned in studies about Southern Vietnamese fighting literature from 1945 to 1950, but his literary career has been rarely studied separately due to his short years of writing and the shadow of his political career. However, his works still formed a literary style, not outstanding but no so shaded either, among many writers of the patriotic writing movement that first and foremost served the ideals of liberating the country from the French colony and reuniting Vietnam. Moreover, the position of Son Khanh in the literary circle back then can be analyzed from factors other than those from literature. Geo-cultural characteristics of Southern Vietnam and political incidents that happened there from 1945 to 1950 created an extremely outward literature. Applied the theory of “field” proposed by Pierre Bourdieu, this article analyzes how poticial, economic, aesthetic powers affected Son Khanh’s choices in writing and how he utilized his political, economic, asthetic capitals to build up his literary prestige and to move up in the literary field in Southern Vietnam from 1945 to 1950.