Linda Lê

Abstract

This chapter considers what we mean when we call Linda Lê an author of the Vietnamese diaspora, and explores the overlapping and conflicting identities of migrant, writer and m/other in her work. It also asks how framing her writing in this way might encourage a broader understanding of the term ‘diaspora’ as a transnational, transtemporal, transtextual space in which to create communion where there is no community. In engaging with other displaced writers across what we might consider major-minor and minor-minor cultural axes, Lê transforms the diasporic gesture of preservation into one of proliferation, creating a form of kinship that transcends blood ties and shared history. Show more