Catherine Earl (ed.): Mythbusting Vietnam: Facts, Fictions, FantasiesFriederike Trotier

ASIEN – Nr. 154/155 (2020) pp. 163–64

NIAS Press, 2018. 254 pp., 65 GBP (Hardback); 22.50 GBP (Paperback)

The collected volume “Mythbusting Vietnam: Facts, Fictions, Fantasies” aims to discuss problematic axiomatic knowledge and to raise alternative possibilities in knowledge production processes and practices in Vietnam Studies through interdisciplinary and methodologically diverse approaches. The book is based on the idea of “mythbusting”, which derives from a postmodern approach to knowledge production and encourages the reader to actively engage with the processes of knowledge (de-)construction. Following the subtitle of the book “Facts, Fictions, Fantasies”, the volume is organized into three thematic themes. The editor, Catherine Earl, introduces each section with a short discussion to situate it in the context of the themes of mythbusting and knowledge production about Vietnam. Together with the introduction and conclusion, these essays form a thread to link the different chapters with their various themes and disciplinary and methodological approaches…