'Tell me where it hurts. You have my word': trauma e scrittura in On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous di Ocean Vuong ['Tell me where it hurts. You have my word': Trauma and Writing in On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong]

Abstract

This paper examines identity, trauma, and writing in Ocean Vuong’s debut novel On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous. Written in the form of a letter the protagonist writes to his mother, the novel explores memory and language to give words and work through the narrator’s traumatic experiences related to the effects of the Vietnam War on the family members. The novel counters trauma’s resistance to representation through a highly metaphorical texture and creative acts that reconnect past and present and resist victimhood, apprehending vulnerability as a sign of our intrinsic relationality and beauty.

Keywords

• trauma
• identity
• memory
• postmemory generation
• vulnerability
• relationality
• literature
• literary criticism