“PRESERVAR ESSES CORPOS, OS NOSSOS CORPOS, VIVOS E ESQUECIDOS, DENTRO DA OBRA”: COLETIVIDADE VIETNAMITA-AMERICANA GAY NA RETÓRICA DE SOBRE A TERRA SOMOS BELOS POR UM INSTANTE (2019), DE OCEAN VUONG

Abstract

On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous (2019), a novel by Ocean Vuong (1988-), is the focus of this work, which analyzes the rhetorical strategies employed by the protagonist, Little Dog, to construct a personal discourse that reflects some collective experiences of his gay Vietnamese-American community in the United States. This includes identifying lexical elements that evidence this rhetoric and describing which experiences of this group are made visible through the character’s language. A textual analysis (Belsey, 2013) was conducted, incorporating testimonial rhetoric as literary expression (Sarlo, 2007), hybridity (Pelaud, 2011), which investigates the sociocultural intersections of Vietnamese-American identity, and queer reading (Stockton, 2023), which examines representations of non-heterosexual journeys. The discussions suggest that Little Dog’s intimate narrative transcends the autobiographical, and his struggles with identity are not isolated cases. Thus, Vuong creates a character who achieves the goal of preserving stories and bodies that, though often forgotten, continue to exist.