The Folly

Date of Award

Spring 6-12-2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D. in English

Organizational Unit

College of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences, English and Literary Arts

First Advisor

Joanna Howard

Second Advisor

Patrick Cottrell

Third Advisor

Bin Ramke

Fourth Advisor

Jennifer Pap

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

All Rights Reserved
All Rights Reserved.

Keywords

Travel fiction, Historical fiction

Abstract

The Folly is a novel in three parts, which can be understood as three linked novellas. The story follows a Vietnamese writer as he moves within and without the borders of Paris in the early 2000s, and becomes embedded in the social world of wealthy émigrés living in France. Caught in the tumbles of mad parties, affairs, and flirtations, our writer has to grapple with his racial and sexual identity against those of his cousin, Bonnie, who appears, in contrast to our writer, to belong to this world. The Critical Introduction examines the problems of writing about the Vietnamese subject—whose identity is always already beholden to the narrative of the Vietnam War, and to the presumption of otherness—and explains how this novel is grappling with them through the mechanism of fantasy and secrecy.

Copyright Date

6-2026

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the author. Permanently suppressed.

Rights Holder

Hang My Tran

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Format

application/pdf

Language

English (eng)

Extent

316 pgs

File Size

1.5 MB

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