Literature in transition: an overview of Vietnamese writing of the Renovation Period

Politics has been one of the most significant factors determining the formation of a modern literary canon in Vietnam. Even before the Declaration of Independence and the formation of the Vietnamese Democratic Republic in 1945, the new political leadership defined official cultural policies which ever since have governed the development of Vietnamese literature. ¹ In 1986, however, the Vietnamese Communist Party adopted a programme of ‘Renovation’ (dôi men); this has heralded an important change in the political situation in the country and was, in turn, to have an effect on literary and other cultural activities.