Society' and Struggle in the Early Twentieth Century

The Vietnamese neologistic project and French colonialism

Datos Bibliográficos

ID3609532
AutoresGeorge Dutton (University of California, Los Angeles, autor de correspondencia)
Año2015
Volumen49
Número6
Páginas1994-2021
Fecha de publicación2015-11-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaModern Asian Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0026-749X • E-ISSN: 1469-8099
EditorialCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0026749x13000565
OpenAlexW2169767073
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas2
Referencias citadas9

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Vietnamese were confronted with the harsh realities of French colonialism, while simultaneously engaging with a flood of new concepts and the language that came with them. Among these concepts was that of 'society', whose import was enhanced by its linkages with the discourse of social Darwinism. This article explores the Vietnamese neologistic project of the early twentieth century through a close examination of the ways in which the concept and labels for 'society' were brought in and understood. I argue that the arrival of 'society' in conjunction with social Darwinism profoundly shaped the Vietnamese understanding of the term, implicating it in a notion of struggle and contestation. By illustrating the introduction of 'society' through early modernist school textbooks I suggest the ways in which Vietnamese conceptualized it as they embarked on their own struggle with the threats posed by colonialism

Colonialism · Darwinism · Epistemology · Linguistics · Political science · Social science · Sociology · Vietnamese · Chinese history and philosophy · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · Law · Philosophy · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies