Western tourism at Cu Chi and the memory of war in Vietnam

Dialogical effects of the carnivalesque

Bibliographic Data

ID4875967
AuthorsTodd Madigan (0000-0001-8683-5006, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, corresponding author), Bob West (0000-0002-0495-8625, University of South Australia), Brad West
Year2023
Volume174
Issue1
Pages118-134
Publication date2023-02-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThesis Eleven (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0725-5136 • E-ISSN: 1461-7455
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/07255136221147954
OpenAlexW4315498037
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited21

In this article we analyze the social memories of the Vietnam War afforded by tourism at the Cu Chi battlefield. Specifically, we explore the experiences of tourists at the site in order to address the under-theorized relationship between carnivalesque and dialogical discourses. Drawing on field interviews and ethnographic engagement with young adult Western tourists who took tours led by Vietnamese guides, we document how the tourists' playful engagement with the past at Cu Chi facilitates the development of new dialogical memories of the war. Our interviews reveal a strong concern with the suffering of both occupying forces and the Vietnamese communist forces, a finding that points to the need for scholars to better appreciate the multiplicity of ways that social performances function in shaping social memory. Ultimately, we challenge social performance theories whose explanations reduce shifts in social memory to audience interpretations of authenticity

Aesthetics · Art · Carnivalesque · Dialogical self · Ethnography · Linguistics · Performative utterance · Sociology · Tourism · Vietnam War · Vietnamese · Anthropology · Cultural Heritage Management and Preservation · Gender Studies · History · Memory, Trauma, and Commemoration · Psychology · Rhetoric and Communication Studies · Social Psychology

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