ASERN members Tess Do, Jack Yeager, and Leslie Barnes have co-edited a volume of essays on Linda Lê as a tribute to the author’s career and a gesture of gratitude for the community of readers her writing created. The volume includes articles by other ASERN members, including a study of Lê’s translations into English and Vietnamese, co-authored by Tess Do and Catherine Nguyen, a re-examination of Calomnies by Howie Tam, and a study of Anglophone intertextuality in Lê’s work by Alexandra Kurmann. The volume features new voices and long-time critics of Lê’s work and contains an experimental translation of Lê’s Le complexe de Caliban by Siân Robyns. An afterword, “Dear Departed,” written by Leslie Barnes and first published in Mekong Review in 2022 (7:28), draws on Lê’s work, personal reflection, and private correspondance with colleagues to reflect on the enduring impact of Lê’s literary legacy.
The volume traces new directions in the scholarship on Lê while contributing to broader conversations around subjects like diaspora, refugeehood, reception, animality, and metafiction.
Asie du Sud Est Research Network 