젠더화 된 도시 오디세이: 르 리 헤이슬립의『하늘과 땅이 장소를 바꾸었을 때』

Abstract

Le Ly Hayslip’s When Heaven and Earth Changed Places is a record of how a Third World subaltern woman, Le Ly, has survived and reached her agency as a First World citizen through the Vietnam War. Le Ly, who came from Ky La located in the central area of Vietnam, is situated in the middle not only geographically but also ideologically. Her positionality of the ‘in-between’ reflects the ontological status of Vietnamese in the war who are forced to cross the border of binary oppositions: politically to cooperate both the Southern Republican Allies and the Northen Viet Cong; ideologically both to adhere communism and to utilize capitalism. This paper in particular takes note of Le Ly’s dual positionality of her gendered body on which the most direct oppression born of an intersecting nationalism and masculinity is inflicted and at the same time her sexual commodification for survival and the rise of status is served. In addition, this paper pays attention to how the urban traits is closely related with her developmental process of identity in terms of her sexual commodification. Traditionally the city has been known as “the dichotomous public/private structure of gender ideologies”(Spokiene 130). However, as recent feminist critics of urbanism like Diana Spokiene argue, the ‘in-between-space’ of the city enables women’s transgressions and breakthroughs from their gendered roles and activity. The in-between-space in When Heaven and Earth Changed Places is the American military camp town where the border of binary oppositions is blurred. Through this interstitial urban space, Le Ly survives and is finally transformed into a subject of agency.