A comparative reading on the satirical portrayals of the colonial bourgeois through Chae Mansik’s Peace under heaven (1938) and Vũ Trọng Phụng’s Dumb luck (1936)

Abstract

During the 1930s Korea and Vietnam were undergoing profound social changes at the crossroads of tradition and modernity and under the colonial rule of Japan and France respectively. In this socio-historical context literary writers like Chae Mansik and Vũ Trọng Phụng expressed their concern on the deterioration of moral values as the traditional order crumbled and was substituted by an often-superficial westernization and a dominance of money over ethics. This paper explores how two of their most prominent works used irony and satire to express the critics towards their societies and raise awareness among their readers. The comparative reading of particular aspects present in Peace under heaven (1938) and Dumb luck (1936) seeks to establish a link between both author’s mode of writing that goes beyond their particular socio-historical context and emphasizes its universal value as a means to obtain a better understanding on the significance of the literary legacy that they represent. It particularly, the structure and protagonists of both novels are compared given the importance put on their characterization and their exaggerated physical and sexual dimensions analyzed as one of the characteristics used to enhance the humorous aspect in both novels.