Tái kiến tạo hiện thực chiến tranh: Hai phiên bản tiếng Anh 'Nỗi Buồn Chiến Tranh' của Bảo Ninh

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES ⁕⁕⁕⁕⁕ VŨ THỊ THU THỦY RECONSTRUCTING WAR REALITY IN TWO ENGLISH VERSIONS OF BAO NINH’S THE SORROW OF WAR (Tái kiến tạo hiện thực chiến tranh trong hai phiên bản tiếng Anh Nỗi Buồn Chiến Tranh của Bảo Ninh) DOCTORAL THESIS Major: English Linguistics Code: 9220201.01 Hà Nội – 2026 ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ ⁕⁕⁕⁕⁕ VŨ THỊ THU THỦY RECONSTRUCTING WAR REALITY IN TWO ENGLISH VERSIONS OF BAO NINH’S THE SORROW OF WAR (Tái kiến tạo hiện thực chiến tranh trong hai phiên bản tiếng Anh Nỗi Buồn Chiến Tranh của Bảo Ninh) LUẬN ÁN TIẾN SĨ Chuyên ngành: Ngôn ngữ Anh Mã số: 9220201.01 Cán bộ hướng dẫn: PGS. Lê Hùng Tiến Hà Nội – 2026 DECLARATION I, Vu Thi Thu Thuy, hereby declare that this thesis, titled: Reconstructing war reality in two English versions of Bao Ninh’s The Sorrow of War is my original work. It has not been submitted, either in whole or in part, for a degree or any other qualification at any other university or institution. All material from other sources, including published and unpublished works, has been properly acknowledged and referenced in accordance with the academic conventions of the University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi.

I confirm that this thesis represents my own research and that all information and ideas from external sources have been correctly cited. i To my dearest father, in loving memory. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am profoundly indebted to my exceptional supervisor, Assoc. Le Hung Tien, for his insightful instructions, invaluable guidance, and unwavering support.

His patient mentorship has been absolutely instrumental in shaping the direction of this research and navigating its complexities. My sincere thanks also go to the esteemed members of my thesis committee, whose expertise, intellectual contributions, and constructive feedback have greatly enhanced the quality of this study. I would like to extend my deepest appreciation to Mr. Do Tuan Minh, Ph., Chairman of the University of Languages and International Studies, and Mrs.

Nguyen Thi Minh Tam, Ph., former Dean of the Faculty of Linguistics and Culture of English-speaking Countries. Their initial and thoughtful orientations were the crucial first steps that empowered me to embark on this challenging but ultimately rewarding academic journey. I wish to express my heartfelt thanks to all my incredible colleagues, faculty members and friends for their continuous encouragement. I am especially grateful to Mrs.

Hoang Thi Hanh, Ph. Pham Thi Hanh, Ph., for their invaluable academic advice and psychological support during the inevitable ups and downs of this process; to Vuong Thi Thanh Nhan and Le Thi Thu Huyen, who patiently listened to me articulate and refine my ideas; and to Tran Thi Phuong Nhung, who so willingly helped me with schedules and necessary paperwork, keeping me on track throughout. I could never have completed this work without the steadfast understanding, extraordinary patience, and unconditional support of my family: Vu Hoang Hai, my devoted life partner; Vu Hai Minh, my wholehearted supporter; and Vu Duc Huy, my little source of joy and comfort through difficult days. Finally, a special note of thanks goes to my students whose curiosity, thirst for knowledge, and commitment to learning have been a continual source of inspiration for my own life-long learning journey.

iii ABSTRACT This thesis investigates how war reality is discursively constructed in Bảo Ninh’s Nỗi Buồn Chiến Tranh and how it is subsequently reconstructed through two stages of English-language mediation: Phan Thanh Hảo’s translation (TT1) and Frank Palmos’s mediated English version (TT2). While previous studies of literary translation have largely focused on equivalence, stylistic comparison, or cultural adaptation, relatively little attention has been paid to how experiential representations of war are systematically reconstructed as literary texts move across languages and successive stages of mediation. Addressing this gap, the study examines how war reality is represented in the Vietnamese source text and subsequently reconstructed through translation and editorial rewriting. Drawing on a constructivist view representation, the study operationalises war reality as a linguistic and narrative construct rather than a direct reflection of historical events.

To operationalize this concept, four experiential domains were identified: Physical Brutality, Psychological Trauma, Collective Memory, and Geopolitical Conflict. The thesis addresses three research questions: (1) How is war reality construed in the Vietnamese source text through transitivity patterns across these four representational domains? (2) How are these experiential patterns reconstructed in TT1 and subsequently reconfigured in TT2? (3) How can the recurrent shifts be interpreted in relation to translational norms, narrative framing, and broader orientations towards adequacy/acceptability and foreignization/domestication? The study integrates Descriptive Translation Studies, Systemic Functional Linguistics, Baker’s narrative framing theory and Venuti’s domestication – foreignization continuum. Methodologically, a purpose-built tri-text corpus comprising the Vietnamese source text and its two English versions was analysed through two mediation comparative trajectories: ST to TT1 and TT1 to TT2. Clause- based units were aligned and coded for process types, participant configurationsm and circumstantial elements.

Recurrent shifts were subsequently interpreted through iv narrative framing strategies and synthesized to reconstruct translational norms and orientations. The findings reveal that the Vietnamese source text constructs war reality through the interaction of physical violence, traumatic consciousness, memorial recurrence, and geopolitical positioning, producing a fragmented and historically situated representation of war. TT1 largely preserves this experiential architecture, maintaining transitivity distributions and representational priorities while introducing selective explicitation and clarification. The translation demonstrates a predominantly adequacy-oriented and foreignising tendency, preserving much of the source text’s experiential and historical specificity.

TT2, by contrast, exhibits substantially greater editorial intervention through omission, addition, condensation, segmentation and narrative recomposition. Through participant relabelling, historical contextualisation, explanatory additions, and temporal-spatial framing, TT2 reconstructs war reality as a more explicit, historically anchored, and narratively organized representation. These interventions reflect stronger acceptability-oriented and domesticating tendencies and position TT2 closer to mediated rewriting than conventional translation. The thesis contributes the first systematic transitivity-based comparison of the two English versions of The Sorrow of War and proposes an integrated framework linking experiential meaning, translational norms, narrative framing, and cultural orientation.

More broadly, it demonstrates that literary translation and rewriting function not as neutral transfers of meaning but as culturally situated processes through which war, memory, trauma, and geopolitical conflict are reconstructed for different readerships and historical contexts. v TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION. iv LIST OF TABLES .x LIST OF FIGURES. xii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS.

xiii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION. Background and Rationale of the Study. Aims, Research Questions and Objectives of the Study. Methods of the Study.

Scope of the Study. Significance of the Study. Structure of the Study.14 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW. War Literature and The Representation of War Reality.

The Nature of War Literature. Representation of War Reality. The Vietnam War in Literature. The Sorrow of War - A Vietnamese War Narrative.

Translation as Cultural Mediation and Norm-Governed Rewriting. Definition of Literary Translation. Literary Translation as Mediated Rewriting. The Role of Translated Literature.

Descriptive Translation Studies. Domestication and Foreignisation. Translation as Re-Narration. Baker’s Narrative Turn in Translation Studies.

Narrative Features and Ethical Accountability. Baker’s Narrative Framing Strategies. SFL Transitivity as Experiential Representation. Clause as Representation.

Representing Action, Event, and Violence: Process Types. Participant Configuration and the Distribution of Agency. Circumstantial Framing in Experiential Account. Research Gaps and Implications for the Present Study.

Integrated Framework of the Study. Research Approach and Design .95 CHAPTER 4: RECONSTRUCTING WAR REALITY IN INTERLINGUAL TRANSLATION. Initial Norms: Translation Motivations. Preliminary Norms: Contexts of Production.

Operational Norms: Structural and Representational Shifts. Textual-linguistic Norms (ST – TT1). From Operational Norms to Translation Orientation .158 CHAPTER 5: RECONSTRUCTING WAR REALITY THROUGH MEDIATED REWRITING. Initial Norms: Editorial Motivations.

Preliminary Norms: Contexts of Production. Operational Norms of Mediated Rewriting. Textual-Linguistic Norms: Experiential Reconfiguration of War Reality. From Operational Norms to Rewriting Orientations .228 CHAPTER 6: DISCUSSION and CONCLUSION.

Reconstruction of War Reality across the Two English Versions. War Reality as Physical Brutality. War Reality as Psychological Trauma. War Reality as Collective Memory.

War Reality as Geopolitical Conflict. Narrative Framing and the Reconstruction of War Reality. From Translational Orientations to Rewriting. Adequacy and Acceptability.

Foreignisation and Domestication. Translation and Rewriting. Contributions and Implications of the Study. Contributions of the Study.

Implications for Literary Translation and Retranslation. Limitations and Suggestions for Future Research. Limitations of the Study. Suggestions for Future Research.

I ix LIST OF TABLES Table 3. Distribution of Clause Complexes and Clause-Process Units across Experiential Domains in the ST, TT1 and TT2. Illustrative example of transitivity coding and shift identification patterns. Contextual indicators of initial norms.

Paratextual indicators for reconstructing preliminary norms in TT1. Matricial operations profile in TT1 relative to ST. Matricial operations by experiential domains (ST – TT1) .5 Overall process-type distribution across ST and TT1. Prominent process shifts in Physical Brutality (ST – TT1).

Prominent participant and circumstantial shifts in Physical Brutality (ST – TT1). Transitivity profile in the domain of Psychological Trauma (ST – TT1). Prominent process shifts in Psychological Trauma (ST – TT1). Prominent participant and circumstantial shifts in Psychological Trauma (ST – TT1).

Transitivity profile in the domain of Collective Memory (ST – TT1). Prominent process shifts in Collective Memory (ST – TT1). Prominent participant and circumstantial shifts in Collective Memory (ST – TT1). Transitivity profile in the domain of Geopolitical Conflict (ST – TT1).

Prominent process shifts in Geopolitical Conflict (ST – TT1). Prominent participant and circumstantial shifts in Geopolitical Conflict (ST – TT1). Contextual indicators of initial norms in TT2. Paratextual indicators for reconstructing preliminary norms in TT2.

Matricial operations profile in TT2 relative to TT1. Matricial operations by experiential domains (TT1 – TT2). Overall transitivity distribution in TT2 relative to TT1. Transitivity profile in the domain of Physical Brutality (TT1 – TT2).

Prominent process shifts in Physical Brutality (TT1 – TT2). Prominent participant and circumstantial shifts in Physical Brutality (TT1 – TT2). Transitivity profile in the domain of Psychological Trauma (TT1 – TT2). Prominent process shifts in Psychological Trauma (TT1 – TT2).

Prominent participant and circumstantial shifts in Psychological Trauma (TT1 – TT2). Transitivity profile in the domain of Collective Memory (TT1 – TT2). Prominent process shifts in Collective Memory (TT1 – TT2). Prominent participant and circumstantial shifts in Collective Memory (TT1 – TT2).

Transitivity profile in the domain of Geopolitical Conflict (TT1 – TT2). Prominent process shifts in Geopolitical Conflict (TT1 – TT2). Prominent participant and circumstantial shifts in Geopolitical Conflict (TT1 – TT2) .220 xi LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2. Conceptual Framework of the Study.

Theoretical Framework of the Study. Corpus design and data coding procedure (from data preparation to domain categorization). Analytical procedures of the Study. Analytical Framework of the Study .89 xii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CM Collective Memory DTS Descriptive Translation Studies GC Geopolitical Conflict PB Physical Brutality PT Psychological Trauma PTSD Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder RQ Research Question SFL Systemic Functional Linguistics SL Source language (the language the text was originally written in) ST source text (the original text) TL target language (the language of the translation) TS Translation Studies TTs target texts (the translated texts) TT1 (the translation by Phan Thanh Hao) TT2 (the English version by Frank Palmos) xiii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.

Background and Rationale of the Study Vietnamese war literature has undergone a significant transformation since the period of Đổi Mới, shifting from collectivist, heroic and epic-oriented representation of war toward forms of writing that foreground memory, loss, ambiguity and psychological interiority.