DUAL TRAUMA IN POSTWAR LITERATURE: THE CASE OF I AM MY FATHER’S DAUGHTER BY PHAN THUY HA

DOI: 10.18173/2354-1067.2025-0034

Abstract

The article analyzes the phenomenon of double trauma in Phan Thuy Ha's I Am My Father's Daughter, focusing on the role of the second generation in receiving and re-narrating the trauma memories of the previous generation within post-war Vietnam. The study uses postmemory and intergenerational trauma theory, employing a qualitative research methodology combined with an interdisciplinary approach that bridges literature and psychoanalysis, along with narrative analysis. It argues that the nonfiction text operates as a layered memory structure and proposes the application of the concept of “dual trauma” for the second generation as a new approach to better understand the depth of postwar narratives. The findings indicate that the narrator not only inherits wartime memory but also undergoes secondary trauma in the process of probing unresolved memories. The paper affirms that the act of narration the testimony of the following generation becomes an expression of the responsibility to remember and opens the possibility for healing.