A Multimodal Discourse Analysis of Thương nhớ thời bao cấp (Nostalgia for the Subsidy Period)

Abstract

The discourse of “Thương nhớ một thời bao cấp” (Nostalgia for the Subsidy Period) is a communicative product with an interesting combination of text and visual channels to recreate the living and working scenes of Vietnamese people in the years prior to Đổi Mới. The text not only hallmarks the deprivations of the time but also testifies to our people’s calm outlook and humorous, critical attitude in the face of the hardships of life. Applying M. Halliday’s theory of Functional Grammar to study the text channel and T. Leeuwen and G. Kress’ theory of Visual Grammar to study the visual channel, this study provides insight into how discourse creates meaning and establishes communication with readers and how Vietnamese people lived, thought, and faced the deprivations of their time.