EXISTENTIAL TIME AND SPACE IN SOUTHERN URBAN POETRY (1965–1975)꞉ ONTOLOGICAL CONSCIOUSNESS AND POETIC EXPRESSION

Abstract

This
article
investigates
the
expression
of
existential
consciousness
in
South
Vietnamese
urban
poetry
from

1965
to
1975
through
two
key
aesthetic
modes꞉
poetic
space
and
experiential
time.
Against
the
backdrop
of
war,

fragmentation,
and
ideological
crisis,
Southern
urban
poetry
does
not
merely
reflect
historical
turmoil
but

becomes
a
site
for
ontological
reflection
and
poetic
introspection.
Space
in
poetry
emerges
as
a
symbolic
and

psychological
domain—where
the
lyrical
self
confronts
solitude,
memory,
and
the
uncertainty
of
existence.

Time
appears
as
nonlinear,
fractured,
and
recursive,
echoing
the
poet's
disorientation
and
metaphysical
anxiety.

Through
close
readings
of
poems
by
Nguyen
Duc
Son,
Cung
Tram
Tuong,
Tue
Sy,
Bui
Giang,
and
Nguyen
Bac

Son,
the
article
explores
how
poetic
representations
of
space
and
time
embody
existential
motifs,
creating
a

convergence
between
personal
anguish
and
artistic
form.
This
approach
reveals
how
Southern
urban
poetry

internalized
and
re‑articulated
existential
themes
not
as
philosophical
abstractions,
but
as
lived
experiences

filtered
through
poetic
language
and
structure.