This dissertation identifies one trait it calls Vietnamese irony that helps to build the characteristics of Việt Nam and Vietnamese-ness. Throughout the immensely complex history of Việt Nam that involves colonization, settler colonialism, involuntary cultural assimilation, war, and globalization, a nation-state called Việt Nam was born in 1975 under the rule of the Communist Party of Việt Nam. A young, yet very old, nation seeking to define itself against its pasts and futures, Việt Nam, this dissertation argues, employs irony as one of its methods in nation-building. Used by Việt people, irony also offers itself as a useful method of critique and a crucial strategy of survival. Via a limited selection of literary, visual, and historical texts, including Nguyên Ngọc’s “Rừng Xà Nu,” Viet Thanh Nguyen’s The Sympathizer, The Complete Documents of the Communist Party, Chế Lan Viên’s poetry, Kim Thúy’s Ru, Nguyễn Du’s Tale of Kiều, and Vũ Ngọc Đãng’s film Lost in Paradise, this dissertation attempts to trace some instances of irony as it surfaces in both the official writings and the lifestories of Việt subjects. The dissertation first argues for the usefulness of irony as a critical method in nation-making projects of Việt Nam and in self-making projects of subjects that call themselves Việt people. It then traces the strategic deployment of irony in the survival of Vietnamese refugees and Vietnamese sex workers. While both groups navigate between the borders of nationality and belonging, statelessness and homelessness, they also show their Vietnamese love of beauty and of life in their most ironic earnest ways that deserve attention.

This dissertation examines the relationship between sporting male culture and popular culture during the antebellum period. Sporting culture emerged in major northeastern cities in the 1830s and was mostly comprised of young, single white men. Often disconnected from families or apprentice systems, these men reveled in drinking, brothel-going, gambling and other urban exploits, and had an indelible impact on antebellum literature, print culture, reform work, and law. With their seemingly amoral attitude, individualist rhetoric, and excessive indulgence, sporting men were a source of fascination to the general public and incited marked consternation and concern from authors, reformers and politicians. By examining sporting culture I expand our understanding of the cultural responses to the intense social, political, and economic changes of the antebellum period. In this dissertation I examine popular sensational novels, newspapers, trial reports, reform work, seduction law, and the development of George Lippard’s secret society, the Brotherhood of the Union, to show how the concern over sporting culture reflected fears and anxiety that modernization might not simply breed inequality—but could potentially corrupt the moral and patriotic sensibility of young white men across the nation.

This dissertation considers why sporting culture, prostitution, the libertine, and seduction became sources of preoccupation in the northeastern city. I argue that all of these phenomena were connected: the fascination with illicit activity and the strength of the backlash against it came from the fear that capitalism and modernization might turn a class of potentially productive young white men into self-interested libertines, fracturing the potential for white male unity and cohesion.