This article presents a qualitative analysis grounded in literary geography of the construction of Hanoi in the novels of five contemporary Vietnamese writers abroad: Lê Ngọc Mai, Lê Minh Hà, Thuận, Hiệu Constant, and Phan Việt. Building on Zeng Daxing’s model of static and dynamic geographical distribution in An Introduction to Literary Geography, the study examines how authorial geography—comprising formative rootedness and migratory trajectories—shapes the literary production of urban space. Methodologically, the article combines geo-biographical mapping, close reading, and comparative thematic analysis to investigate the interaction between lived geographical experience and textual form. The findings demonstrate that static distribution establishes Hanoi as a formative space of origin, where childhood experience and cultural sedimentation constitute a foundational layer of literary identity. Dynamic distribution, by contrast, reconfigures Hanoi through migration, displacement, and transnational comparison, transforming it into a mobile and relational spatial construct. Building on these two dimensions, the study proposes the notion of a geographical filter as a mediating mechanism through which lived geography is translated into narrative form, producing Hanoi as a layered and continuously reconstituted literary space. The article argues that Hanoi in these texts is neither a stable homeland nor a purely diasporic abstraction, but a relational geography generated through the interaction of memory, mobility, and narrative mediation. By adapting Zeng’s framework to Vietnamese diasporic writing, the study contributes to literary geography by demonstrating how biography, migration, and spatial imagination converge in the literary construction of urban space.
Publication Date: 2026-06-23