VIOLENCE, TYRANNY AND SUICIDE IN VIET’S AND TAY’S NOM POETIC STORIES: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE CASES OF TWO HEROINES IN THE TALE OF KIEU AND THE BIOOC LA FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF THE PSYCHE, SOCIETY AND CULTURE OF ETHNICITY

Abstract

Suicidal behavior is phenomenologically conceived as the most individual fact but if putting it in a broad context, ie. social context, cultural context, is not so simple. Around individual behaviors there are always “others” who are attending and community labels attributed to individuals, forcing individuals to act. This perception was generally analyzed by the fact of heroines in two typical Nom poetic stories, The Tale of Kieu (Viet’s Nom poetic story) and The Biooc La (Tay’s Nom poetic story). The Tale of Kieu in Kinh’s mind and the Biooc La in Tay’s mind are stories that have profoundly influenced to community in the first place. In order to carry out a dissection of meaning of suicide in these two cases, if putting their life-world in social tyranny and cultural elements, characters in these two Nom poetic stories exist as entities penetrated to sorrow and shame. Their death was constructed as an irrevocable target. In deep structures, it reveals the signs of community pressure, of the collective psyche. In exploring and analyzing the above two cases, we also point out the fundamental differences in this meaningful event on the basis of cultural and psychological perceptions which are present as a center of ethnic consciousness.