The Aesthetic World of Võ Đăng Khoa's Flying Camel Short Stories

This article examines the short story collection Flying Camel by Võ Đăng Khoa in order to elucidate the distinctive features of the artistic world constructed by this emerging voice in contemporary Vietnamese prose. The study approaches the text through interdisciplinary theoretical frameworks, including memory studies, trauma studies, psychoanalytic criticism, and Eco-criticism. At the methodological level, it employs close textual analysis and interpretive reading to investigate how literature reflects the transformations of social life and the psychological conditions of individuals in the modern context. The findings suggest that Flying Camel constructs what may be described as an “aesthetics of memory and trauma,” in which familial relationships are explored through profound psychological depth, revealing latent wounds and the mental defense mechanisms that shape human experience in contemporary life. Many stories portray fractures within family structures while simultaneously reflecting broader social changes, such as labor migration and intergenerational tensions. At the same time, the symbolic imagery embedded in the narratives evokes reflections on ecological crisis and the disruption of human ecology. From an aesthetic perspective, the collection is distinguished by a rhythmic and highly visual narrative language that integrates realist, fantastic, and parodic modes of representation. Through this stylistic synthesis, the stories articulate a distinctly modern sensibility, one that captures the psychological complexities and existential uncertainties of individuals confronting the rapid transformations of contemporary society.