Because tenderness depends on how little the world touches you

aspects of displacement in On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, by Ocean Vuong

Autores

  • Isabel do Nascimento Santos Universidade Federal da Bahia
  • João Pimentel Santos Santana Coelho Universidade Federal da Bahia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5380/vers.v12i22.100442

Palavras-chave:

Ocean Vuong, Displacement, Non-belonging

Resumo

On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is an epistolary novel by Ocean Vuong that narrates the story of Little Dog through letters he writes to his mother. Not belonging is what constitutes the protagonist and this fact can be related mainly to his nationality, race and sexuality, identity categories which intersect. Vuong’s novel is marked by post-colonial features, considering that the consequences of colonialism are remarkably identified. The aim of this study is to analyze aspects of displacement in Vuong’s novel, according to Antonsich (2010), Ashcroft; Griffiths; Tiffin (2002), Hooks (1994), Neumann (2022), and Quintana-Vallejo (2021).

Biografia do Autor

Isabel do Nascimento Santos, Universidade Federal da Bahia

Universidade Federal da Bahia (UFBA)

João Pimentel Santos Santana Coelho, Universidade Federal da Bahia

Universidade Federal da Bahia (UFBA).

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Publicado

18-07-2025

Como Citar

SANTOS, Isabel do Nascimento; COELHO, João Pimentel Santos Santana. Because tenderness depends on how little the world touches you: aspects of displacement in On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, by Ocean Vuong. Versalete, [S. l.], v. 12, n. 22, p. 65–73, 2025. DOI: 10.5380/vers.v12i22.100442. Disponível em: https://revistas.ufpr.br/versalete/article/view/100442. Acesso em: 2 fev. 2026.

Edição

Seção

Estudos Literários