Music as a Medium: Resistance and Embodied Relationships in On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous

Abstract

In On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, Ocean Vuong employs music as a narrative device that mirrors trauma, memory, identity formation. The novel uses music as a narrative device to reflect the fragmented process of working through trauma, establishing intimate relationships with others, and forging personal identity. Music helps explore trauma, memory, and identity specifically as an effect of The Vietnam War and heteronormativity. Through ethnomusicology, literary studies within the historical context of the Vietnam War, and an examination of the Vietnamese diasporic, this research analyzes how music in the novel mirrors the characters’ lived experiences and establishes their sense of self. Music challenges traditional national memory and serves as an alternative medium to uplift marginalized voices. While music in On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous depicts a personal account of trauma, the literature research highlights pervasive gaps in recorded histories which supports a persistent need for artists to continue their work creating various mediums that encapsulate a multifaceted narrative account of events.