Representation of Narrative, Time and Space in the Writings of Kim Thúy

The migrant writings bring forth the variety of narrative styles to interpret their experiences of immigration in the new land. The life and culture of this new land develop the creativity among the migrant writers that leads towards the dissociation of the feelings of their distorted identity and memories of the past life in order to facilitate their assimilation in the host country. This paper posits the reconstruction of the past in the present life through the memory narrative. The reconstructed past develops the confidence among the migrantsto face the hardships in the host land. The third space is created due to the intermingling of the past memories in the present life.The paper explores the narrative technique used in the first novel “Ru” written by Kim Thúy, a Canadian Vietnamese writer. This autobiographical fiction has drawn a realistic view of the life of refugee and the Boat people who fled from Vietnam to save their lives from the Communist warriors. There is a deep relation between the narrative, time and space which enhances the reconstruction of the identity of the protagonist of the novel. Each space has its own significance within that particular time. The narration floats from the palatial residence in Saigon, the life at Boat and then arrival in the refugee camp in Malaysia and at the end the final destination, Quebec, Canada, all these spaces evoke the feeling for the search for oneself. The narrative structure reflects the impact of the Vietnam war on the past and present life of the narrator. The life story narrative of the Boat people portrays the remembrance of the traumatic moments of historical Vietnam War.The non-linear broken narrative decodesthe flow of multiple thoughts and memories. The spatio-temporal narrative unravels each and every moment of the life of the protagonist from being the child of Vietnam to the refugee in Malaysia camp and then the migrant in Quebec. The paper analyses the support of the spatio-temporal narrative in the autobiographical fiction of Kim Thuy to unveil the reality of the sufferings of the refugee from Vietnam to refugee camp and then in Quebec, Canada