Readings: Nguyen Huy Thiep, "The General Retires"
Brenner, The Domestication of Desire

Note: While you are responsible for reading the entire Brenner book, pay particular attention to chapters 4, 5, and 7.

1. What does Brenner mean by the "making of the unmodern" (8)? How is gender related to this?

2. Brenner depicts what she terms the "domestic sphere." What does this mean? How is the domestic sphere gendered? How have recent economic, social, and political changes affected the domestic sphere?

3. What role does wealth play in the community Brenner studied? How do status, morality, and gender relate to wealth?

4. Brenner claims that women domesticate money. How do they do this? With what results?

5. A primary theme of "The General Retires" involves the emergence of an urbanized elite focused on acquiring money and spending it on consumer goods and other forms of consumption, such as lavish funerals. What roles do men and women play in these activities? What attitudes and moral values do they seem to represent?

 

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