Quoting as a strategy of textual hybridization in Essais franco-annamites (1929-1932) by Phạm Quỳnh

Abstract

This article examines citation practices in Phạm Quỳnh's Essais franco-annamites (1929-1932) as a strategy for discourse co-construction and cultural mediation within a colonial context. Employing an intertextual approach (Kristeva, Compagnon, Maingueneau), it argues that Phạm Quỳnh's citations are deliberate acts, closely linked to polyphony and enunciative positioning. Through classifying citation forms (direct, indirect, hybrid, distanced), the article shows how Phạm Quỳnh uses citation for argumentation and to establish epistemic authority, bridging Western scientific discourse and Eastern intellectual heritage. For instance, in Le culte des ancêtres en pays d’Annam, Phạm Quỳnh integrates quotes from Confucius, Comte, and Carlyle to align ancestor worship as a moral paradigm with universal reason, thereby connecting Confucian philosophy to Western theoretical language, constructing a hybrid discourse that affirms Vietnamese identity while engaging with global knowledge. Similarly, Une apologie du régime du Protectorat is not a mere eulogy of French colonial policy, but rather a strategically crafted text in which citation serves a primary political function: it allows an indigenous voice within rigid colonial discourse. This mode of enunciation – indirect, mimetic, yet critical – represents an early form of postcolonial discursive practice, wherein the colonized subject inhabits the voice of the colonizer to subvert its intended meaning. Accordingly, the article argues that citation functions not merely as a technical tool for source attribution, but as a vital discursive strategy through which Phạm Quỳnh shapes his identity as a modern indigenous intellectual within a knowledge space dominated by colonial authority. Citation thus becomes a means for him to negotiate his identity, defend cultural values, and assert a Vietnamese intellectual voice in East-West dialogue.