Embodied Echoes: A Neurophenomenological Exploration of Trauma and Memory in Viet Thanh Nguyen's The Sympathizer

This paper presents a neurophenomenological analysis of Viet Thanh Nguyen's The Sympathizer (2015), investigating the effects of traumatic warfare on memory, identity, and consciousness. Drawing on both narrative theory and cognitive neuroscience, the paper explores the manifestation of traumatic experiences in symbolic, neurological, and bodily forms, as evidenced by phenomena such as fragmented memory, alienation, and impaired bodily awareness. The novel's protagonist embodies traumatic experiences, consequently affecting self-consciousness and cognition. Drawing on theories of embodied cognition and trauma studies, especially the work done by Francisco Varela, Cathy Caruth, and Bessel van der Kolk, and using an interdisciplinary model centered on the interactive relationship between the brain, body, and narrative, the study argues that the novel resists disembodied explanations of traumatic experience by foregrounding body memory as fundamental in reinscribing post-war self and remapping realities. In doing so, this paper contributes significantly to the developing field of neuro-literary analysis by promoting the necessity of embodied experience in describing trauma, thereby aligning literary analysis with current therapeutic approaches that perceive traumatic experience as encompassing neurological, bodily, and narrative dimensions.