Khmer women and their feminist consciousness in Khmer folk songs in Vietnam

Abstract

Khmer folk songs have occupied an important position in the Khmer folk lyrical genre. It is a literary type that has contributed to create the unique color and appearance for the treasure of Khmer folk literature. Through the specific genre characteristics, Khmer folk songs is not only the lyrics that reflect the life, thoughts, and feelings of Khmer people but also has markedly performed the features and acoustics of cultural conditions and the territory in which folk songs were born. In addition, the customs and habits are the valuable factors that have greatly determined the expressions, reflection contents, thinking inference, image choosing, etc., in Khmer folk songs. The article generalizes the roles and positions of Khmer women in the Khmer's conception and then describes the manifestations of feminist consciousness in folk songs basing on the conception along with the characteristics of Khmer folk songs. Thereby, the article affirms the values that have created the vitality and beauty of Khmer women in particular, and Vietnamese women in general.

Keywords: feminism, Khmer women, Khmer folk songs, Khmer folk literature, Khmer culture.

DOI: 10.7176/JCSD/67-07

Publication date: May 31^st 2022