A Sociological Approach to the Francophone Journals: A Case Study of the Bulletin de la Société d’enseignement mutuel du Tonkin

Abstract

This article aims to propose a sociological approach to the Francophone journals published in Vietnam during the colonial period, by drawing on Pierre Bourdieu's theoretical framework, while also incorporating insights from cultural transfer methodology and postcolonial studies. We will focus on the Bulletin de la Société d’enseignement mutuel du Tonkin (Trí Tri Bulletin)—the official organ of the Trí Tri Association founded in 1892—as a case study to analyze how this periodical participated in the construction of a hybrid intellectual field, while also undergoing tensions between the colonial hegemonic power and the emerging assertion of a Vietnamese subjectivity during the colonial period. The article focuses on the practice of translation within the Bulletin de la Société d’enseignement mutuel du Tonkin, including the translation of French works into Vietnamese and vice versa, as an act of appropriating and accumulating the symbolic capital, as well as a key strategy for knowledge production and recognition in the inequitable colonial context. From this, it can be seen that colonial Francophone journals were complex intermediate spaces where interaction, negotiation, competition, and symbolic resistance took place, helping to shape the identity of modern Vietnamese intellectuals.