VietnameseliteratureThanhLe

Vietnamese literature INTRODUCTION TO VIETNAMESE LITERATURE LU THI THANH LE, MA Lecturer, Department of Literature USSH, VNU Hanoi 2016 Folk Literature • Myths • Epics • Legends • Fairy tales • Folk B[.]

TO VIETNAMESE LITERATURE

LU THI THANH LE, MA

Lecturer, Department of Literature

USSH, VNU Hanoi 2016

Examples

• Folk verse (ca dao):

Ai ơi bưng bát cơm đầy Dẻo thơm một hạt, đắng cay muôn phần

(Man, when you bring a bowl full of rice Each tasty seed equals to thousands of bitterness)

• Sayings (tục ngữ):

Ăn cỗ đi trước, lội nước theo sau

(If you go to a banquet, go ahead, but if you go to muddy place,

go after).

• Folk ballads: see video Mời nước mời trầu (Greeting the guests coming to the house)– Quan họ singing

• Epics: see video – Lễ hội đâm trâu của người Bana (Buffalo

Piercing Ceremony of Bana People)

Medieval literature (10th-19th

century)

• Vietnamese medieval literature as “the separate flow of the same source” in the area which shared Sino script (“dòng riêng giữa nguồn chung” – Trần Ngọc Vương 1997)

• The influences of Buddhist, Confucianist, and Daoist thoughts in literature works

• Role of Sino script and Nom script in literature

Major authors of medieval literature

• Lê Thánh Tông: Hồng Đức Quốc âm thi tập  (Hong Duc Nom poem collection), Quỳnh uyển cửu ca

• Nguyễn Trãi: Bình Ngô đại cáo (Great Proclamation upon

the Pacification of the Wu)

• Nguyễn Du: Truyện Kiều (The Tale of Kiều)

• Hồ Xuân Hương: Xuân Hương thi tập (Collection of Xuan

Huong’s poems)

Nguyen Du (1766– 1820) and the Tale of Kieu

The beginning part of

The Tale of Kieu

in original Nom script and translated to

Quoc ngu script

• The tale of Kieu (beginning part)

In the hundred-year span of a human life,Talent and destiny are always apt to strife

Through experience of a harrowing change,What we witnessed filled our hearts with tearing pain

‘Tis not a wonder that Heaven gives then takes,And with the fair sex He used to be jealous

Modern literature (20th century –

Changes of the society in general

The change of education system

Traditional Confucian Education French- Vietnamese education

The change of writing system

The development of printing and

publishing industry

before August 1945 Revolution

• Modern short stories and novels (Hoàng Ngọc Phách,

Nhất Linh, Khái Hưng, Thạch Lam, Nguyễn Tuân, Tự lực văn đoàn)

• Thơ mới - New Poem literary movement (Xuân Diệu, Huy

Cận, Thế Lữ, Chế Lan Viên)

• Realism literature (Ngô Tất Tố, Vũ Trọng Phụng)

Vietnamese Literature 1946-1975

• Indochina War, Vietnam War

• Revolutionary literature under the influence of Communist Party: propaganda of the revolutionary movements (Tố Hữu, Nguyễn Khoa Điềm, Chế Lan Viên, Nguyễn Trung Thành; War diaries: Đặng Thùy Trâm’s diary, Nguyễn Văn Thạc’s diary

• Literature in the South of Vietnam

Post-war & post-Reform literature

• Memory of the war: Bao Ninh’s The Sorrow of War

• Life in subsidiary period (Lê Lựu’s Thời xa vắng, Lưu Quang Vũ’s plays and short stories)

• Reflections of changes of life under market economy: Nguyễn Huy Thiệp’s Tướng về hưu

• Depictions of daily life in peace time: Nguyễn Ngọc Tư, Nguyễn Nhật Ánh

• Female writers and the expressions of gender and

sexuality: Vi Thùy Linh, Đỗ Hoàng Diệu

• Writings of/ about ethnic minorities

• Internationalization and travel writings

Women writers

Minority Groups

• Ethnic identity expressions

• Common issues of humanity

I am a Cham since the very first cry

(And even more: 9 months and 10 days before the first cry)When I am striking the root here

Or when I am drifting to the end of the horizon

I am still Cham even when I am burnt in my end-life fire (“The Purification in April” – Inrasara)

I was born there!

…

but I cannot chant ariya,

cannot write a ka letter,

as if I am stranger to Cham blood

(“Self-expression”– Bá Minh Trí)

Because of the skin that we have to bathe until we get cold

we have to make up our face with kinds of cosmetics

because of the hair that we always cover the black turbans on our head

we often come to the hairdresser’s to straighten our hair

because of the voice that we turn away our faces from each other

until the old age come and take us, then we ask why be cold or separated

(“We are the poor people”- Tuệ Nguyên) Inrasara eds 2010,

Tagalau 11, 7.

of travel writings

Vietnam

Writing of youngters in Vietnam

Huyen Chip:

Get the knapsack

and go! (2012,

2 volumes)

Tran Hung John’s John on the way to find Hung

Writings of students studying

abroad

Hiệu Constant’s

Studying abroad life

Writings of spouses of foreigners

Series of Being daughter in law of… – Women Publishing House

• Thank you very much for your attention!