Tiểu thuyết lịch sử Việt Nam đương đại – nhìn từ góc độ thể loại. Tiểu thuyết lịch sử Việt Nam đương đại – nhìn từ góc độ thể loại. Tiểu thuyết lịch sử Việt Nam đương đại – nhìn từ góc độ thể loại. Tiểu thuyết lịch sử Việt Nam đương đại – nhìn từ góc độ thể loại. Tiểu thuyết lịch sử Việt Nam đương đại – nhìn từ góc độ thể loại. Tiểu thuyết lịch sử Việt Nam đương đại – nhìn từ góc độ thể loại. Tiểu thuyết lịch sử Việt Nam đương đại – nhìn từ góc độ thể loại. Tiểu thuyết lịch sử Việt Nam đương đại – nhìn từ góc độ thể loại.
Trang 1MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HA NOI NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION
- *** -
NGUYỄN THỊ MINH PHƯỢNG
CONTEMPORARY VIET NAM HISTORICAL NOVELS
- LOOKED FROM THE GENRE PERSPECTIVE
PHILOLOGICAL DOCTORAL THESIS
HA NOI – 2021
Trang 2- *** -
NGUYỄN THỊ MINH PHƯỢNG
CONTEMPORARY VIET NAM HISTORICAL NOVELS
- LOOKED FROM THE GENRE PERSPECTIVE
Speciality: Literature Theory Code: 9.22.01.20
PHILOLOGICAL DOCTORAL THESIS
ADVISOR:
Assoc.Prof.Dr NGUYEN VAN DAN
HA NOI – 2022
Trang 3The work was completed at:
HA NOI NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION
Advisor: Assoc.Prof.Dr NGUYEN VAN DAN
Reviewer 1: Assoc.Prof.Dr Doan Duc Phuong
working Agency: University of Social Sciences and Humanities
Reviewer 2: Assoc.Prof.Dr Nguyen Thanh Tu
working Agency: Journal of Military Arts
Reviewer 3: Assoc.Prof.Dr Tran Van Toan
working Agency: Hanoi National University of Education
The thesis is defended before the School-level thesis estimating Council,
meeting at Hanoi National University of Education
on hour month , day, 2022
The thesis can be found at: Vietnam National Library
or Library of Hanoi National University of Education
Trang 4
THE AUTHOR’S SCIENTIFIC WORKS PUBLISHED RELATING TO THE DOCTORAL THESIS THEME
1 “Artistic tone in the Con River in flood season of Nguyen Mong Giac” (2018), Journal of Education and Society, Special number, pp.18, 10/2, Vietnam Association of Universities and
45-54, Hanoi National University of Education
4 “The structure and art represent the historic character Tran Hung Dao in his military stratery
at Great upheaval of Tran dynasties” (2019), HNNUE Journal of Science, (2), pp.58-67, Hanoi
National University of Education
5 “Great upheaval of Tran dynasties from the feminist critiques” (2018), VNU Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, (2b), Vol 4, pp.253-264, University of Social Sciences and
Humanities
6 “Multi-styles language in contemporary Vietnamese historical novels” (2020), Part 1,
Newspaper of Arts, pp 551-552, August 20, Hoa Binh province
7 “Multi-styles language in contemporary Vietnamese historical novels”(2020), Part 2,
Newspaper of Arts, pp.553-554, Septembe 20, Hoa Binh province
8 “Multi-styles language in contemporary Vietnamese historical novels”(2020), Part 3, Newspaper of Arts, pp 555-556, October 20, Hoa Binh province
9 “Social man with historical aspirations and worldly natural man in historical novels looking is
from psychoanalytic perspective”, Researching and teaching literary works by genre (2019), Yearbook of the National Conference, pp.337, Hanoi National University of Education
10 “Artistic space in Pine ring Ngan Hong’s historical novel”, Researching and teaching literary works by genre (2019), Yearbook of the National Conference, pp.374, Hanoi National University of
Education
11 “Artistic features in the plot structure of contemporary Vietnamese historical novels”, (2020),
Journal of Educational Science, Special number, September, pp.38, Ministry of Education and
Training of Vietnam
12 “Patriotic thought and worldly inspiration through the image of Ly Thuong Kiet character in the
Eight Dynasties of King Ly looking is from the perspective of reception aesthetics” (2021), Journal
of Educational Science, Special number, March, pp 37, Ministry of Education and Training of
Vietnam
13 “Some artistic features of the trend of the historical novels in dialogue with the historical data”
(2021), Journal of Educational Equipment, (No.251), pp.47, October, Vietnamese Association of
Educational Equipments
14.“Dialogue perspectives and some content characteristics of the trend of the historical novels in
dialogue with the historical data”, (2021), Journal of Educational Equipment, (No.251), pp.302, October, Vietnamese Association of Educational Equipments
15 “Overview of the trend of historical novels use historical data parables and some content
characteristics”, (2022), The Central Journal of Theory and Criticism of Literature and Art, No ,
p , June, Central Council for Theory and Criticism of Literature and Arts
16 “Some art form features of the trend of historical novels use historical data parables”, (2022), The Central Journal of Theory and Criticism of Literature and Art , No ., p ., August, Central Council for Theory and Criticism of Literature and Arts
Trang 5THE INTRODUCTION
1 THE REASONS FOR CHOOSING THE THEME
1.1 In modern Vietnamese literature, the novels’re typical genre, it has become the core force for the literature development, it has the ability to cover a wide range and filled with all other literary genres Historical novels’re the same, it is an outstanding branch of Vietnamese novel, historical novels’re literary genre written about the history, capable of covering and embracing all other literary genres The highlights of the genre are the organization of the contents and the art forms
of the works into the overall form of a system of stable and sustainable organizational methods with
“certain rules” in the works structures Each genre has its governing rules, defining specific structural classes according to their own principles, especially in historical novels, the “historical” element will regulate and govern the organization of the genre structures classes such as the characters, events, plot, space-time, narrator, language classes, etc
1.2 Historical novel is a prominent line of Vietnamese novel, there have been many scientific research works on this literary genre However, it can be said that the vividness and complexity of this literary genre requires continuing to have other scientific studies on it, in order to confirm its values, achievements, as well as recognize structural features, principles of genre, limits of
“fiction” and “historical” elements Previous studies have only included a certain aspect of historical novels without extensive generalization, the genre theory still has many shortcomings gaps, lots of content and artistic problems of historical novels are posed, but they have not been satisfactorily resolved In order to clarify the values, meaning and characteristics of the genre structure layers, the innovations of genre in content and art terms of the trends of contemporary Vietnamese historical novels in the literary genre system, we chose the topic “Contemporary Vietnamese historical novels – looking is from a genre perspective” with the hope of contributing to a thorough understanding of an important genre in modern Vietnamese literature
1.3 The reception of the genre is still inadequate and inconsistent, the genre theory used to study and receive the historical novels genre wasn’t general and not systematic, there are many shortcomings The above topic filled the lacks in the genre theory problem according to generanizing way, closely following the birth of works and the composing fact of the writers With this topic,
we bring a new approach, partially fill in the theoretical gaps of previous works, we provide for the students a theoretical tool to apply in their scientific research, the teaching of literary theory, approach
to genre problems
2 THE SUBJECTS, TASKS AND SCOPE OF THE RESEARCH
2.1 The research subjects
My theme studies some basic theoretical issues about genre, points out the innovation and features in the genre structural classes of contemporary Vietnamese historical novels, which are expressed through three trends eg historical novels closely follow the history, historical novels use historical parables to to educate, and historical novels in the dialogue with history I went into some typical works of each trend of contemporary Vietnamese historical novels
2.2 The research tasks
I generalize genre theory, point out development trends and specific characteristics of each trend
of contemporary Vietnamese historical novels through understanding the content and art of specific works in each trend From there, I elucidate the elements constituting the structural classes of the genre expressed through each trend, pointing out the new points of each trend In the process of writing the thesis, I will selectively absorb and apply the theoretical system of literary theory to
elucidate the above issues through the study some typical works of contemporary Vietnamese
historical novels (from 1986 to present) in terms of content and art
Trang 62.3 The research scope
In terms of time scope, I consider the term “contemporary” that is the period from Doi Moi (from
1986) to the present And when asking the research question “Contemporary Vietnamese historical novels – looking is from a genre perspective”, I analysis focused
on the content and art of some typical works from 1986 to the present, in order to confirm the meaning and its role in the national literature
In terms of survey scope, I will analysis focused on some historical novels that represent 3 trends
of historical novels that are: closely follow history; parable historical data and dialogue with historical data to see the artistic innovation of each trend Specifically, I will analyze the works such
as “Tay Son heroic story”, “The Con River in flood season”, “Phung Vuong”, “Twelve Emperors”,
“Pine ring Ngan Hong”, “Great upheaval of Tran dynasties”, “The eight dynasties of king Ly”, “Ho Quy Ly”, “Mother Thuong Ngan”, “Wearing rice to the church”, “Swearing Guild”, “The pyre”,
“Fire Wind” etc
3 THE RESEARCH METHODS
I use the interdisciplinary method, the system-type method, the comparative, contrasting-historical
method, the poetic method In addition, I also use analysis, synthesis, statistics, system-structure generalization of problems at different levels
4 THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE THESIS
With the theme Contemporary Vietnamese historical novels – looking is from a genre perspective, I hope to make the following small contributions:
The thesis will contribute new theses, scientific arguments and extensive vision about the diversity and innovation in structural classes of the genre of three trends of contemporary Vietnamese historical novels That is also the theoretical significance of the theme
The thesis contributes somewhat to the work summarizing the development of contemporary Vietnamese novels and outlines some aspects of genre theory that contribute to the development of national literary theory
The results obtained from the thesis that will be useful tools for the generations of the students to apply in scientific research on this literary line The results obtained from the thesis that will have important meaning with implications for the teaching of genre theory; especially, the teaching of historical novels in schools
The theme of this thesis also has literary and historical significance The thesis mentions many topically meaningful contents, plays a role in promoting the development of society at all times, helps
to improve on the morality and personality of the students
5 THE STRUCTURE OF THE THESIS
In addition to the three parts Introduction, Conclusion and References data section, the author’s scientific works related to the published thesis theme, the Content of the thesis includes 4 chapters: Chapter 1: Overview of the research problems
Chapter 2: The trend of historical novels closely follow the historical data
Chapter 3: The trend of historical novels use historical data parables
Chapter 4: The trend of historical novels in dialogue with historical data
Trang 7THE CONTENT Chapter 1 RESEARCH PROBLEMS OVERVIEW
Historical novels are attracting more and more attention, the literary theorists and critics special care this line of literature, because of the appearance of many great works by many authors such as Hoang Quoc Hai, Nguyen Xuan Khanh, Le Dinh Danh, Nguyen Mong Giac, Nguyen Quang Than, Nguyen The Quang, etc and the theoretical researchs on historical novels in Vietnam in general have achieved some initial achievements
1.1 The research works on Vietnamese historical novels
Currently, I had seen no any scientific research about the development trends of contemporary Vietnamese historical novels However, every time a new historical novel was published and introduced to the public, the scientists also wrote the articles and researched on a certain aspect of a specific work and publishing it scattered in the newspapers and the magazines
In the period before Doi Moi, we see that there were a number of the articles by the researchers scattered in the journals such as Trieu Duong, Doan Thi Huong, Ha An, Nguyen Phuong Chi, They just briefly mentioned on the purpose of the work, going into a certain aspect of a specific work
In the post-Doi Moi period (from 1986 to now), we had some more articles by the authors such as Nguyen An, Nguyen Dang Diep, Nguyen Xuan Khanh, Dang Van Sinh; the views of the authors such
as Hoang Cong Khanh, Dinh Cong Vi, Hoang Tien in the scientific work “Great upheaval of Tran dynasties, Works and Public Opinion” published by Women Publishing House in 2006; the opinions
of the authors such as Dinh The Huynh, Nguyen Hong Vinh, Phan Trong Thuong, Dao Duy Quat, Phan Tuan Anh, Hoang Quoc Hai, Dang Hien, Suong Nguyet Minh, Vu Nho, Ha Pham Phu, Doan
Duc Phuong, Ha Quang, Tran Dang Suyen, Tran Dinh Su, Nguyen Huy Thong, in the work “The creation of the literature and the art on historical topics” (2013) of The Council of Central Literature
and Art Theory and Criticism In general, the articles discussed a small aspect of historical novel through a work, the issues were raised still the same, and the genre characteristics were not generalized through the trends Therefore, the theoretical issue of historical novel genre still has the gaps for later scientific works to continue researching and my thesis partially fills in the deficient gaps those are important and necessary, more or less contributing to the development of national literary theory
In literary theory books, the researchers have discussed a lot about the genre of the novel in general, but they rarely mentioned genre theory of the historical novel It can be said that the theoretical monographs on historical novels are still very sparse For example, in the books such as
“Literary Terms Dictionary” (1992) by the group of the authors, the book “On the frontier of literary theory” by Tran Dinh Su was published by Literary Publishing House, the book “The theory of literature”, (2011), Volume 2 of the collective of authors including Tran Dinh Su (Editor), La Khac
Hoa, Phung Ngoc Kiem, Nguyen Xuan Nam was published by Hanoi National University of Education Publishing House and it has only a few short lines to discuss the genre of historical novel Towards the end of the twentieth century, we saw the appearance of the first doctoral thesis of
Bui Van Loi with the topic “Vietnamese historical novels from the early years of the twentieth century
to 1945 (Appearance and characteristics)” In general, this research work only generalized the
appearance and characteristics of Vietnamese historical novels from the early years of the twentieth century to 1945, without going into the contemporary period
By the beginning of the twenty-first century, we have had another doctoral thesis on historical
Trang 8novels with the theme “Vietnamese historical novels from 1945 to the present” by Nguyen Thi Tuyet
Minh (Institute of Literature, Hanoi, 2009) In general, this thesis had a few suggestions for me to develop and to inherit in my thesis The author briefly examined the works, enumerated the names of many works, she didn’t indicate the innovations of each trend in the layers of genre structure These were the deficient gaps about the genre theory for my thesis to continue researching on contemporary Vietnamese historical novels from 1986 to the present
In 2014, Nguyen Van Hung successfully defended his doctoral thesis with the topic “Vietnamese historical novels after 1986 from the perspective of narratology” (Academy of Social Sciences,
Academy of Vietnam Social Sciences, 2014) In general, the author’s writing was spread out over, some the issues raised have not been satisfactorily resolved, and he has not shown the innovations about the content and art form of the works in each trend in the genre structure These were the theoretical deficient gaps that my doctoral thesis will continue to study the historical novels genre
In 2018, Ngo Thanh Hai successfully defended his doctoral thesis with the topic “Three historical story models in Vietnamese modern prose” In general, Ngo Thanh Hai approached the historical story
models from the discourse theory, most of the surveyed works were in the genre of short stories, including the names of a few historical novels which were enumerated, but the author had not characterize ind the layers of genre structure in each trend to show the innovations of the genre These were the theoretical deficient gaps that my doctoral thesis will continue to research
In general, the above-mentioned research works only collected small articles that go into some very small elements of the genre, there were some literary theory books that also made little mentioned
of the genre theory of the historical novels, showing the deficient gaps about the theory aspect In addition, some master’s theses only go into a certain small aspect of a specific work, so there were no generalizations in terms of the genre theory Finally, we found that there were 4 the elaborate doctoral theses that the delve into a long period, with a chronological continuity, each thesis with its own had the special approach But, those studies still have the theoretical deficient gaps in the genre theory as mentioned above Therefore, my doctoral thesis deeply generalizes the genre characteristics, meanings, the role and the innovations of contemporary Vietnamese historical novels according to three trends: closely following the historical data, using historical data parables, and dialogue with historical data that are important and necessary, making the certain contributions for the country’s literary theory
1.2 The sentiments about the genre characteristics
When discussing historical novels, we saw a systematic collection point of views of domestic and foreign scientists discussing the characteristics of this literary genre We found that scientists were mentioned in the above studies can be divided into three main streams of opinion: the first is a harmonious combination of history and fiction, the second is favoring artistic fiction of novels in general, the third is promoting historical elements and historical authenticity In it, we found that most
of the writers, researchers, and literary critics follow the first point of views’s stream, said that historical novels need to respect historical facts and the writers have the right to make fictions according to the genre principle, the historical and the fictional will govern, regulate and bind each other, it is necessary to harmoniously combine the “historical” and “fictional” elements
1.2.1 The concepts of harmonious combination between the history and artistic fiction
First of all, I review the opinions that historical novels need a harmonious combination of history and artistic fiction, the writers need to respect the truthfulness of the history, and at the same time be allowed to imagine, creating, processing, adding or subtracting the details that were not in the history
to a certain extent, to bring the historical characters into vivid literary works according subjective
Trang 9views of the writers, bringing aesthetic feelings for the readers, but without distorting the truth of the
“political history” of the country Typical for these system of views, we can mention a series of authors such as Doan Thi Huong, Che Lan Vien, Nguyen Phuong Chi, Vo Gia Tri, Pham Xuan Nguyen, Lucacs, Hégel and Goethe, Bui Van Loi, Lai Nguyen An, Thai Vu, Nguyen Van Dan, Pham Huy Thong, Nguyen Hoa, Hoang Minh Tuong, Do Thi Thanh Nga, Prof Tran Dinh Su, Ngo Van Phu, Hoang Quoc Hai, Nguyen Hue Chi, In general, the above ideas have great significance, suggesting
me to approach the content and art of the historical novels in my thesis
1.2.2 The concepts enhanced the “fictional” element as a feature of the historical novels
Different from the above views, we found that there were also lot of the writers, literary theorists and critics who are inclined to the second opinions stream, said that historical novels necessarily have artistic “fiction” In art, “fictional” is a element that is emphasized and given more importance than
“historical” element, and historical sources are only a means for artists to create, history is only a
“nail” for the writers to “hang up their pictures (ideas)” in the art world of each historical novel Typical for these views with authors are Nguyen Xuan Khanh, Alexandre Dumas, Dao Duy Anh, Professor Ha Minh Duc and Phan Cu De, Ha An, Vuong Anh Tuan, Hoang Ngoc Hien, Lai Van Hung, Mrs S Haasse, Nguyen Huy Tuong, Pham Xuan Thach, Nguyen Thi Tuyet Minh, Nam Dao, Nguyen Mong Giac, Hai Thanh, Uong Trieu, Le Thanh Nghi, Lai Nguyen An Thus, fictional element is a technical of course of the novelist, expressing the writers’s creativity, making the work truly a novel, making a historical novel different from a historical work Artistic fiction in historical novels must have limits, must not distort “political history” of the country, must ensure the principles of genre, aesthetics, must show the predictability to renovate the present in a good direction
1.2.3 The conceptions that valued more “historical” elements more than “fictional” elements
In addition to the two above opinions stream, we found that there was a third opinion that favors
“history” element, said that the writers must value “the truth of history”, must be faithful with
“historical truth” rather than creative “fictional” Typical for these point of views, we saw that there were some opinions of the authors such as Ta Ngoc Lien, A Tonxtoi, Hoang Quoc Hai, Nguyen Hue Chi, Vu Tam Giang Thus, we saw that based on the national history nature, so the researchers said that the most important feature of historical novels is the historical authenticity of this genre, which is reflected in the fact with the events, phenomena and people are mainly real people This is the first important feature that distinguishes historical novels from other fictional genres of novel
Finally, we saw that the writers, theorists - literary critics also mention the content of “privacy world affairs”, “historical codes”, “cultural codes”, “language codes” in historical novels, mention artistic characteristics and many theoretical issues about historical novels such as Nguyen Mong Giac, Dan Thanh, Trung Trung Dinh, Phan Trong Thuong, Nguyen Thi Tuyet Minh, Nguyen Van Hung, Trieu Duong, Hayden White Prof Dr Phuong Luu, M Foucault, S Greenblatt, Dr Tran Hieu, Nguyen Luong Bich, Dorothy Brewster and JA Burrell, L Feuchtwanger Up to the most recent time, the articles by the researchers such as Nguyen Thi Kim Tien, Nguyen Van Dan, Do Hai Ninh, Nguyen Quang Thieu , Nguyen Xuan Khanh, Tran Dinh Su, Ha Pham Phu, have directly mentioned some aspects of historical novels in the contemporary period In general, we found that most of the above opinions have shown the building spirit for theoretical system of historical novels and have achieved remarkable achievements These issues are suggestive in the implementation of my thesis
Particularly Nguyen Van Dan has sketched a development picture of contemporary Vietnamese historical novels, with typical trends and representative authors But those are just general proposals, not yet deeply analyzed and not yet thoroughly analyzed the artistic aspects of each trend To do these,
it is necessary to have a treatise capable of analyzing the artistic structures of contemporary historical
novels, developing the ideas proposed by the researchers, as well as supplementing for the thesis work
Trang 10of authors such as Bui Van Loi, Nguyen Thi Tuyet Minh, Nguyen Van Hung and Ngo Thanh Hai Therefore, my selection of this theme is a reasonable and necessary work
1.3 The thesis’s concept about the genre of the historical novels and contemporary Vietnamese historical novels trends
1.3.1 The thesis’s concept about the genre of the historical novels and theoretical basis for researching this topic
In this thesis, we have conceptualized the genre of the historical novels that includes large-scale narrative works which written on historical topics, restoring the past life, the atmosphere of the history, reviving the history of building and defending the country of previous generations to have a connection with the wars, regime changes through the dynasties with real events and actual characters
in specific space-time narrated according to the principle of both respect historical elements and creative fictional elements at the sensible limits to narrate the history, historical parables data, to the dialogue with the history, to the critique or to project and to renew the history according to each writer’s own aesthetic point of view in order to achieve the historical authenticity, the real life according to the historical logic, ensuring not to distort the historical nature The treatment of the historical and fictional elements in the layers of content and form structures of the genre depends on the artistic conception of each writer in each trend, there were the writers who emphasize historical elements more than fictional elements to narrate, to describe and to illustrate the history in the spirit of following up the historical data to disseminate historical knowledge, there were others who harmoniously combined historical and fictional elements in order to parables historical data to send the readers lot of teaching lessons or some people heightened the fictional elements than historical ones, wanting to reverse the history in the dialogue or the historical critique objectively and fairly in the humanistic spirit, understanding true to the nature and historical rules to convey the personal aesthetic views It is these things that governed the organization of the structural layers of the content and art form, the selection of historical times, the real events and people, the description of the cultural contexts with special historical elements, dominating the organization of point of view, plot, time, space, narrator, languages, characters, tone in each trend there were both the similarities and the differences
On the theoretical basis to study the thesis topic, in order to clarify the essential characteristics of
the genre, we synthesized, applied, and distilled the theoretical achievements of the formalism, the narration, the reception aesthetics, the structuralism and archetypal theory
1.3.2 The thesis’s concept about contemporary Vietnamese historical novels trends
The Doi Moi period (since 1986) until now, the country is peaceful, the Party has oriented the cultural development, the literature and the art with the “freedom of creation” being expanded, the field of the historical topics has been expanded and it became one of the key themes of the literature,
of which historical novel is a specialized genre that delves into this topic Contemporary Vietnamese historical novels from the Doi Moi period (1986) to the present have flourished, have made remarkable progress, have achieved many important achievements, and have had many innovations on all levels of the content and art form
From the Doi Moi period (since 1986) to the present, if arranged in chronological order, we must, Pham Thuan Thanh, Hoai Anh, Dan Thanh (Pham Thanh), Huu Mai, Thai Ba Loi, Nguyen Khac Trieumention a series of the authors writing on historical topics such as Nguyen Huy Thiep, Ha Cong Tai; Yveline Féray, Ngo Van Phu, Nguyen Mong Giac, Nam Dao, Le Dinh Danh, Hoang Cong Khanh, Nguyen Truong Thanh, Nguyen Xuan Khanh, Lu Giang, Tran Ba Chi, Nguyen Quang Than,
Vu Ngoc Dinh, Hoang Quoc Hai, Tran Dai Sy, Han The Dung, Vo Thi Hao, Nguyen Khac Phuc, Tran Thu Hang, Pham Ngoc Canh Nam, Hoang Quang Uyen, Pham Truong Khang, Nguyen The Quang, Tran Mai Hanh, Uong Trieu, Vo Khac Nghiem, Phung Van Khai, Luu Minh Son, Luong Duyen group,
Trang 11Truong Buu Sinh , Vu Xuan Tuu, Truong Dinh Tuong, Tran Thuy Mai It can be said that historical novels from 1986 up to now have developed according to many rich and diverse trends, both inheriting the tradition and innovating in modern writing style
From 1986 up to now, contemporary Vietnamese historical novels has thrived with many works
showing genre innovation in all aspects of the content and art form For example, works such as The Con River in flood season, Ho Quy Ly, Earth and sky, Fire Wind, Great upheaval of Tran dynasties, The eight dynasties of king Ly, Pyre, Mother Thuong Ngan, Tay Son heroic story, Not Legend, Wearing rice to the church, The Twelve Monarchs, Dragon Capital, Oath Festival, The bottom flock, Phung Vuong, Pine ring Ngan Hong
In general, although writing following any trend, the writers still have to master the idea of being loyal with historical facts, ensuring the principle of not distorting the “political history” of the country
in a negative direction In this thesis, I divided into three main trends: closely follow the historical data, parable historical data and dialogue with historical data, elucidating the characteristics of these
three trends in the following chapters of the thesis
Sub-conclusion of chapter 1
In summary, through the articles around three streams of opinions: harmoniously combining
“history” and “artistic fiction”, emphasizing more the “fiction” element than over the historical element, and the “historical” emphasis more rather than “fictional” In which, the first opinions
stream is most suitable for the genre structure; the second line of opinions upholds the artistic fiction but must satisfy the following conditions: only fictions within of the genre, not arbitrary fiction, not distorting the “political history” of the nation; The third stream of opinions forces the writers to know how to choose elements from “historical data” to create the interest to attract the readers, otherwise the work will be dry because of dense historical knowledge, difficultly receive
Historical novels have developed dramatically, have great significance, educating in patriotic, humanitarian, just, and peace-loving traditions, always consciously building a prosperous development country and protecting every inch of the land of ancestors
Genre innovation from the post-Doi Moi period (1986) until now has been reflected in many aspects such as the content, the art form, multi-trend development, historical themes explored from many perspectives and different artistic thinking, creating many different styles
Chapter 2 THE TREND OF HISTORICAL NOVELS CLOSELY FOLLOWING HITORICAL DATA 2.1 Overview of the trend of historical novels that closely following history
Before the development of information technology, many historical issues were distorted in the social network space, adversely affecting to the image of the country and the spiritual life of the people Therefore, the writers who wrote in the trend of the historical novels closely following history want the younger generation to love history and firmly grasp the national historical tradition to combat against “the infiltration of the harmful cultural products that were the cause harm destroying social morality”, to combat against the negative influences from the informations that distorted national history online, to preserve the country’s image, to push the patriotism, and to build a current life in the context of the global integration
Stemming from the point of view of literary theory that the literature must reflect the real life, the trend of the historical novels adhering to historical data honestly reflected the objective history, describing the course of the associated events with truth people, the real things have happened in the past, in order to disseminate historical knowledges to the readers The writers in the trend of the historical novels adhering to historical data often followed the traditional concept, said that “the
Trang 12history have happened only once and didn’t repeat” and it was “completely fixed”, immutable, no one
is allowed to change the facts with what happened in the past which was associated with the real characters and the events recorded by the history, so they highly appreciated the historical factors, specially respected the historical facts which were recorded in the history Therefore, the real historical events were valued, promoted and pushed to the forefront aspect, playing a central role in the layers of the plot structure
The historical novels adhering to historical data build the actual and vivid artistic images based
on following and following the archetypes of the real characters and the events that were recorded in historical data to approach the “real life model” and “real life truth” Unlike the writers in the trend of dialogue with historical data, the writers in the trend of historical novels adhering to the history didn’t promote the fictions in order to doubt the reverse history, to criticize and to comment about what happen possibilities of the history, not recreating history with the real characters and the true events of the past in a “different” way from what the community already knew from the historical sources
In general, the tendency of the historical novels closely follow the historical data inherited the achievements of the past literature, described the people of the past in the relation with the national community and closely adhered to the historical facts which were recorded by the history Through the works of this trend, we saw that history was reflected and reconstructed through the great battles with the events and the big historical changes of the nation
2.2 Some content features of the trend of historical novels closely following history
2.2.1 The principles of justice in the cause of the national construction and defense
The trend of historical novels closely follow the historical data often pays much attention to historical characters and real events The character “is a means of thinking about reality and orienting human values”[237; 118] and the writer’s main task in characters building is to “describe people vividly” The character is an important form to express “the content and thematic ideas of the work” The important content of the trend of historical novels closely follow the historical data mentioned in
many works that is the principles of justice associated with the peace of the people and the suppression
of the war, and against the aggression that are expressed through many artistic images in many works For example, in the work “The Con River in flood season” by Nguyen Mong Giac, we saw that the writer chose real events and described the hero Nguyen Hue who always acted for the sake of justice, making the people live in the peace and happy life The principle of justice is also reflected in the relationship between people each other based on the love and human morality The great morality
of a leader like Nguyen Hue is to put the destiny of the nation and the interests of all people on the
first In general, the trend of historical novels closely follow the historical data that educated patriotic
and humanitarian traditions through patriotic examples Those are talented and intelligent heroes wholeheartedly for the country, assembling all people in the unit, building an independent, self-reliant, strongly rich country
In conclusion, the trend of historical novels closely following history that especially the idea of loyalty with historical facts, ensuring the principle of not distorting the country’s “political history” in a negative direction In order to overcome the academic, dry nature of the creative material from historical data of historical science, later we saw that there were many writers who wrote historical fiction following the genre principle, not avoiding the obscure corners of history by thinking fiction
2.2.2 Building the human image with the historical aspirations according to the prototype 2.2.2.1 The artistic conception about human
The trend of historical novels closely follow historical data that describe real people in history so that the writers can reapear historical reality, express worldview, human outlook and aesthetic
Trang 13sentiment when exploring the reality of life, describing personality types in countless social relationships through historical processes, directing the readers to reach their desires for complete and comprehensive beauty
Discussing the human issue, the writers are interested in the spiritual life, and the psychological development process according to the natural instincts of people, considering people can change their nature and personality according to the environment and the situation The human always have a unity between biological and social aspects The human is the central object, the aesthetic object expresses the writer’s artistic and aesthetic views on the reality of life
The writers show many new, comprehensive, rich, diverse and complex views of real people in history in many social relationships, associated with the nation’s destiny and public responsibility, and
in private life with the attitude of affirming, praising, appreciating, cherishing, promoting the positive aspects or condemning, criticizing, denouncing, negating all of the negative and unwholesome aspects
in people The human are explored both from the perspective of a social human and from private life perspective, the multi-dimensionality Especially, the description of people from private life perspective shows the innovation of the writers
For example, the works such as The Con River in the flood season by Nguyen Mong Giac, Pine ring Ngan Hong by Nguyen The Quang, Tay Son heroic story by Le Dinh Danh, The hero of Lam Son and The Twelve Monarchs by Vu Ngoc Dinh, Phung Vuong by Phung Van Khai
2.2.2.2 The great story with the human image carrying the historical aspirations according to the archetype
In historical novels, the character is a form to represent the human, especially the social image carrying the historical mission who was described in accordance with the archetype recorded in the history, placed in specific historical circumstances Social human carry the historical mission to always overcome all the fierce hardships of war, forcing to choose either life or death Thereby, the character deeply reveals aesthetic sentiments, the soul beauty, and the heroic qualities, the pure revolutionary morality That is the love of compatriots, patriotism, steadfastness, loyalty, sacrificing everything to protect the country’s sovereignty, independence and freedom Thereby, the writers affirm, praise, cherish, highlight the beauty of the soul, talent, personality, and uphold the role and position of Vietnamese human according to political thinking, in the accordance with the laws of the history and the time
The human with historical aspirations to associate their life with the destiny of the nation, are clearly depicted in relation with the collective life of the people, and are depicted according to the archetype They are people with big ideas, always good-natured, with a desire for the innovation, a desire to build a rich and strong country These are clearly shown through the characters such as
Nguyen Hue in Tay Son heroic story, Nguyen Cong Tru in Pine rang Ngan Hong, Dinh Bo Linh in The Twelve Monarchs, In general, the character in this trend, they are placed in epic stories and
aren’t analyzed deeply about inner psychology, its personality isn’t clearly portrayed, only is portrayed
in the appearance, speech, acting with the ideal of defending the sovereignty of the nation
In summary, the trend of historical novels closely follow historical data was attached special importance to big stories with the social image carrying historical aspirations, showing the deep awareness about the history, in order to find out valuable lessons for today Thereby, the writers want
to convey the deep awareness about humanity values, life truths, and historical lessons
2.2.3 The personal life story with the earthly human image
Some writers who follow the trend of historical novels closely follow historical data have tried to change the genre by initially gradually creating becoming fiction, gradually discovering the real
characters from a worldly perspective Later, some writers in this trend gradually paid more attention
to highlighting earthly life story, creating more fictional characters, but the worldly quality was still
Trang 14fainter than the two trends that are historical allegorization and historical metaphor, tendency to dialogue with history
Contemporary Vietnamese historical novels from 1986 up to now still inherit the genre characteristics of the previous period, taking epic inspiration from national history to reflect the major issues of the times, and at the same time, focusing on personal life inspiration
For example, the characters Hue and An in the work The Con River in the flood season by Nguyen Mong Giac, the character Nguyen Cong Tru in the work Pine rang Ngan Hong by Nguyen
The Quang to elucidate theoretical issues in the the points that I have discovered them
In general, historical novels closely follow historical data initially gradually pay attention to the model of private life when describing real historical characters in terms of earthly human from the private life perspective, exploring the private secrets, rich and complex conscious and unconscious psychological states in the human soul These also confirms the innovation of genre structure classes
in terms of the content
2.3 Some basic artistic features of the trend of historical novels closely follow historical data 2.3.1 Renovating the structure of the historical novel chapters
The authors who tend to write historical novels with chapters that closely follow official history
often attach the importance of historical events in objective linear time, reconstructing portraits of
vividly real characters They especially respect the historical element, do not pay much attention to the psychological fiction of the characters, the worldly substance is still weak, the rate of fiction is less than 2 trends of historical parables and dialogue with history
Writers who write in the trend of historical novels closely follow official historical data are clearly influenced by the writing style of China’s historical novelists However, they also have significant innovation in the layers of genre structure, often bringing many real characters and historical events into the art world, paying attention to describing the actions according to the archetype, pushing the characters into tense, dramatic events, creating surprised elements to attract the readers The writers often divide them into several “ the acts”, put each act a title, use a sentence to end each act according to the motif as “to want to know how things are, please see the next episode for the resolution” to stimulate curiosity, to cause exciting, evoking the anticipation, the suspense, enticing, attracting for the readers
The tendency closely follow the historical data still has innovative experiences according to the modernity, not conforming to the classical structural framework, which are showed in only Roman numbering such as I, II, III, IV, V with the specific titles that summarizes the main content of each part In each Roman numbered part, the author divides it into the chapters, and each chapter has the closely opposite clauses or phrases on two parallel sides, highlighting the main content of the whole chapter The narrators participate to comment in the form of rhyming or prose sentences For example,
Tay Son tragic hero story by Le Dinh Danh
In summary, not every work written in the trend of historical novels closely following official history has all the above-mentioned structural formal manifestations, but only a few manifestations of the structure of the novel’s classic chapters The authors also don’t follow all the formal expressions of classical novels, having flexible and dynamic elasticity, showing genre innovation
2.3.2.The multi - seeing points technique
One of the expressions of the efforts in the innovation genre of th ewriters who wrote in the trend
of closely follow the historical data that is using the multi- seeing points technique, the third-person
omniscient seeing spoint moving to the first- person omniscient seeing point addresses “I”, so that many characters who address “I” in the first- person omniscient seeing point directly tell the story The
writer gradually explores the real characters from the private life perspective, gradually towards