Tóm tắt luận án bản tiếng anh: Văn xuôi Việt Nam giai đoạn 1975 đến nay từ cách đọc chấn thương.

Văn xuôi Việt Nam giai đoạn 1975 đến nay từ cách đọc chấn thương.Văn xuôi Việt Nam giai đoạn 1975 đến nay từ cách đọc chấn thương.Văn xuôi Việt Nam giai đoạn 1975 đến nay từ cách đọc chấn thương.Văn xuôi Việt Nam giai đoạn 1975 đến nay từ cách đọc chấn thương.Văn xuôi Việt Nam giai đoạn 1975 đến nay từ cách đọc chấn thương.Văn xuôi Việt Nam giai đoạn 1975 đến nay từ cách đọc chấn thương.Văn xuôi Việt Nam giai đoạn 1975 đến nay từ cách đọc chấn thương.Văn xuôi Việt Nam giai đoạn 1975 đến nay từ cách đọc chấn thương.Văn xuôi Việt Nam giai đoạn 1975 đến nay từ cách đọc chấn thương.Văn xuôi Việt Nam giai đoạn 1975 đến nay từ cách đọc chấn thương.

HANOI NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION

- -DANG HOANG OANH

READING VIETNAMESE PROSE PERIOD 1975 TO

DATE FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF TRAUMA THEORY

Major: Literary Theories Code : 9.22.01.20

A SUMARY OF DOTORAL THESIS ON LITERATURE

The dissertation has been completed at Hanoi National University of Education

Supervisor: 1 Assoc.Prof.Dr Le Luu Oanh

2 Dr Tran Ngoc Hieu

Reviewer 1: Assoc.Prof.Dr Nguyen Van Tung, Viet Nam Education Puplishing House

Reviewer 2: Dr Cao Kim Lan, Vietnam Institute of Literature

Reviewer 3: Assoc.Prof.Dr Tran Van Toan, Hanoi National University of Education

This dissertation will be presented in front of Supervisor Board of Hanoi National University of Education at , on 2022

Dissertation is archived at:

Library of Hanoi National University of Education

1 Rationale

1.1 In the early 1990s, trauma theory emerged as a notable highlight in theAmerican academic context It became a prominent tendency for critical reasoning,

where "many different problems were condensed" (Geoffrey Hartman) With its own

specific materials and creative ways, literature has become an effective means ofhelping people that to avoid injuries In the art forms, literature has been increasinglymanifesting special advantage in its ability to show and preserve the states of humantrauma It not only helps people to look deeply into their experiences and experiences

of humanity in general, but also contributes to questioning history, shed light on thedark of history, finding answers to buried truths

1.2 Vietnam is a land that has suffered many wounds in the past On that basis

of reality, a part of literature will be the voice of the "crying wound." The echo in theflow of literary history has returned more intensely than ever in literature after 1975,because the wounds of the Vietnamese people's war are still festering, and the postwarperiod has revealed many uncertainties Besides the writers who have lived andwritten under the age of blood and fire, there are writers who have never experiencedthe reality of devastating war, but still can the smoldering psychological trauma in thepublic memory In addition, the eternally unstable reality of human life, with modernpsychological traumas is also a hot topic that urges the writer to explore Therecognition of the trauma expressed through literature, on the one hand, helps us to seethe corresponding development of literature with the impulses of life, on the otherhand emphasizes the advantage of literature in naming states of trauma

1.3 Since 1986's reform, literary theories have been introduced to Vietnam,becoming an effective tool to help researchers look at literary phenomena from manyperspective Of course, no theory is universal, but each theory itself elicits thenecessary directions of inquiry Literary research achievements in Vietnam with thelast three decades have proved it Besides semiotics, feminist criticism, ecologicalcriticism, game theory, trauma theory is well known, but has not penetrated deeplyinto academic life in Vietnam, and therefore, its application to literary research is stillquite limited

1.4 For the above reasons, we have chosen the topic of Reading Vietnamese Prose in the period 1975 to the present from the perspective of trauma theory to

research To carry out this topic, we want to present a way of reading: approachingand interpreting contemporary Vietnamese prose - an entity with complex movements

- from the perspective of trauma theory

In an effort to overcome simple interpretations, we hope to carry out ananalysis on the manifestation of trauma and the mechanism of trauma formation withVietnamese literature after 1975 with its inherent appearance

2 Research purposes

To carry out this thesis, we aim at the following basic goals:

- Affirming the position and role of trauma theory with the context of modernhumanistic scientific research of the world, the availability of trauma theory withliterary research

- Affirming the advantages of trauma reading for the Vietnamese prosedepartment after 1975, and from the perspective of trauma theory, explore the uniquecontent of thought as well as the form of expression of some Vietnamese prose worksfrom 1975 to the present

3 Research mission

3.1 First of all, the thesis will re-generalize the with development of traumatheory, interpret basic concepts, give a relatively complete picture of the with formed,development and applicability of trauma theory with literary research

3.2 With this thesis, we use Cathy Caruth's theory as the theoretical circuit thatplays the core role to establish our concept of trauma, combined with other approaches

to build a complete framework in order to understand related literary phenomena

3.3 Applying the the thesis of trauma theory to approach Vietnamese prose inthe period 1975 to the present, we would like to emphasize that the way of readingtrauma can question the mechanisms that cause and preserve the injuries in life; Themechanisms that make people forget about trauma in many cases, especially historicaltraumas

3.4 Surveying the movement of Vietnamese prose from the perspective oftrauma theory, the thesis also focuses on clarifying the typical features with the traumawriting of a part of the writer; seeing research injury can have a strong impact on theway the narrative is organized

4 Objects, scopes and research materials

The object of study of the thesis is first of all trauma theory, which focuses on

the "universal solution" of this concept, including social premises, philosophical basis,with formation and development development, the content aspects of the theory, thepossibility of applying trauma theory with literary research Selecting some of thethat typical points of the researchers, on that basis, we set up a conceptual that withthe study of trauma

From the thesis of trauma theory, the thesis will go into surveying closely theworks of Vietnamese prose from 1975 to the present in the categories: short stories,novels, autobiographies Such a relatively wide range of surveying (both in time andgenre) helps to identify traces and manifestations of trauma with literature at a stage,meeting the requirements of the research topic

5 Research methodology

To implement this topic, the thesis will apply, coordinate the following keyResearch methodology:

- Interdisciplinary research method: Trauma theory is inherently related to

many social sciences and humanities, so an interdisciplinary approach must be usedwhen implementing the research is set forth in the thesis Accordingly, Vietnameseprose from 1975 to now will be approached by us from the following perspectives:philosophy, psychoanalysis, cultology, philology

- System method: Trauma does not exist in isolation, but is just an expression in

human spiritual life The problem of trauma in contemporary Vietnamese prose is alsorelated to many other problems of a literary process Moreover, trauma theory is itself

a system, including many aspects, many components Therefore, applying traumatheory to study literary in reality as determined by the thesis requires applying asystematic method to avoid falling into a one-sided, metaphysical state

- The typological method: Classification of traumatic literature.

- Methods of analyzing the structure of literary texts: Using trauma theory to

study the identified literary in reality, in fact, using that theoretical light to illuminateliterary works Theses about trauma in Vietnamese prose from 1975 to now must bedrawn on the basis of analysis of literary texts Otherwise, there is no other alternative

6 Dissertation contribution

- The thesis is the first work in Vietnam to systematically and methodicallyintroduce trauma theory, its formation process, development, main content and itsapplicability in the study of trauma patients, in which the most prominent is the study

of literature

- The doctoral thesis has shown the practicality of approaching literature fromthe perspective of traumatic theories to solve problems of Vietnamese prose from

1975 to now Especially, it delves into an analysis of trauma in everyday life,contributing to broadening the scope of traumatic literature This is a gap that hasnever been analyzed in previous studies

- The study of trauma in Vietnamese prose from 1975 up to now not only helps

to discover the depth of a part of literature, affirms the specificity (ethnicity, history)and universality (humanity) of Vietnamese prose, but also sees a potential space forliterary creativity in the current situation In the current context of integration andglobalization, it is very meaningful to test the effectiveness of applying moderntheories to the survey of Vietnamese literary

7 Thesis structure

In addition to Introduction, Conclusion, References, the thesis consists of 4

chapters:

Chapter 1 Research overview

Chapter 2 Trauma identification and trauma literature

Chapter 3 Some trauma topics in Vietnamese prose from 1975 to date

Chapter 4 Traumatic and narrative structure in Vietnamese prose from 1975 to date.

Chapter 1 RESEARCH SITUATION OVERVIEW 1.1 Trauma theory as a literary reading

The word “theory” is derived from “Theoria” (θεωρία), an ancient Greek termsmeaning “contemplation of the nature of things” Literary Theory is concerned withinterpreting the meaning of texts in this world, which also means presenting a way ofreading Essentially, it means searching, constructing, and questioning the meanings oflife The object of reading here is the discourse in the broad sense, not just the verbaltext And those discourses of life are not viewed on a single aspect, but from manyperspectives That explains there has been a constantly increasing number of theories,the history of literary criticism is the history of the constant movement of theories.Thereading of trauma theory itself pertain dynamic characteristics It is the evolution from

a sympto matic reading to a reflective reading which can exert influence back on thereality That dynamism comes from the robust movements of the discourses of thistheory: the transition in the meaning of this trauma concept, the creation of traumatheory paradigms through each stage of development, each divergence of this theory–the path we will systematically introduce below By looking a theory on the course ofhuman history not only helps us to have a broad view of the vitality and applicability

of the theory, which has become an important category in theoretical discourse andcriticism, and contemporary commentary, but also helps us to assess the usability of areading based on the special terminologies and analysis suggested by the theorists ofthis trend

1.2 The stages of trauma theory

1.2.1 Stage one: the dawn of trauma theory

From the second half of the nineteenth century, in England, under the Victorianera, the term "trauma" changed its connotation from physical injury to psychologicaltrauma That meaningful turning point stems from the terrible train accident events inwhich the victims of those accidents suffered both physical injuries and mental

obsessions In 1860, John Ericsson - an English doctor in the work On railways and other injuries of the nervous system recorded a patient's psychological response

pattern related to railway accidents Ericsson hypothesized that the direct physicalcause for this phenomenon stems from spinal shock That term appeared a lot in themedical and legal discourse of this period, in which physical disorders such as fear,

anxiety, shock, etc are considered to be the origin of the medical system of trauma inthe modern Western society

This concept of trauma is primarily associated with Freud's name, and trauma theory

is, therefore, is a part of psychoanalysis

1.2.2 Second Stage: the rise of trauma theory

Inheriting the spirit of Freud, Yale researchers in the United States created thefirst movement in building trauma theory in the humanities Early trauma researchersall agreed with Freud's view: trauma challenges re-presentation ability In addition, thetheory of the impact of trauma on the individual's psyche is used to explore theindividual's experience before a traumatic event in the text, thereby connecting theindividual experience and cultural groups, or individuals and political life The mostsignificant names of this period are Cathy Caruth, Shoshana Felman, GeoffreyHartman

1.2.3 Third stage: diversification, multilateralization of trauma theory

Lateral trauma theory, on the one hand, continues the ideological path of itspredecessor, on the other hand, seeks new directions of expression In the next injuryresearch trend, many people return to doubt the Cathy Caruth's point Prominentamong the critical, questioning voices of this period's trauma research is the view of

Ruth Leys Like Ruth Leys, Dominick Lacapra puts history at the heart of many

interesting issues in the context of contemporary humanities Followed by other viewsfrom Michael Bernard - Donals and Richard Glejzer, Michelle Balaev, Barry Stampfl,Herman Rapaport, J Roger Kurtz… All shownthe efforts of post-Caruthianresearchers in finding a new model for trauma theory Apparently, more than twodecades since Cathy Caruth's treatise research published, trauma research has

gradually moved itself to a new turning point Trauma criticism is increasingly expanding its research scope, combining and resonating with many branches of contemporary theory

1.3 Reading trauma and Vietnamese prose period 1975 to date

1.3.1 Vietnamese prose after 1975 – material for reading trauma

The fact that prose composing from 1975 to now has shown that the domesticliterature is abundant in material which invites readings from concepts and terms of aforeign theory Traces of trauma began to show more clearly in the compositions ofsome writers such as Nguyen Minh Chau, Nguyen Trong Oanh, Nguyen Tri Huan,

Nguyen Huy Thiep, Bui Ngoc Tan, Ho Anh Thai, Nguyen Binh Phuong, and Vo Thi.Hao, Nguyen Ngoc Tu, Phan Thuy Ha, Nguyen Khac Ngan Vi The messy andcomplicated situation of Vietnamese prose after 1975 demonstrates that it is fullycapable of providing a vivid material for trauma reading, through a theoretical point ofview, opening a new perspective and revealing a lot of hidden aspects, deepening thehidden corners of the human psychological world – aspects that were previouslyunrecognized or simply understood

1.3.2 Overview of the history of Vietnamese prose research from 1975 to present from the perspective of trauma

The approach to trauma in Vietnamese literature in general and Vietnameseprose after 1975 in particular diverge in two main directions The first directionsubscribes to the belief that Vietnam's trauma literature is influenced by the Chinesetrauma literature The second direction approaches, and analyzes some Vietnameseprose phenomena in the light of Western trauma theory, typically the thought of CathyCaruth Trauma is still perceived in the most general sense, as terrible events, shocksbeyond the threshold that affect the psychological state of a person

Another point that can be easily seen in the trauma research in Vietnam is thatthe articles are still heavily inclined to describe and classify injuries, thereby servesthe main purpose of discovering topics in literature rather than understanding trauma

as a mechanism and source of narrative The authors still pay attention to the externaleffects on the human psyche rather than the inner workings of psycho-neural activity

as well as the operation of memory and forgetting, the late return of memory as one ofthe mechanisms that initiate human injury

Summary of Chapter 1

Above, the authors emphasized the significance of trauma reading as a literaryreading and its possibilities for the text; and outlined the current situation of traumatheory research in the world - one of the theoretical systems that has the potential tothrive in today's dynamic academic context, as well as the potential of application inthe context of Vietnamese prose after 1975

Chapter 2 TRAUMA IDENTIFICATION AND TRAUMA LITERATURE

2.1 The thesis's conception of trauma

On the basis of analysing Cathy Caruth's conceptions of trauma combined withthe discourse of contemporary trauma criticism, we establish the connotation of theterm trauma through the following main features:

Trauma, understood in the most general sense, is mental trauma - describes theinner experience of people when faced with sudden, terrible events, whereby the verynature of the events that put people in a state of being unaware of the nature of thetrauma at the first moment Therefore, trauma is only recognized in the process ofrecall, in the chain of memories anchored in the depths of the human unconscious

The core of the injury is still the facts However, the significance's boundary oftraumatic event should be widened If only narrowing the understanding in a singlesense, thinking that traumatic events are debacles that occur in human life (war,disaster), inadvertently, a part of literature written about violence in everyday life will

be excluded from the flow of trauma literature Traumatic events can also coverdiverse manifestations of repressive mechanisms in everyday life, making traumamore recognizable through the aftershocks of the crisis of the self

The injury works according to the mechanism of the unconscious The initialpain, obsession, and overwhelm is not really trauma until, at a very distant point intime, unconsciously activates the pain mechanism, disturbing the psychological life,bursting into inner crises, causing severe mental sequelae Injury, thereby creatingdissociation, fracture in consciousness, even pushing people to the limit of endurance:loss of voice, madness, silence, sleepwalking, etc

2.2 Mechanism of formation and operation of trauma

2.2.1 Violence

Trauma always stems from a terrible event for the individual and thecommunity, especially, community trauma plays a code on the fate of the individual.From the violent event or upheaval of history, one can see the mechanism of violence,

as well as how violence destroys and annihilates the self Originally the history ofmankind, through stories, myths have always been able to evoke so many memories ofviolence and suffering from prehistory that people have had to use stories to disguise

it Trauma begins with such blurred violence It is the unrelenting obsession with the

violent nature of violence, the very mechanism that works in the way of memoryreconstruction, that is what causing pain

2.2.2 Potential violence

Looking deeply into trauma discourse, one can clearly see traces ofmarginalizations, of non-centered values that are subject to violent repression.However, besides the visible violence that provokes historical storms, distorts the lives

of each individual, there is also an invisible brutality that is more subtle, moredelicate, but equally inimical It is violence that is legitimized by social norms,disguised by ideals and stereotypes Not only in times of war, or in the tumult ofhistory, but even in everyday life, people are also vulnerable to the mechanisms thatcause pain What lies default and acceptable in social life turns out to contain amultitude of traumatic factors that are very subtly pernicious

2.3 Classification of trauma literature

With a sense of building a complete framework of trauma theory in order toexamine and test a reading style for Vietnamese prose after 1975, we use the concept

of witness prose and sequential prose to distinguish these two regions of this literary

flow

2.3.1 Witness prose

We would like to recall an event: in 2015, the Nobel Prize Committee forLiterature named Svetlana Alexievich, a Belarusian journalist and writer, because sheaffirmed the position of a silent but equally powerful flow of literature: literature ofwitness Considering Cathy Caruth's traumatic Model of the role of memory andforgetting, it can be seen that the birth of the literature of witness really makes sensewhen trying to get close to from what people have to forget, from memories withdarkness, from deep with the subconscious Since World War II, literature of witnesshas blossomed, developing into an “age of testimony” (as used by Shoshan Felman),where painful history is told in a different style As a result, literature of witness oftenraises a that important issue of trauma literature: the question of morality D u ngẫ ười

tr n thu t gi u mình đi, đ ch n thầ ậ ấ ể ấ ương t nó c t ti ng, hay d n thân vào khu yự ấ ế ấ ấlên dòng kí c b quên lãng, thì h v n là nh ng ngứ ị ọ ẫ ữ ười đã vi t lên l ch s theo chínhế ị ử

c m nh n r t ngả ậ ấ ười

2.3.2 Văn xuôi d ch n ư ấ

If the literature of witness instills in readers' minds the brutality and horror of

traumatic events, thereby questioning history, questioning mechanisms that do notallow trauma to speak, then trauma literature is interested in the psychologicalexperience of people, where the trauma is not completely nullified but continues todevelop into other identities

Here, when we go into the classification of literature of witness and aftershockliterature, we have tried to show that thin line in order to see two bold colors of thecommon picture, where human pain always voiced, revealed in any form

Summary of chapter 2

In Chapter 2, we revise the understanding of the concept of trauma that hasbeen mentioned in several literatures After establishing the definition of trauma, weproceed to classify trauma, with its arising and operating mechanisms, thereby

identifying the nature of literature of witness and aftershock literature – two

fundamental divisions of trauma literature

Chapter 3 SOME TOPICS ON TRAUMA IN VIETNAM'S PROSE

PERIOD 1975 TO DATE

3.1 Historical trauma

Vietnamese literature before 1975 showed signs of trauma However, it is theromantic inspiration and epic sound that has blurred what belongs to the human being,including mental trauma When the war gradually receded into the past, peoplereturned to their personal lives, the existential crisis was clearly revealed In a worldwhere the trauma still lingers from the great national event, literature is more capablethan other discourses at recounting human suffering Therefore, if the traumaticexperience in Vietnamese prose in the period before 1975 was an "unrecognizedexperience", then after 1975, when each individual was relieved of the burden of

"historical mission" for people, they are observed in a multifaceted perspective, put inall kinds of contexts and reveal all the mechanisms that make up the most miserableand painful situations of human life

3.1.1 Mechanism of formation of historical trauma themes

3.1.1.1 The violence of war and the regression of memory

If trauma is seen as an experience that precedes extreme concussions, then war

is the most terrible shock of mankind It is difficult to find in human history eventsthat can compare with war in terms of human destruction It upsets the balance of life,forcing people to face brutal and inhuman situations With that world, from soldier ofthe "lost generation" lives with the persistent obsession of the ghosts of the past,making from the wounds of the past still throbbing on the body even after it hasreached the skin Clearly, events of a horribly violent nature are the source of humanmisery/crisis The characters in Vietnamese prose in the post-1975 period were also

placed in that tragic situation (Kien in Thân ph n tình yêu ậ by Bao Ninh, Quy in Chim

én bay (Flying Swallow) by Nguyen Tri Huan, the characters in Đ ng k tên tôi ừ ể (Don't Tell My Name) by Phan Thuy Ha…) In the whirlwind of war, people become

small, vulnerable, easily crushed under the wheels of history

3.1.1.2 Land reform – a dark twist

Land reform is a major event in the life of the Vietnamese community, as well