kí như một loại hình diễn ngôn tóm tắt tiếng anh bản chuẩn

Approaching the theory and historical types of nonfiction in terms of discourse theory, the thesis addressed conflicts between the traditionaltheorical research and the practice of nonfi

1 Rationale

1.1 Nonfiction (Ky) is an important genre of literature However, it is

very difficult to identify its features because of its diversity and complexity.Nonfiction writings were generated in the very early stage with a wide range ofworks All works which do not belong to narrative, lyric, political commentaryand dramas are classified as non-fiction There are various types of nonfictionand it is difficult to find their common characteristics These types include notes,reportage, life stories, narrative chronicles In its long history of development,the appearance of nonfiction kept changing This made the later nonfictionworks such as notes, reportage much different from inscription, chronicle(nonfiction types in the Middle Ages) which were generated at the earlydevelopment stage of this genre As a result of all those above reasons,identifying the features of this genre becomes a challenge for researchers

1.2 According to Vietnamese theory of nonfiction, the record of truthwas often considered as the most importance feature This theory also definedthe truth in the opposite relationship with fiction This led to various debates onnonfiction in literature history The debate on Vu Trong Phung’s reportages in1936-1939 and another one on features of nonfiction in 1960 can be taken asexamples This interpretation of nonfication could not resolve thoroughly someproblems encountered in practice For that reason, another approach to thisliterature genre is significantly necessary

1.3 In the beginning of twentieth century, there was an importantmovement in theoretical mindset of social sciences and humanities; which wascalled language turn Based on the a profound awareness of the role, function,and nature of languages, thinkers such as M.Bakhtin, Foucault, R.Barthes,J.Derrida re-defined many key problems including reality, subject, truth,

nature From this foundation, a new model of literature and cultural researchgradually replaced the old one based on reflecting theory Since then, literatureand cultural phenomena have not been identified by referring it to true reality,but located it in the network of surrounding, previous and following discourses.Furthermore, literature is no longer researched as a closed language text andscholars always try to find formation structure of text which is deeply undercultural layers In this research model, the concept of discourse plays such a keyrole that it is very difficult to grasp theories of the twentieth century’s literatureand culture without understanding the inner meaning of discourse This theoryprovided the author with a new approach to nonfiction, helped resolveoutstanding problems in practice and brought a new view into this familiarliterary genre.

1.4 Approaching the theory and historical types of nonfiction in terms

of discourse theory, the thesis addressed conflicts between the traditionaltheorical research and the practice of nonfiction Besides, it also pointed out thetypical features, classification system and development rule of nonfiction inhistory This new theorical model brought a new look and helped re-definenonfiction phenomena and certainly potential for researches

CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW

This part presented various concepts of nonfiction in literaryresearches in Vietnam, China and Russia Due to limited time and data resource,the central attention is paid to the analysis on changes in concepts of nonfiction

in Vietnam Based on the collected data, the author pointed out gaps andoutstanding problems in the traditional theory A new approach into nonfiction

in terms of discourse perspective was also proposed

1 Nonfiction in traditional theory in Vietnam

- In the Middle Ages, concepts of nonfiction could be founded in the

beginning and ending section of book such as Lam Son thuc luc, Trung Hung thuc luc by Ho Sy Duong or cultural researches such as Lich trieu hien chuong loai chi by Phan Huy Chu A typical concept reflected in those books is that: nonfiction is a record of the real events This concept later became the

foundation for the theory of nonfiction

- According to concepts defined in art discussions and literarycriticism in the early 20th century, such genres as truyen ki, reportage, ki su,travel writing were considered as the recording of real and updated events.Besides, realistic description was seen as the rule for recording real events innonfiction works

- From 1945 to 1986 in Vietnam, nonfiction was paid the centralattention In 1960s, there was a debate on nonfiction on Arts journal Nonfictionwas also the theme of many critics, literary researchers and theorist Thetheoretical system of nonfiction was built based on Vietnamese nonfictionpractice, mainly in period from 1945 to 1986, and the theoretical system ofnonfiction in Soviet Union Based on this foundation, Vietnamese researchersoften defined the typical feature of nonfiction as recording real events Thisabove system had significant influence on the composition, criticism and

reaseaches of nonfiction at that time The nonfiction work on revolutionary war and the construction of socialism by Ha Minh Duc can be taken as the typical

example of this theory

- Since 1986, researches on nonfiction have been applying this theory.The research scope has been widened in the following directions: formingtheoretical system of nonfiction; researching historical types on nonfiction such

as medieval nonfiction, Vietnamese nonfiction from the early 20th century to1945…; surveying the formation and development of nonfiction sub-genres in

history; researching authors’ styles and values of nonfiction works Theexpansion showed the diversified and varying appeance of this literary genre

2 Nonfition in some foreign data.

In China

In Chinese literature, there is also a literary genre which records realevents and is called nonfiction However, the names of this genre, its contentand classification is not very clear and not similar to Vietnamese nonfictiontheory

In Soviet Union

Most treatises and literary dictionaries in Soviet Union describednonfiction as the record of real events Some theoretical works including

Elements of literary theory by Timofeep, Introduction of researching literature

by Gulaiep emphasized that the description of real events and typification werethe most important characteristic of this genre Those concepts stronglyimpacted Vietnamese nonfiction theory

All of the above collected concepts showed that in most literatures inthe world exist a genre which focused on recording real events and real people

It belongs to the contact zone between literature and non-literature Nonfictionhad some common characteristics of structure and form However, the name andcontent of nonfiction was different among different countries and differenthistorical stages of the same literature For that reason, it is difficult to apply aunique theoretical model for the research on nonfiction in Vietnam Theimplicating and diversifying practice of Vietnamese nonfiction also requires atheory deriving from this practice

3 Problem statements

Related research on nonfiction in Vietnam and other countries hasrevealed some gaps in the theory of nonfiction in Vietnam

3.1 As an attempt to figure out the characteristics of nonfiction,researchers agree that reality is the nuclear element of the genre; however, theconcept of reality as well as the relationship between reality and fiction hasremained a controversial issue.

3.2 In reference to the reality of nonfiction writing, there appear variousunresolved issues: In medieval-time nonfiction, the reality described was full ofmiraculous and fabulous details, in 1930-1945 reportage, there were only theharsh reality of social evils, in 1945-1976 nonfiction, it was the mere existence

of pleasant reality, etc

3.3 Referring to the approach to characteristics of nonfiction, almostresearchers follow function, history or modality approach; none of themconsider nonfiction a discourse

Therefore, the authors choose to regard to the characteristics of nonfiction

as a discourse so that those above problems can be solved theoretically andpractically

4 Discourse and a new mode of formulating the theory of nonfiction

The concept of Discourse was defined long time ago yet before the 20th

century, it was only used in linguistics, as rhetoric Since the 20th century, duringthe language turn, the concept of discourse has implied new connotations whichwere associated with a new approach of literature and culture study, becoming akey term in social sciences and humanity

It can be said that those new connotations deeply rooted from work by thethree greatest thinkers in the 20th century namely F.de Saussure, M.Bakhtin andM.Foucault This issue has been addressed in detail in the research entitled “Thethree approaches of the concept discourse” Among the main points are asfollow

First, according to structural linguists, discourse is the structure oflanguage/parole, which is the rule of organizing words in a certain order

Second, according to M.Bakhtin, discourse is ideology-verbal.

Third, according to M.Foucault, in the broad meaning, discourse isconsidered general statements under impact of a force but in narrow meaning, it

is a group of specific statements which conventionally exist in the same context,have same origin and are reunited under the pressure of an institution Besides,discourse is used for describing a practice which draws up a great deal ofstatements and affects their functions along with rules and structures whichmake specific discourses and texts

To sum up, three above approaches to the discourse have provided threedifferent definitions of discourse including discourse as a structure of languageand verbalization, discourse as ideology- verbalization, and discourse as tool formaking up knowledge and implementing power It is the most importantmeaning supplementing to the traditional definition of discourse, at the sametime, is the most popular meaning used in researching literature and culture.Through summarizing the main approaches to discourse, it is clear that althoughthe approaches to definition are different, there are also following generalpoints:

First, discourse is a system of signs which is difficult for explaining unless weunderstand their code Otherwise, every scholar have different viewpoint ofdiscourse code Structuralists assume that language code is deeply hidden in thestructure of discourse According to M.Bakhtin, analysis of verbalization andideology is a method to approach to a discourse Researcher Foucault believesthat the final target of discourse analysis is pointing out the institution of powerhidden in language

Second, scholars reckon that discourse has a structure In accordance withstructuralists under influence of F.Saussure, discourse has a similar structurewith grammatical structure of sentence so it can be analyzed following tense,mode, mood and voice Basing on M.Foucalt’s viewpoint, there are outer and

inner structures which impacts the establishment, operation and distribution ofdiscourses The inner structures include episteme, statement, discourse ordiscourses, archive and inner exclusion of discourse while the outer structurescomprise of comments, rites and authors.

On the basis of acquiring and inheriting these experiences, we carried outidentifying the definition of discourse as a tool for a new researching system of

Ki Discourse is understood as institution making up the text under the effect ofcultural codes Basing on this definition, we have identified 2 core of discoursestructure consisting of genre code and ideological code

CHAPTER 2: GENERIC CODE AND CHARACTERISTICS OF NONFICTION

2.1 An overview of code, generic code and generic code of nonfiction

- Code: the principle of identifying the relationship between informationand signal, in communication, code is the element establishing the relationshipbetween the sender and the receiver, the message and its meaning Code is alanguage as there are units and the rules to organize those units into a systemwhich helps to transfer information

- Generic code: the principle of establishing the relationship between theinformation and the genre, which works as an intermediary between the writerand readers

- As a discourse, nonfiction is influenced by two codes: nonliterary codeand literary code

2.2 Nonliterary code (discourse of reality) as the atomic structure of nonfiction

2.2.1 First person story-teller as a witness

There always exits a story-teller calling himself or herself “I”, whowitnesses and makes comments on the world described in nonfiction He or she

is always specified with such information as the author’s biography In order toenhance the witnessed story-teller’s truthfulness, the author typically createscommunicative situations in which the story-teller directly meets and talks tocharacters.

2.2.2 Unique specific characters, events, space and time

In nonfiction, there always exit unique specific characters, events, spaceand time, which create a glossary of reality reflected in nonfiction writings andclearly distinguish it from other literary genres This glossary of reality helps toenhance the persuasiveness of nonfiction work in term of truthfulness of thoseevents described

2.2.3 Logical structure of reality

Typically, the glossary of reality is organized according to linear order,causal logic or the logic of narrator “I”’s subjective world As nonfictionwritings in medieval time is influenced by historical discourses, it is generallyorganized into chronicles, record stories or research Reportages in the period of1930-1945 are usually organized according to the structure of investigative orresearch ones This structure remarks the objective logic of life reality, whichcan be regarded as the grammar of reality

2.2.4 Modes of reflecting reality

With the aim of shortening the distance between narration and reality,filming, photo taking, sound recording and montage of other documentationtypes are usually utilized

2.3 Literary code and characteristics of nonfiction

Primarily, nonfiction is a functional genre which aims at reportinginformation and events However, in the development process, this functionbecome more and more secondary; since the 18th century, many pieces of Ky has

become literary work such as Notes taken on rainy days (Vũ trung tùy bút Phạm Đình Hổ), Capital travel reports (Thượng Kinh kí sự - Lê Hữu Trác).

-This process leads to the existence of the second generic code in the atomicstructure of nonfiction - literary code, which can be recognized by thoseelements:

2.3.1 The image of people and the picture of world

- Though characters and events in nonfiction are not clearly shown, theyare faithfully reflected through a wide range of outside details and descriptions

of portrait, action, scenery and such Those descriptions make out “theredundancy” of nonfiction in comparison with the genre frame of chronicles,record stories and research, which results in artistic value and attractiveness ofnonfiction as well

- Nonfiction work is full of symbolic and metaphoric images Theseimages lead to the depth and polysemy of work

2.3.2 The story frame

- Events in nonfiction are always organized into a narrative documentwith an opening and an ending The modes of opening and ending are typicallyconformed to some certain rules and motifs: travel writings are opened with thenarrator “I”’s departure, reportages are ended at the end of the investigation,memoirs about monarchs and famous mandarins in medieval time are openedwith the motif of miraculous breeding and such

- Despite distant relation, events in nonfiction are usually organized into astory, which reveals a certain meaning Reportages in the period of 1930-1945 istypically with events organized into stories about the universal fact in which allthe things and characters are described as on the journey to the darkness, thedeath and corruption Meanwhile, reportages in the period of 1945-1975 istypically with events organized into stories of the beginning in which all thethings and characters are on the journey of reformation and revival

- Typically, events that appear to be unconnected in tan van, tuy but are

put underneath a story frame with the narrator “I”’s viewpoint The appearance

of the narrator makes the work more flexible but with a cohesive meaning.Eventually, objective report figures organized according to a certain rule canstill narrate a story which conveys some meanings Besides, narrative rhythmcan be fast or slow, stressed or unstressed, contributing to the reflection ofmeaning.

Therefore, the process of organizing the glossary of reality into a story isalso the process of adding a new meaning to the work, beyond the denotation.The discourse of reality is just the material to convey a certain artistic meaning.This structure mode results in interesting, meaningful and philosophical pieces

of work

2.3.3 Stylization

- Different from neutral and objective style of such genres as history,journal and research, the style of nonfiction is the artistic style with uniqueness,emotion and the appearance of various modes of meaning transference such asmetaphor, simile, repetition, hyperbole, litotes and irony

2.4 The interaction between codes

2.4.1 The institution and mutuality between nonliterary and literary codes

In nonfiction work, nonliterary and literary codes interact and havemutual impacts on each other In the structure of nonfiction, there exist literarycode but it is influenced by nonliterary code, thus all the literary elements areput in a certain frame The impact of nonliterary code on literary code canhardly lead Ky writings to the state of being disintegrated and unstructured asother literary genres

As a result of the tie between factual code and artistic code, it is difficultfor nonfiction compositions to achieving disintegrating and non- structural statuslike other types of artistic literature By contrast, artistic code makes factualcode more flexible and attractive While factual language, which helpsnonfiction direct intervene in social life together with pioneer in literature in

special and cultural life in general; artistic language helps nonfiction become anequivocal, indirect and implicate verbal form Therefore, artistic language could

be able to thread its way through the limitations of censorship Theinterminglement, institution and mutual support between two these codes builds

a powerful verbal strategy for nonfiction in comparison with other literaturesorts as well as factual discourses

2.4.2 Interaction between factual code and artistic code in practically nonfiction writings.

Observing practically nonfiction composition in Vietnam, it is realizedthat in developmental process of nonfiction, factual code regularly takesdominant position in initial period while artistic code overwhelms in flourishingperiods of the literature Kinds of nonfiction which tend to use factual code oftenboom in relatively democratic and opening cultural environment On the otherhand, artistic code becomes leading language in nonfiction compositions in non-democratic cultural environment Furthermore, genre codes of nonfiction areunder influence of popular verbal types in a culture (The medieval nonfiction isaffected by historical discourse, conversely, modern one is impacted byscientific and press discourse)

CHAPTER 3: IDEOLOGICAL CODE AND MOVEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT OF NONFICTION

3.1 Definition of ideology and ideological code

- Ideology is a system of a group of people’s viewpoints, attitudes andbeliefs It tends to suppress and is objectified by a picture of the world and anexpressing pattern of subject

- Ideological code, which is a regulation of establishing the relationshipbetween one group of subject and real life, belongs to cultural structure of aperiod and a community