Teaching syllabus FOR INTERNAL CIRCULATION ENGLISH FOR LITERATURE (for literature students)

MAJOR FORMs Poetry Poetry is a form of literary art which uses aesthetic and rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meanings in addition to, or in place of, prosaic ostensible meaning.[

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUẢNG BÌNH

KHOA NGOẠI NGỮ

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Teaching syllabus FOR INTERNAL CIRCULATION ENGLISH FOR LITERATURE (For literature students) Tran Thi Phuong Tu

Quang Binh, 2017

This course of English for literature is designed to meet non- English major students’

needs of English in their literature course provided by Quang Binh University The

purpose of this course is to help students in understanding of the specific words and

academic words regarding British, American and Vietnam Literature Students who

master those knowledge of literature can be able to read more academic materials and

authentic books for their professional development of Prose, Poetry or Drama They also,

may publish their articles in English through the international press

It is hoped that learners will find the course useful and practical The material presented

here borrows heavily from online website sources listed in Reference This book is used

internally for Quang Binh students only

Quang Binh, 2016

INTRODUCTION 1

CONTENTS 2

Unit 1: LITERATURE 3

MAJOR FORMs 3

Poetry 3

Prose 5

Drama 7

Unit 2- LITERATURE OF VIETNAM 8

Vietnamese Language History 8

Modern literature before 1945 13

Modern Literature 1945-1975 15

UNIT 3- VIETNAMESE AUTHORS 21

Unit 4- THE TALES OF KIEU 24

UNIT 5: DUMB LUCK 28

UNIT 6: AMERICAN AND BRITISH LITERATURE 31

UNIT 7- FOREIGN AUTHORS 35

UNIT 8: THE LAST LEAF 39

UNIT 9: HAMLET 41

UNIT 10: THE SCARLET LETTER 43

REFERENCE 45

Unit 1: LITERATURE

Literature, in its broadest sense, is any single body of written works More restrictively,

it is writing considered as an art form, or any single writing deemed to have artistic or intellectual value, often due to deploying language in ways that differ from ordinary usage It was used to refer to all written accounts, though contemporary definitions extend the term to include texts that are spoken or sung (oral literature) Literature can be classified according to whether it is fiction or non-fiction and whether it

is poetry or prose; it can be further distinguished according to major forms such as the novel, short story or drama; and works are often categorized according to historical periods or their adherence to certain aesthetic features or expectations (genre)

MAJOR FORMs

Poetry

Poetry is a form of literary art which uses aesthetic and rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meanings in addition to, or in place of, prosaic ostensible meaning.[13] Poetry has traditionally been distinguished from prose by its being set in verse;[a] prose is cast insentences, poetry in lines; the syntax of prose is dictated by meaning, whereas that of poetry is held across metre or the visual aspects of the poem.[18] Prior to the nineteenth century, poetry was commonly understood to be something set in metrical lines; accordingly, in 1658 a definition of poetry is "any kind of subject consisting of Rythm or Verses".[13] Possibly as a result of Aristotle's influence (his Poetics), "poetry" before the nineteenth century was usually less a technical designation for verse than a normative category of fictive or rhetorical art.[4] As a form it may pre-date literacy, with the earliest works being composed within and sustained by an oral tradition;[19][20] hence it constitutes the earliest example of literature

Biển

Anh không xứng là biển xanh

Nhưng anh muốn em là bờ cát trắng

Suốt ngàn năm bên sóng

Anh xin làm sóng biếc

The Sea

I don't deserve to be the ocean blue But I want thee to be the white beach sand The sandy beach stretching calmly its hue Under the crystal sun

The comely beach of yellow sand Extending to the rows of pine

So dreamily and quietly For eons by the roaring brine

Let me be the clear turquoise swells That kiss ceaseless thy yellow sand

Hôn thật khẽ, thật êm

Hôn êm đềm mãi mãi

Cho đến mãi muôn đời

Ngập bến của ngày đêm

Anh không xứng là biển xanh

Nhưng cũng xin làm bể biếc

Một tình chung không hết,

Để những khi bọt tung trắng xóa

Và gió về bay tỏa nơi nơi

Như hôn mãi ngàn năm không thỏa,

Bởi yêu bờ lắm lắm, em ơi !

There're times when I would fain surge in

As if to crush thy edges dear It's when my billows roar passion

To drown thee in ceaseless love sheer

I don't deserve to be the ocean blue But want to be the turquoise sea

To sing eternal songs by thee

In endless love for dear thee true

So when the foam comes boiling white And wind gusts in from everywhere, Insatiably I'll kiss with might 'Cause I love so thy sand edge bare

Translated by Thomas D Le

28 October 2004

Đây Mùa Thu Tới

Rặng liễu đìu hiu đứng chịu tang

Tóc buồn buông xuống lệ ngàn hàng

Đây mùa thu tới mùa thu tới

Với áo mơ phai dệt lá vàng

Hơn một loài hoa đã rụng cành

Trong vườn sắc đỏ rũa màu xanh

Những luồng run rẩy rung rinh lá

Đôi nhánh khô gầy sương mỏng manh

Thỉnh thoảng nàng trăng tự ngẩn ngơ

Non xa khởi sự nhạt sương mờ

Đã nghe rét mướt luồn trong gió

Đã vắng người sang những chuyến đò

Mây vẩn từng không, chim bay đi

Here Comes Autumn

The grieving willows droop in deep mourning,

Their sad hair streaming like teardrops falling

Here comes autumn, here comes the

Khí trời u uất hận chia ly

Ít nhiều thiếu nữ buồn không nói

Tựa cửa nhìn xa nghĩ ngợi gì

High in the cloudy sky the birds flee on While the leaden air broods o'er the parting

A few sad girls against the door lean in silence

Looking pensively into the distance

(From Poetry Poetry, 1938)

Drama is literature intended for performance.[42] The form is often combined with music and dance, as in opera and musical theatre A play is a subset of this form, referring to the written dramatic work of a playwright that is intended for performance in a theatre; it comprises chiefly dialogue between characters, and usually aims at dramatic or theatrical performance rather than at reading A closet drama, by contrast, refers to a play written to

be read rather than to be performed; hence, it is intended that the meaning of such a work can be realized fully on the page.[43] Nearly all drama took verse form until comparatively recently

Unit 2- LITERATURE OF VIETNAM Vietnamese Language History

Some 3,000 years ago, communities of Mon-Khmer and Tay people merged in the northern Red River and Ma River Deltas These two groups developed a shared language, known as Viet-Muong, which was composed of two main dialects Lowlanders spoke what was known as the “City” dialect, while people in midland and mountain regions spoke the “Highlanders” dialect

About 60 percent of modern Vietnamese words are of Chinese origin Many basic words, like geographical terms, were adopted from monotonal Mon-Khmer languages, while tonality came from Tai In Vietnamese, each syllable has one of six tones, which completely alters the meaning of the word, and one, two or three of 11 distinct vowel sounds This is a complicated language, which, not surprisingly, has a complicated past

The Chinese

Chu Nom – VietnameseThe Chinese annexed Giao Chi (the Tonkin Delta) in 111 A.D In

a bid to assimilate the lowland Viets, they introduced a Chinese-style administrative system headed by Chinese governors, and opened schools to teach Chinese characters During the 1,000 years of Chinese rule, while Han (classical Chinese) was the official written language, the spoken language continued to develop The City dialect became the common Viet language, while the Highlanders dialect developed into the present Muong language By the l0th century, when the Viets recovered their independence and established the nation of Dai Viet, the linguistic spilt between Viet and Muong was complete

Through the following ten centuries of national independence, the Vietnamese imperial court and ruling classes continued to emulate Chinese cultural practices Civil service exams and academic literature were written in Chinese characters The spoken language, however, was Vietnamese, and here arose a paradox: the script approved by the imperial court was not used to transcribe the national language Instead, the Viets adapted Chinese characters into their own script, chữ nôm, a half-phonetic and half-ideographic writing system

According to the annals, Han Thuyen became the first poet to write in chữ nôm at the end

of the 13th century Chinese characters were still used for Chinese-style Tang dynasty poetry and for literary prose, such as Hoang Le Nhat Thong Chi (A Tale of the Later Le Dynasty), Truyen Ky Man Luc (A Random Collection of Fantastic Stories and Linh Nam Trich Quai, (A Collection of the Supernatural Beings of Linh Nam)

In the 17th and 18th centuries, poets used chữ nôm to write some of Vietnam’s most

famous literary classics, including narrative poems like Nguyen Du’s Kim Van Kieu (The Tale of Kieu), and Chinh Phu Ngam (Laments of a Warrior’s Wife), a long lyrical poem translated from the original Chinese by Doan Thi Diem, a woman poet

However, while many poems were written in chữ nôm, most other texts were written in Han characters In fact, the mandarin class held national and popular culture in such contempt that, at one point, chữ nôm was officially banned Since there was no official, uniform system for transcribing the Vietnamese language with chữ nôm, authors developed their own rules This has led to many interpretations of literature written in

chữ nôm.

Loan Word

Due to frequent contacts between Vietnam and China, the Vietnamese language absorbed many Han words Today, many of these “loan-words” have been Vietnamized to such an extent that few people are aware of their Chinese origins Examples include Tiền (money), Hàng (goods/merchandise), chợ (market), and Mùa (season) A second group of literary terms, known as “Sino-Vietnamese” words, was assimilated into Vietnamese during the Tang era (5th to 7th century) These terms are incompletely Vietnamized When speaking, one may not mix these two types of words

For example, since a one-syllable “pure” Vietnamese word for mountain (núi) already exists, one should not use the Chinese counterpart (sơn-which also means mountain) to build a sentence like “Tôi lên sơn” (I climb the mountain) The word núi must be used instead But, one may use the Chinese synonym sơn to replace nói in two-syllable words, such as in the sentence: “Có cô sơn nữ ở vùng sơn cước hát bài sơn ca trong một sơn trại” (There was a highland girl in a mountain area who was singing a mountain song at a mountain farm)

European Influence

The Roman-based script used in Vietnam today dates back to the 17th century French, Portuguese and Spanish Catholic missionaries, aided by Vietnamese preachers, developed a new writing system as a means of spreading the gospel to a wider audience The man credited with developing the current Roman based Chữ quốc ngữ (script of the national language) is Alexandre De Rhodes, a Frecnh Jesuit missionary who came to Vietnam in 1627 Within six months of his arrival, De Rhodes was reportedly preaching

in fluent Vietnamese

When developing quốc ngữ, De Rhodes and his fellow missionaries faced two

challenges First, since Vietnamese has six tones, they had to add diacritical marks Second, they had to transcribe each monosyllabic word separately, which differed from the ideographic and thus polysyllabic transcription of nôm script

At first, Confucian scholars resisted the adoption of quốc ngữ The spread of this easy to

learn script undermined their power, which was based in traditional scholarship written in

Han characters or chữ nôm Later, budding nationalists also had reservations about quốc

ngữ, calling it a ‘worm-or-cricket-like script created by imperialists” But while few

common people could read or write chữ nôm, the masses readily adopted quốc ngữ Thus,

those same intellectuals who had first denounced quốc ngữ, later saw it a convenient weapon in the fight against colonialism

The leaders of a movement called Đông Kinh Nghĩa Thục (the Free School of Dong Kinh), which arose in the first decade of the 20th century, launched a campaign to teach

the massed about European civilization and quốc ngữ Nguyen Quyen, one of the group’s

members described their goals as follows:

 To open a new era, we turn to the new learning

 To welcome this new movement and build a new life for the people with new books, new media, new writing…

In the first half of the 20th century, quoc ngu greatly facilitated contact between

Vietnamese and Western cultures Following Vietnam’s independence from the French, Vietnamese Government officially recognized quoc ngu as the nation’s official writing system Uncle Ho also advocated movement to Vietnamize words, and founded the Bình Dân Học Vụ (Department for Popularizing Culture) to launch a campaign to eliminate illiteracy

Like every living language, Vietnamese will continue to evolve, absorbing and Vietnamizing words from other cultures

Vietnam Literature

The literary arts, especially poetry, have traditionally been highly prized in Vietnam

There are three main types of Vietnamese literature: 1) Truyen (traditional oral literature); 2) Han Viet (Chinese-Vietnamese literature); 3) Quoc Am (modern literature, or anything written in the romanticized quoc ngu alphabet).

Vietnamese literature was developed at an early date Despite the harsh trials of history

in the form of repeated foreign invasion, its own characteristics remain Vietnamese literature includes two major components which have developed simultaneously and are

profoundly interrelated: Folk literature and written literature.

Folk Literature • Vietnamese folk literature came into being very early and had a

profound effect on the spiritual life of the Viet's The folk literature always praised beauty, humanism, and the love of goodness, and contributed to the formation of a national sense Legends, fairy tales, humorous stories, folk songs, epics and so on have a tremendous vitality and have lived on today

Written Literature • First appeared around the 10th century It had a leading role and

bore the main traits of Vietnamese literature From the 10th century, literary works were written in Han (classical Chinese) and chu nom But since the 16th century, chu nom literature became increasingly popular, and held a prim position by the early 18th century Well-known works written in chu nom included Chinh Phu Ngam by female poet Doan Thi Diem, the Kieu story by Nguyen Du, and chu nom poems of female poet

Ho Xuan Huong These works were the cream of Vietnamese literature However entering the 20th century, works written in classical Chinese disappeared In the 20's, and the following decades, the country's literature was written in Vietnamese quoc ngu (Romanized national language) From then on Vietnamese literature developed constantly, particularly during the two wars of resistance for national liberation Many young authors emerged in the literary circles

Traditionally, Vietnamese literature always featured patriotism, national pride and humanism It was not by chance that great cultural personalities such as Nguyen Trai, Nguyen Du and Ho Chi Minh were also humanists

Vietnamese Folk Stories

Water buffalo have no teeth on their upper jaw According to a Vietnamese folk story the reason for this is that a farmer tricked a tiger while trying to show him what wisdom is and tied him to tree and set him on fire When the tiger finally escaped he kicked out the water buffalo's teeth

The Vietnamese equivalent of Rip van Winkle is a 13th century mandarin named Tu Thuc According to legend, he became so captivated with scenery in a beautiful mountain area that he lost track of time He returned home after what he thought was a year only to find that 60 years had passed

Since coming into existence, Vietnamese literature has been rich in folklore and proverbs; tales that have been handed down from generation to generation, gradually becoming valuable treasures The Muong ethnic group in northern Trung Bo has an epic poem called "de dat, de nuoc" (giving birth to the earth and water), whie the Thai ethnic

group in the north-west has "xong chu xon xao" (seeing off and instructing the loving heart) [Source: Vietnamtourism com, Vietnam National Administration of Tourism ~]

Moon Boy

Long, long time ago there was a clever boy whose name was Cuoi He did nothing with his cleverness but to play trick on people around him He lived with his uncle and aunt who were usually suffered from his cheats Once day Cuoi came to the field and broke the bad new to the uncle that his wife had fell down from the ladder and bled The man was so frighten that he ran to his home without saying a word Cuoi at that time reached the house before his poor uncle by a short cut then broke another bad new to his aunt that her husband was collided by the buffalo and was going to died The poor woman was scared and immediately ran out to the field Suddenly she bumped to a man and recognized that it was her husband who was panting and sweating like her The poor couple came back with anger and decided to imprison him into a bamboo cage then drifted him in the river [Source: Vietnam-culture.com www.vietnam-culture.com |~| ]

In the afternoon when Cuoi was carried to the river's bank, he regretfully said sorry to them and asked them to come back home to bring him a book hidden behind the basket of rice that taught him telling lie as the last favor They both agreed and returned home to satisfy their curiosity without saying a word After that Cuoi saw a blind man passed by

He then asked the man to untight the cage if he wanted to have his eyes cured At last Cuoi was free and hid himself in a bamboo grave and luckily found a jar of gold He came back and gave it to his uncle and his aunt to atone for faults while the poor blind man was waiting for his eyes treated |~|

Later Cuoi got married with a girl in the village and went on pulling people's leg Once morning he came into the forest and saw a tiger mother picking leaves from a kind of tree

to cure her son's wound Immediately the wound was recovered and the tiger baby could follow his mother to continue their trip Cuoi grasped the opportunity to uproot the tree and rose it in the garden behind his house He called the tree Banyan and took good care

to it He always reminded his wife that the tree was magic one so it was impossible to pour dirty water or dump the garbage at its root otherwise it would fly to the heaven His poor wife sometimes envied with the tree so she dumped garbage at the tree root once day

When Cuoi came home he found the tree was shaking and flying higher and higher in the sky He tried to hold its root to pull it back but he couldn't The tree actually pulled him farther and farther from the earth until it reached the moon It is said that there is still

image of Cuoi sitting at the root of Banyan tree and looking down to see the world and there is also a Vietnamese saying " lie as Cuoi".

MODERN LITERATURE BEFORE 1945

The first real flowering of modern Vietnamese literature took place in the north under the influence of the romantic styles, themes and techniques of French literature

Amongst the earliest attempts at Vietnamese creative writing in quốc ngữ was a collection of folk tales entitled Chuyện đời xưa published in 1876 by Trương Vĩnh Ký (1837-1898), editor of Việt Nam’s first French-sponsored quốc ngữ newspaper, the Sài Gòn-based Gia Định Báo This work was followed in 1887 by the publication, also in Sài Gòn, of a rather rudimentary short story by Nguyễn Trọng Quản entitled Truyện thầy Lazaro phiền (‘The Story of Sad Teacher Lazaro’)

Between 1907 and 1909 pioneering Hà Nội journalist Nguyễn Văn Vĩnh (1882-1936) translated and published numerous foreign short stories and drama scripts in his newspaper Đăng cổ tùng báo, but perhaps the most important catalyst in the propagation

of western cultural ideas was the northern cultural magazine Đông Dương tạp chí (Indochina Review), launched by Vĩnh in 1913, which not only showcased western literature in translation but also provided an important platform for the work of aspiring quốc ngữ writers, thereby laying the essential groundwork for the acceptance of quốc ngữ

as a bone fide literary medium

In the years which followed, the novels of leading French writers such as Balzac, Hugo, Flaubert, Rolland, Gide, Pascal, Malot, Molière and Corneille became increasingly available in translation, contributing to a growing popular interest in prose literature In

1917 a rival Sài Gòn-based cultural magazine known as Nam phong tạp chí (‘South Wind Journal’) was launched by Phạm Quỳnh (1890-1945), though much of the work featured

in this publication remained heavily influenced by Chinese literature Perhaps more significant in terms of the development of new Vietnamese writing was the role of Phụ

nữ tân văn (Women’s News), Việt Nam’s first influential women’s periodical, which was established during the early 1920s and devoted much of its column space to creative writing in quốc ngữ, serving as a significant forum for the development of modern literature in both content and form

Việt Nam’s first home-grown novel was Hoàng Tố Anh hàm oan (‘The Unjust Suffering

of Hoàng Tố Anh’), written by Trần Chanh Chiểu and published in Sài Gòn in 1910 Other works quickly followed, including Ai làm được? (‘Who Can Do It?’, 1919) and Ngọn cỏ gió đùa (‘The Playing of the Wind’, 1926) by Hồ Biểu Chánh, Tố tâm (‘Pure

Heart’, 1925) by Hoàng Ngọc Phách (1896-1973), Dưa đỏ (‘Watermelon’) by Nguyễn Trọng Thuật and several short stories by Nguyễn Bá Học and Phạm Duy Tôn.

However, not until the 1930s did there develop a truly satisfactory language for modern prose writing, in particular the capacity to handle vocabulary and syntactic structures Literary historians and critics alike have emphasised the great contribution made to this process by the Hà Nội-based Tự Lực Văn Đoàn (Self Reliance Literary Group), established in 1932 by Nhất Linh (Nguyễn Tường Tam, 1906-1963) and Khái Hưng (Trần Khánh Giư, 1896-1947), which published many important literary works in its popular weekly journals Phong hóa (‘Customs and Mores’, 1932-1935) and Ngày nay (‘Today’, 1935-1940)

The beginnings of modern Vietnamese poetry may be traced back to the early years of the twentieth century when poet Tản Đà (1888-1939) began to experiment with irregular verse lengths, signalling the first serious attempt to break away from the classical model During the 1930s, under the direct influence of works by early 20th century French poets such as Mallarmé, Musset, Baudelaire, Valéry and Chateaubriand, Tản Đà’s pioneering work was taken a step further by the New Poetry Movement (Phong trào Thơ mới), which was established in Hà Nội in 1932 by Thế Lữ (Nguyễn Thứ Lễ, 1907-1989) to forge a new literary direction free from the strict rules of Chinese poetry Thế Lữ himself later devoted his life entirely to drama, but his work laid the groundwork for a whole new generation of poets who demanded freedom both in form and content Thereafter the work of leading lights in the New Poetry Movement such as Xuân Diệu (1917-1985), Lưu Trọng Lư (1912-1991), Huy Cận (b 1919), Phạm Huy Thông (1916-1988), Chế Lan Viên (1920-1988), Tế Hanh (Trần Tế Hanh, b 1921) and pioneering female poet Anh Thơ (Tuyết Anh, b 1921) gave free expression to their inner emotions and feelings, rejecting the symbolism and strict rules of Chinese-style classical verse

By this time a powerful current of realism was also developing under the growing ideological influence of the Communist Party By the late 1930s revolutionary literature was flourishing, as evidenced by the novels of Ngô Tất Tố (1894-1954) and Nguyễn Công Hoan (1903-1977) and the short stories of Nam Cao (1917-1951) and Nguyễn Hồng (1918-1982), which vividly described the trials and tribulations of the peasantry at the hands of oppressive government officials A new and militant style of poetry also emerged at this time, its chief exponent being Tố Hữu (1920-2002), whose famous work Việt Bắc was later awarded First Prize by the Việt Nam Literature and Arts Association

Thereafter many writers joined the struggle for independence In the field of poetry established names from the pre-war period such as Xuân Diệu, Huy Cận, Chế Lan Viên,

Tế Hanh and Anh Thơ repudiated their earlier work and turned their pens in support of the revolution They were joined by many others, most noteworthy being Đoàn Văn Cừ (b 1913), Hữu Loan (b 1916), Nguyễn Bính (1918-1966), Quang Dũng (1921-1988), Xuân Miễn (Hải Phong, 1922-1990), Trần Dần (1926-1997), Hồ Khải Đại (Hồ Nam, b 1926) and Tạ Hữu Yên (Le Hữu, b 1927) Meanwhile revolutionary prose literature continued to flourish with the work of Nguyễn Huy Tưởng (b 1912-1960), Bùi Hiển (b 1919), Tô Hoài (b 1920), Nguyễn Văn Bổng (b 1921), Kim Lân (b 1921), Chu Văn (1922-1994), Thanh Châu (b 1922), Nguyễn Đình Thi (1924-2003), Nguyễn Siêu Hải (b 1926), Vũ Tú Nam (b 1929) and Phùng Quán (b 1932-1995), who wrote of the patriotism and self-sacrifice required to overthrow a brutal colonial regime

Several leading writers lost their life at the front during the final struggle with the French, including poets Hoàng Lộc (1920-1949) and Thâm Tâm (1917-1950) and novelists Trần Đăng (1921-1949) and Nam Cao (1917-1951)

MODERN LITERATURE 1945-1975

Prior to 1945 comparatively few southern writers had achieved recognition or success, but against a background of relative stability, prosperity and artistic freedom in the late 1950s and early 1960s a small but active literary scene began to emerge in South Việt Nam, initially under the influence of a circle of writers, linguists and educators who had relocated from the north

Numerous important literary magazines were established in the south after 1954, including Văn hóa Ngày nay (Literature Today), Tin văn (Literary News), Trình bày (Expound), Sáng tạo (Create) and Quan điểm (Opinion), which introduced new currents

of thought from the west such as existentialism and humanism Together with the established Sài Gòn branch of PEN International and the Front for the Protection of Cultural Freedom, these publications did much to facilitate the development of new writing Southern literary development was further encouraged by the establishment of various state literary prizes

newly-Emigré prose writers from the north regrouping in the south after 1954 included not only established figures such as Nhất Linh, Tam Lang (Vũ Đình Chí, 1901-1986), Trọng Lang (Trần Tán Cửu, 1906-1986), Lãng Nhân (Phùng Tất Đắc, b 1907), Đái Đức Tuấn (Tchya, 1908-1969), Y Uyên (Nguyễn Văn Uy, 1911-1969) and Vũ Bằng (1913-1984) but also younger novelists and short story writers such as Nguyễn Thị Vinh (b 1924), Dương

Nghiễm Mậu (Phí Ích Nghiễm, b 1936), Duyên Anh (Vũ Mộng Long, b 1936), Nhật Tiến (Bùi Nhật Tiến, b 1936), Thảo Trường (Trần Duy Hinh, b 1939), Lê Tất Điều (b 1942) and Trùng Dương (Nguyễn Thị Thái, b 1944).

It was largely under their influence that southern prose writing came of age during the period 1954-1975 with the works of Bình Nguyên Lộc (Tô Văn Tuấn, b 1914), Võ Phiến (b 1925), Sơn Nam (Phạm Minh Tày, b 1926), Ngọc Linh (Dương Đại Tâm, b 1935) and Nguyễn Thị Thụy Vũ (Nguyễn Băng Lĩnh, b 1939) from the south and Linh Bảo (Võ Thị Diệu Viên, b 1926), Minh Đức Hoài Trinh (Võ Thị Hoài Trinh, b 1930), Nguyễn Xuân Hoàng (b 1937), Túy Hồng (Nguyễn Thị Túy Hồng, b 1938), Nhã Ca (Trần Thị Thu Vân,

b 1939), Nguyễn Thị Hoàng (b 1939) and Nguyễn Mộng Giác (b 1940) from the central provinces

Leading poets of the 1950s and 1960s included northern emigrés Tương Phố (Đỗ Thị Đàm, 1900-199?), Bàng Bá Lân (1912-1988), Vũ Hoàng Chương (1916-1976), Đinh Hùng (1920-1967), Nguyên Sa (Trần Bích Lan, b 1932) and Cung Trầm Tưởng (Cung Thúc Cần, b 1936); Quách Tấn (b 1910), Nguyễn Vỹ (Cô Diệu Huyền, 1910-197?), Bùi Giáng (b 1926), Quách Thoại (Đoàn Thoại, 1929-1957), Thanh Tâm Tuyền (Dzư Văn Tâm, b 1936) and Nguyễn Đức Sơn (Sao Trên Rừng, b 1937) from central Việt Nam; and Đông Hồ (Lâm Tấn Phác, 1906-1969), Kiên Giang (b 1929) and Tô Thùy Yên (Đình Thành Tiên, b 1938) from the south

However, the southern literary flowering proved short-lived; whilst the overthrow of the Diệm government in 1963 brought greater artistic freedom, growing political instability, the escalation of war with the north and the steady slide into official corruption and decadence which attended the influx of large numbers of American troops in the period after 1963 engendered what one scholar has called a ‘culture of entertainment’ In a radical departure from the past, a people brought up to associate literature with education and moral improvement turned increasingly for escapism to cheap imported martial arts novels and sentimental romances In order to survive in this new climate many members

of the literary community began writing daily feuilletons (serialised stories) for the newspapers, whilst others turned out novels featuring unusually racy subject matter Nonetheless the last years of the Sài Gòn regime did see some literary works of note, notably the novels of Nhật Tiến, Lê Tất Diều and Nhã Ca with their vivid descriptions of the horrors of war

In the north the immediate aftermath of the August Revolution saw the establishment of the Nhân văn Giai phẩm writers movement, the name of which was drawn from its two

journals Nhân văn (Humanism) and Giai phẩm (Works of Beauty) Established by a group of northern intellectuals which included writers Trần Dần, Hoàng Cầm (b 1922), Phan Khôi (1887-1959), Nguyễn Hữu Đang, Trương Tửu, Trần Đức Thảo and Thụy An, this movement aimed to secure a greater measure of intellectual independence for the Vietnamese literary community However the trial which followed firmly established the principle that Vietnamese literature existed to advance socialism and must be guided by the Communist Party vanguard With the establishment of the Việt Nam Writers’ Association in 1957 northern literature became firmly subordinated to the task of building the socialist future.

During the 1960s and early 1970s the northern literary œvre continued to identify closely with the national and ideological cause Amongst the best-known patriotic poems of this period were Chặng đường hành quân (‘On the Campaign Trail’, 1960) by Xuân Miễn, Cuộc chia ly màu đỏ (‘The Red Farewell’, 1964) by Nguyễn Mỹ (1935-1971), Ra trận (‘To the Front’, 1972) by Tố Hữu and Những bài thơ đánh giặc (‘Poems Against the Enemy’, 1972) by Chế Lan Viên Important revolutionary poems were also written during this period by Minh Huệ (Nguyễn Đức Thái, 1927-2003), winner of numerous awards for his works on the Xô Viết Nghệ Tĩnh uprising of 1930-1931 and the life of Hồ Chí Minh; Giang Nam (Nguyễn Sung, b 1929) and Thu Bồn (Hà Đức Trọng, 1935-2003), both recipients of the Southern Revolutionary National Fatherland Front’s Nguyễn Đình Chiểu Award for Literature; and a group of younger poets which included Hoàng Minh Châu (b 1930), Phạm Ngọc Cảnh (Vũ Ngàn Chi, b 1934), Nguyễn Xuân Thâm (b 1936),

Võ Văn Trực (b 1936), Văn nghệ (Literary Arts) Newspaper Awards winners Dương Hương Ly (Bùi Minh Quốc, b 1940), Phạm Tiến Duật (b 1941), Bằng Việt (b 1941), Hữu Thỉnh (b 1942), Nguyễn Khoa Điềm (b 1943), Anh Ngọc (Ly Sơn, b 1943), Nguyễn Duy (b 1948), Nguyễn Đức Mậu (Hương Hài Hưng, b 1948) and Hoàng Nhuận Cầm (b 1952), playwright Lưu Quang Vũ (1948-1988) and war martyrs Nguyễn Trọng Định (1939-1968), Trần Quang Long (1941-1968) and Lê Anh Xuân (1940-1968)

Throughout the American War leading prose writers of the 1940s and 1950s such as Nguyễn Công Hoan, Nguyên Hồng, Bùi Hiển, Tô Hoài, Nguyễn Văn Bổng, Chu Văn, Thanh Châu and Nguyễn Đình Thi continued to devote their work to the revolutionary cause Other important novelists and short story writers emerging during this period included Thép Mới (Ánh Hồng, 1925-1991), Võ Huy Tâm (1926-1996), Nguyễn Trọng Oánh (1929-1993), Ngô Ngọc Bội (b 1929), Nguyễn Minh Châu (1930-1989), Nguyễn Khải (b 1930), Vũ Thị Thường (b 1930), Phan Tứ (Lê Khâm, 1930-1995), Vũ Bão (b 1931), Ma Văn Kháng (b 1936), Đỗ Chu (b 1944) and war martyrs Lê Vĩnh Hòa (1932-1967), Nguyễn Thi (Nguyễn Ngọc Tấn, 1928-1968) and Chu Cẩm Phong (1941-1971)

Of particular importance was a small group of southern writers who had regrouped in the north after 1954 and now returned south into enemy territory to gather material for their compositions; these included novelists Nguyễn Quang Sáng (b 1932), Anh Đức (Bùi Đức Aùi, b 1935) and Nguyên Ngọc (1932).

VIETNAMESE PROVERB AND FOLK SONGS

Nobody knows for sure the origin of Vietnamese proverbs and folk songs in terms of their inception and authors Vietnamese proverbs and folk songs, however, are orally transmitted and incessantly edited throughout generations

By this virtue, the proverbs and folk songs become so natural and clear that they are able

to describe our customs and traditions simply and truthfully For that reason, these proverbs and folk songs are also dubbed as Vietnamese popular literature, which proliferates by thousands of phrasings on all topics of various aspects of human life in society

PROVERBS:

Like in other countries, Vietnamese proverbs state basic principles of folk wisdom and conduct, which have become an essential and enduring part of daily speech They are short, succinct sayings with an intended meaning, which is to instruct or advise about something worthy of our attention Most of Vietnamese parents use proverbs to educate their children about basic moral tenets of conduct and behavior These proverbs are usually formed with or without rhym (E.G An cay nao, rao cay ay : one shall cultivate the tree from which one eats fruits An qua nho ke trong cay : when eating the fruit, one should remember those who planted the tree) The common topics of proverbs are as follows, addressing routine issues of our society’s customs and traditions such as interpersonal psychology, common experiences, moral precepts, and conduct and etiquette of politeness:

Ác giả ác báo As the call, so the echo

Ăn chắc mặc bền Comfort is better than pride

Bần cùng sinh đạo tặc Necessity knows no laws

Cái nết đánh chết cái đẹp Beauty is but skin-deep

Cây ngay khơng sợ chết đứng A clean hand wants no washing

Cha chung khơng ai khĩc Everybody’s business is nobody’s business

Cha mẹ sinh con, trời sinh tính Many a good father has but a bad son

Chin nguoi, muoi y So many men, so many minds

Dĩ hòa vi quý A bad compromise is better than a good lawsuit

Dục tốc bất đạt Haste makes waste

Tiền nào của ấy You get what you pay for

FOLK SONGS:

These are short ballads, written in rhythm or iambic pentameter in stanzas Folk songs are spread among common people from one generation to the next, and nobody knows their authentic authors It is certain that folk songs are formed by multitude of composers who get inspired and let their strong feelings flow out in the form of poetry; then other people try to memorize the poems and pass them on to the public Therefore, there is a countless number of folk songs, probably hundreds of thousand ones There are so many generations of Vietnamese children whose mothers sing them to sleep with these types of folk songs and help them grow maturely by the profound influence of the folk songs Also, there are so many generations of Vietnamese young adults who get married by borrowing folk songs in flirtation Folk songs indeed manifest every fiber of the human touch deep in one’s heart and various situations of society as well The following are some examples:

Mother’s admonition:

The fatherly immense toil is as big as ThaiSon mountain

The constant motherly devotion is similar to the stream of water flowing out from spring, You ought to honor your parents with all your heart

In order to decently fulfill the solemn precept of filial piety

Geographical advices:

Going on road, be cautious of Ai Van mountain pass

Going by boat, be cautious of the path of billow at Hang Doi Bay

National history:

Missing you, I wanted to come to see you,

But I was afraid of The Ho’s groves, and the Tam Giang cross river

The Tam Giang cross river is dried up nowadays

And the grove is on watchful guard.

Romantic love:

You are leaving, I won’t let you go

I hold your dress flap to write a verse on it

The verse clearly exhibits the three words

Loyalty, piety, and love

The word loyalty to honor the father

The word piety to adore the mother, the word love for both of us.

Why do you, young lady, cut grass alone,

Let me join you as a couple,

Do you still continue cutting more grass?

Let me help you cutting it to become a married couple.

Due to the limit of this short writing, we can not afford to cite more examples We are certain, however, that the proverbs and folk songs are indeed the common literature treasures of Vietnamese people: It is a common way of composing them and transmitting them from one generation to the next, and common as well in sharing the didactic values

of these common treasures The proverbs and folk songs play a significant role in providing the very first teachings on the ethical way of human conduct or individual behavior, and even knowledge on how to deal with the life situation, large and small Particularly folk songs bring pleasure as well as entertainment to daily life with their dignified verses of courtship and romantic love Proverbs and folk songs are truly a priceless thesaurus of Vietnamese people It is certain to say that none of the Vietnamese can remember all of the proverbs and folk songs, but it’s also true that none can say they

do not remember some

UNIT 3- VIETNAMESE AUTHORS

1 Nguyen Du- symbol of Vietnamese culture

The Nguyen Du memorial site in Ha Tinh Province contains more than 1,000 artifacts related to his life, career and family

Descended from a family with long academic tradition in the central Nghe Tinh province, Nguyen Du, whose pen-names are To Nhu and Thanh Hien, was born in 1765 in Thang Long (Ha Noi) His father was the former prime minister during the Le dynasty Born and raised in a time of chaos, Nguyen Du witnessed many changes in the transition from the

Le to Nguyen dynasties His works reflected the realities in Viet Nam's society during these years Nguyen Du's poems displayed the vicissitudes of history and the spiritual life

of Vietnamese people

He left a monumental poetic legacy with three collections in Han (Chinese characters) scripts totaling 250 poems in Thanh Hien Thi Tap (poems of Thanh Hien), Nam Trung Tap Ngam (various poems) and Bac Hanh Tap Luc (Miscellaneous Writings in Trip to the North), the heartfelt Van Te Thap Loai Chung Sinh (the funeral oration for ten kinds

of living beings) and most well known, the Tale of Kieu

"Nguyen Du's cultural heritage is the product of a Vietnamese intellect, soul and culture coming together his outstanding talent and with time, his legacy has become part of humanity's culture," Dinh The Huynh, chairman of the Commission for Publicity and Education of the Party's Central Committee said at the international conference commemorating the 250th anniversary of Nguyen Du's birth in August, 2015

"Nguyen Du left a huge legacy in terms of ideology, content and artistic penmanship He contributed to national literature and cultural heritage He beautified and enriched the Vietnamese language," Dr Ngo Van Gia, lecturer of Ha Noi University of Culture said.Nguyen Du's poems are considered "ahead of his time" In the work Miscellaneous Writings in Trip to the North, he describes the real social situation in Viet Nam and China, which seemed not to be touched on by other writers "That Nguyen Du disclosed China's nature in Miscellaneous Writings in the Trip to the North showed he was a Confucian scholar ahead of his time, an early enlightened poet," said Tran Thi Bang Thanh, an Associate Professor of literature

Nguyen Du was recognised as a world famous personality by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) at its 37th General Assembly in Paris in 2013

2 To Huu

—Vietnam’s Great Poet-Politician

To Huu (1920-2002) was one of the great poets of Vietnam in the 20th century and an important politician in the Vietnamese Communist Party He has been called the poet laureate of the Vietnamese victories over the French and Americans A Saigon newspaper called him "a great power who used his poetry as a means to gather and encourage people around the revolutionary cause One of his poems goes: Oh Stalin! Oh Stalin/ The love I bear my father,/ My mother, may wife/ myself/ To nothing beside the love I bear you His state funeral in December 2002 was headed by Prime Minister Phan Van Khai

To Huu, whose real name was Nguyen Kim Thanh and nickname was Lanh, was born in

1920 in Phu Lai village near the former imperial city of Hue He wrote poems at an early age At the age of 18 his poems were printed and he joined the Indochinese Communist Party (now the Communist Party of Viet Nam) He was arrested by the enemy in April of

1939 He escaped from Dac Lay prison in March of 1942 and continued with his revolutionary activities in central Thanh Hoa province.[Source: Vietnam News Agency - December 11, 2002]

His revolutionary activities linked with his poet life which was marked with five collections of poems In 1946, his first collection of poems entitled "Poem" (then changed into "Since Then") were made first public appearance on the press The "Poem" combined his works written from 1937 to 1946 The "Northern Viet Nam" was understood as the song for the whole country in the anti-colonialist stage Life in the liberated northern region and the implementation of the five-year national construction plan were reflected in a collection of poems titled "Rising Wind" During the anti-imperialist resistance war, he introduced the collection "Going to the Battle Front", praising the Vietnamese army and people's militant spirit His most recent collection was

"A Musical Sound" He has been presented with the Ho Chi Minh Award - the highest distinction of the State for the literary and artistic circles

The Times reported: Although he rose to become Deputy Prime Minister of Vietnam and had been a long-serving member of the country’s Communist Party, To Huu is most celebrated in his homeland as a poet Long after he had fallen from grace in the hierarchy

of the party his poems continued to be studied in schools across Vietnam, where they had inspired soldiers and civilians in the struggles, first against colonial France in the 1950s and then against the forces of South Vietnam, increasingly backed by the Americans from the early 1960s onwards [Source: The Times, December 11, 2002 \~\]

During the Vietnam War, Huu’s poems were frequently printed in newspapers as a bulwark to resolve Welcome Spring ’71 — which appeared on the front page of a special Tet (lunar new year) edition of the Hanoi daily paper in 1971 — exhorted the «co-op lasses seeing their dear ones off to the front» to fresh efforts to keep the home fires burning, while expressing the sense of ache felt by all Vietnamese over the continuing division of their country

Hanoi aches for our heart is in Hue and Saigon!

South, our southern homeland,

This spring Uncle (Ho Chi Minh) no longer writes poems

With the Central Committee’s call burning hot in its heart,

Our nation as one man is marching to the firing line,

We shall strike, strike thunder blows

To shatter the hawks’ wings, and bash in their heads

"His contemporaries regarded such verses as being an important part of the epic evolution of modern Vietnam To Huu, whose real name was Nguyen Kim Thanh, was born in the imperial city of Hue in the southern part of what was then the French colony

of Indo-China in 1920 At 18 he joined the Indo-China Communist Party, but — in a country that was «protectively» occupied by the Japanese during the Second World War