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

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUẢNG BÌNH
KHOA NGOẠI NGỮ
-----    -----

Teaching syllabus
FOR INTERNAL CIRCULATION

ENGLISH FOR LITERATURE
(For literature students)
Tran Thi Phuong Tu

Quang Binh, 2017
0


INTRODUCTION
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

1

CONTENTS

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

2


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

The Sea

Anh không xứng là biển xanh
Nhưng anh muốn em là bờ cát trắng
Bờ
cát

dài
phẳng
lặng
Soi ánh nắng pha lê...

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.

Bờ
đẹp
đẽ
cát
vàng
-- Thoai thoải hàng thông đứng -Như
lặng
lẽ
mơ
màng
Suốt ngàn năm bên sóng...

The comely beach of yellow sand
Extending to the rows of pine
So
dreamily
and
quietly
For eons by the roaring brine.

Anh
Hôn

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

xin
mãi

làm
cát

sóng
vàng

biếc
em

3


Hôn
thật
khẽ,
Hôn êm đềm mãi mãi

thật

êm

The gentle kiss that softly
The quiet kiss that has no end.

Đã
hôn
rồi,
hôn
Cho
đến
mãi
muôn
Đến
tan
cả
đất
Anh mới thôi dào dạt...

lại
đời
trời

I
will
kiss
thee
again,
again
From
here
clear

to
eternity
Till none of this wide world remains
Before my heart can beat calmly.

Cũng
có
khi
ào
Như
nghiến
nát
bờ
Là
lúc
triều
yêu
Ngập bến của ngày đêm

ạt
em
mến

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.

Anh không xứng là biển xanh
Nhưng cũng xin làm bể biếc

Để
hát
mãi
bên
gành
Một tình chung không hết,

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.

Để những khi bọt tung trắng xóa
Và gió về bay tỏa nơi nơi
Như hơn mãi ngàn năm không thỏa,
Bởi yêu bờ lắm lắm, em ơi !

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.

Xuân Diệu

Translated
by

Thomas
28 October 2004
Here Comes Autumn

Đây Mùa Thu Tới
Rặng liễu đìu hiu đứng chịu tang
Tóc buồn bng 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 đị
Mây vẩn từng không, chim bay đi

D.

dwells

Le

The grieving willows droop in deep
mourning,
Their sad hair streaming like teardrops
falling.
Here comes autumn, here comes the

autumn
cold
In its faded mantle woven with leaves of
gold.
Various blossoms have fallen off their
branch
Amidst a garden where the red mingles
with
blue.
The trembling breath of breeze shakes the
leaves
and
A few shriveled limbs like fragile bones in
4


Khí trời u uất hận chia ly
Ít nhiều thiếu nữ buồn khơng nói
Tựa cửa nhìn xa nghĩ ngợi gì.
(Tập Thơ Thơ, 1938)
Xuân Diệu

somber hue.
At times the moon appears with all her
puzzled
look.
And on the far side mountains start to veil
with
fog.
I hear the bitter cold stirring the wind,

But see no boats making their cross-stream
run.
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)
Translated
by
16 February 2009

Thomas

D.

Le

Prose
Prose is a form of language that possesses ordinary syntax and natural speech rather than
rhythmic structure; in which regard, along with its measurement in sentences rather than
lines, it differs from poetry.[18][21] On the historical development of prose, Richard Graff
notes that "[In the case of Ancient Greece] recent scholarship has emphasized the fact
that formal prose was a comparatively late development, an "invention" properly
associated with the classical period".[22]

5

6


Drama
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.

7


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).
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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 cơ 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.

9


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).
10


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
11


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
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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
13


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.

14


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), Tơ Hồi (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 newlyestablished 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.
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
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Nghiễm Mậu (Phí Ích Nghiễm, b 1936), Dun 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 Tơ Thùy n (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
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journals Nhân văn (Humanism) and Giai phẩm (Works of Beauty). Established by a
group of northern intellectuals which included writers Trần Dần, Hồng Cầm (b 1922),
Phan Khơi (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 (19391968), 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, Tơ Hồi, 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 (19321967), Nguyễn Thi (Nguyễn Ngọc Tấn, 1928-1968) and Chu Cẩm Phong (1941-1971).
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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 không sợ chết đứng

A clean hand wants no washing

Cha chung khơng ai khóc

Everybody’s business is nobody’s business
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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

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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.

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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.
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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 antiimperialist 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
22


— he was jailed in 1940 as a result of his revolutionary activities. But in 1942 he escaped
from prison to rejoin the revolutionary underground, by then called the Revolutionary
League for the Independence of Vietnam, known as the Viet Minh. Following the
Japanese surrender he was among the Viet Minh forces that seized control of the country
and proclaimed its independence as the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. Huu, by now
known for his propaganda skills in both verse and prose, was appointed regional
information officer for the central region of Vietnam. The return of French forces to their
old colony and their attempt to reassert their authority began a long struggle, during
which Huu’s poems inspired his countrymen with revolutionary zeal. \~\

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Unit 4- THE TALES OF KIEU

The Tale of Kieu was written in 1803 when Nguyen Du was promoted to ambassador to
China, and this journey gave him the basis for the story. The Tale of Kieu has the original
title in Vietnamese of Doan Truong Tan Thanh (A New Cry from a Broken Heart), but it

is better known as Truyen Kieu. A 3,254-line classic novel in verse written in luc bat (the
six-eight-word distich metre), a traditional Vietnamese verse form, The Tale of Kieu,
recounts the life, trials and tribulations of Thuy Kieu, a beautiful and talented young
woman, who has to sacrifice herself to save her family. To save her father and younger
brother from prison, she sells herself into marriage with a middle-aged man, not knowing
that he is a pimp, and is forced into prostitution. "It is said that the Tale of Kieu elevated
the Vietnamese and made it a language of literature and culture," said Gia.
To date, The Tale of Kieu has been translated into 37 versions in more than 20 different
languages such as French, English, Japanese, Chinese, and Russian, etc. "The vitality and
pervasive power of The Tale of Kieu is rooted in its intrinsic value of humanitarian
content and Nguyen Du's masterly and creative poetic skills," said Nguyen Xuan Thang,
president of Viet Nam Academy of Social Sciences, said. With these great works,
Nguyen Du has been honoured by the world. In 1965, he was honoured as a world
cultural celebrity by the World Peace Council, on the anniversary of his 200th birthday.
Artistic significance:
Depicting the arduous life of Thuy Kieu, a beautiful and talented young woman who had
to sell herself into prostitution to save her father from prison, Nguyen Du overcame harsh
social prejudice to praise Kieu’s physical and soulful beauty, as well as her talents and
personality.
Through Kieu’s story, the author wanted to draw a picture of the corrupt, moneydominated, evil and unequal feudal society in Vietnam in the late 18th century and the
early 19th century, while reflecting the aspirations for the right to live, and the right to
freedom, justice, love and happiness.
The tale is considered one of the most significant works of Vietnamese literature with its
flexible, creative utilisation of folk languages such as idioms, folk poems, proverbs and
“Hán – Việt” (Sino – Vietnamese) expressions, which laid a foundation for the
development of literary art in modern society. In turn, local people have borrowed the
language of characters in the story to create new proverbs and folk songs to express
various emotions in their daily lives.
It is undeniable that “ Truyện Kiều ” has helped international friends understand
Vietnamese literature better. It’s rare that literary works in Vietnam and the world at

large win the hearts of so many readers. The poem has become a “bedside” book and a
“bible” for Vietnamese people over the past two centuries.
The narrative language in the tale is widely used in the cultural life of people of various
social strata such as “ ngâm Kiều ” (a melodic recitation of the verses in Kieu, which can
be done solitarily for personal entertainment or in a performance at a gathering), “ vịnh
Kiều ” (refers to the composing of poetry that uses a situation or character in Kieu as an
allusion to one’s thoughts and feelings, often concerning one’s present condition), “ bình
Kiều ” (writing commentaries on Kieu), “ lẩy Kiều ” (changing a word or phrase in the
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