Characteristics of the Reception Process of Edgar Allan Poe in Writing

Todorov with Introduction to Fantastic Literature , Edgar Poe's Desire to Create and Destruction by Jacques Cabau and 1 article. The US has two articles and two works: Sketches of American Literature by the US Consulate and the work Poetics and Linguistics by Jakobson. Jorges Louis Borges of Argentina also has two outstanding essays studying the influence of Poe's poems and stories on world literature, providing Vietnamese readers with the necessary criteria to approach E.Poe. Valuable literary theory works by the world's leading researchers have been translated into Vietnamese by Vietnamese researchers, dedicated teachers with a passion for English and American Literature. EAPoe thus reaches Vietnamese readers in many new approaches, suggesting and influencing articles in magazines and research topics about Poe. This strange genius does not only appear in the eyes of readers as a melancholy poet who often talks about death, nor is he simply a writer of detective and horror stories, and is certainly no longer considered a crazy, decadent, decadent poet... He is the leader of the concept of pure art, an innovator of poetic language art, a multi-talented writer of story structure, shaping many prose genres of world literature: horror stories, detective stories, science fiction adventure stories, and also a sharp critic who proposed a theory of unique short stories and also a world of dreams that cannot be fully understood.

1.4. GENERAL COMMENTS

1.4.1. Edgar Allan Poe is the first American author to be received quite early and in many aspects in Vietnam through the discovery of critical researchers. The process of receiving and reproducing E. Poe in Vietnam is closely linked to the characteristics of history and has many gaps through three distinct stages. In the two stages before 1945 and from 1945-1975, Poe was not widely received and was highly appreciated for both poetry and stories. The reception of E. Poe only really flourished in the period after 1975. Notably, from 1987 to now, in just over 20 years, 57 quality research and criticism works on Edgar Poe have truly created a remarkable phenomenon of receiving American literature in the overall picture of Vietnamese literature during the integration period.

1.4.2. The critical research team that has received Poe throughout the past two-thirds of a century is still basically a rather strict "select minority". Mainly, the intellectual team

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Western-educated intellectuals from Sinology in the years before 1945 in the North, to teachers and researchers with profound knowledge in the South before 1975. Since 1975 until now, the receiving team has expanded in quantity, mainly still the above "specially selected" team, but the quality of reception has been significantly improved.

1.4.3. The reception of E.Poe by generations of critical research also has gaps. The first stage is the stage when Poe was discovered and had the most obvious directional value in critical theory research. Northern scholars searched for themes, topics, artistic concepts of poetic composition and models for forming the Vietnamese detective story genre in E.Poe's works. Southern critical researchers exploited creative techniques in both poetry, short stories and critical essays. In the third stage, E.Poe was "re-received", many new values in Poe's works were filled by critical researchers with newer content. The quality of reception was also illuminated through a new vision, Poe's strange concept of Beauty, or "art is a product of intelligence" was no longer refuted but was affirmed by Vietnamese readers and the world.

1.4.4. The reading of Edgar Poe in the three generations of critical research is not entirely uniform. There was a sympathetic and sympathetic reception, praise in the first stage. There was a critical reception on the moral side due to the heavy biographical criticism in the second stage and also a phenomenon of misreading at the beginning of the third stage, due to the impacts of social history. However, Poe has been "re-read" and "rediscovered" from new perspectives. Up to now, the main trend in the reception of Poe in Vietnam is affirmation, exaltation and the scope of research has increasingly gone into both breadth and depth because there has been a change in the expectation from the "re-reception" in the early years of the 21st century.

The achievements of critical research over the past two-thirds of a century have had an important motivating, suggestive and orienting effect on the creative reception of Edgar Allan Poe’s pen in the works of Vietnamese writers and poets. Impressionist criticism, biographical criticism, structural poetics, psychological research, psychoanalysis, reception aesthetics… have all been effectively applied in the study of the reception of EAPoe in Vietnam, opening up many directions for those who want to approach Poe and his mysterious works.

CHAPTER 2

RECEPTION OF EDGAR ALLAN POE IN CREATION

The phenomenon of Edgar Allan Poe being selected at the beginning of the 20th and 21st centuries, two periods when Vietnamese literature faced the need for innovation to survive and develop through critical research and translation presented in chapter one, is quite clear. In the field of writing, although there are specific traces, searching for past influences cannot be clearly demonstrated in every case because the works of nearly two-thirds of this turbulent century are extremely rich and diverse, and it is difficult to fully cover them all. In an effort to avoid speculation and imposition, the thesis will focus on studying a number of typical authors who have many signs of being close to Edgar Poe, either directly stated by the author, or discovered and commented by critical researchers in chapter one. The structure of this chapter will follow the timeline of the three reception periods mentioned above, combining the method of comparison between the author, the work and analysis to see the level of reception in each specific case. Because “personal reception of literary works (TPVH) is the most basic and important form of reception for creation.” [239, 100].

2.1. PHASE ONE: FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE CENTURY TO 1945

2.1.1. Characteristics of the reception process of Edgar Allan Poe in writing

2.1.1.1. The need to modernize Vietnamese literature in the early 20th century

Vietnamese society through two colonial exploitations by France has transformed into a semi-feudal colonial model. Many developed cities such as Hanoi, Saigon, Hai Phong, Nam Dinh, Hue, Da Nang following the rhythm of economic trade have opened up

The rapid development of the press, printing activities, and academic literature. Urban life developed, people "learned a lot from France. Hanoians were very sophisticated in their dress, their extravagant lifestyle was no less than that of others, day and night playing music and dancing, one could see that they were very much like Westerners" [75, 5], and as Hoai Thanh said, "The West has now gone to the deepest part of our souls. We can no longer be happy as before, sad as before, love, hate, anger, and resentment as before... Our love has changed, our poetry must also change" [249, 17]. The strong impact of external factors combined with the internal needs of Vietnamese literature has created the literary appearance of an era. Society changes, life changes, aesthetic thinking also changes, the need to liberate individuals from the constraints of feudal ethics and morality has created strong breakthroughs in literature and poetry to affirm that the individual ego is an important endogenous factor creating the literary appearance of this period.

This was also the period of the formation of national language literature, and the “quiet but drastic transformation of the model from medieval to modern” [134, 9]. In just thirty years, the modernization process took place very urgently in all genres. During this period, Vietnam passed the period of imitating, collecting, translating, and simulating the West of the previous century, entering the period of shaping and affirming national literature. A generation of talented and dedicated professional writers was born, and Western literature, mainly French literature, with excellent representatives, was received and adapted, meeting the urgent need for modernization of Vietnamese literature.

2.1.1.2. About the creative team - the recipient

In many centuries of medieval literature, literature was only a narrow pastime among like-minded souls, a means for sages and feudal intellectuals to recite poems "when watching flowers bloom, when waiting for the moon to rise", to express their Heart, Will, and Love, or with the purpose of "transmitting teachings" to future generations. Entering the 20th century, writing has become a profession, a way to make a living, and to widely disseminate to the masses. The aesthetic needs of the new era require new, strange, and unique things of each writer. Therefore, the

Creation requires constant innovation and creativity of writers and poets to meet the ever-changing tastes of the public, and is also an urgent need for self-affirmation. Cultural exchange has also expanded, without the constraints of the past. The traditional capital of Chinese studies combined with Western knowledge has helped these writers and poets not to be disconnected from national traditions, creating their own styles. Western elements have blended into Eastern traditions and the need for innovation to affirm the individual, affirm the nation in the works of authors during this period. This group has their own favorable conditions of "having become familiar with new forms and genres, mastering new writing techniques" through high-quality study in French schools. Thanks to that, students can "self-analyze genres, self-select authors and works that they like, and self-cultivate aesthetic views". People with literary talent have found fertile ground to nurture inspiration and when they become writers, they "adapt and create with the inspiration of modern people, with the material of life happening around them." [184, 156].

Another noteworthy point is that the creative team of this period were very young people, with many ambitions and sincere aspirations. Sincerity expressed the Ego, even in boredom, sadness and pain of a weak fate... Their age was mostly in their twenties. The good thing was that in the context of a dependent country, a slave nation, and individuals without freedom, with their intellectual fortitude, they were able to raise the free voice of the Ego that longed to assert itself. That was not entirely a small, selfish Ego. Regarding the receptive mindset, as an insider, Huy Can believed that in the context of a heated national spirit, each person was closely attached to the nation, it awakened the spirit of national culture, promoting awareness of Vietnamese national studies. It can be said that the "Ego" in romantic literature is not only a single individual, but also the Ego - Vietnam; Individual - Nation. This way of thinking is different from the mechanical viewpoints that heavily criticized the petty bourgeois ego in New Poetry before, when equating it with the decadent, reactionary, and poisonous tendencies of colonialism and capitalism. However, this is not easily recognized but must go through generations.

a period of struggle, contemplation in practical life and creation of many generations.

2.1.1.3. Characteristics and purposes of receiving Western literature

Along with the French invasion, many bourgeois philosophical trends, French literature and Western countries flooded into Vietnamese cultural and literary life. Although Chinese literature is no longer the top priority, it has a thousand-year-old root, closely connected with the way of feeling, thinking and expressing, which is still deeply rooted in the Vietnamese soul. Therefore, the first characteristic in the reception of Western influence by the first generations of writers is both the inheritance of the Han tradition and the choice not of a single stream of thought, an aesthetic point of view, a writing style but of synthesizing many different sources of influence at the same time. Han Mac Tu's poetry has both the Christian scriptures, the transcendental thinking of Lao Trang or the compassion of Buddhism; it combines Tang poetry with the symbolic poetry of Baudelaire and Edgar Poe and even enters the realm of surrealism. Thach Lam was influenced by both French and Russian literature... The phenomenon of multi-dimensional, multi-faceted reception of many foreign authors at the same time, combining Eastern traditions with Western novelty based on Vietnamese cultural needs and aesthetics among Vietnamese writers during this period is a fairly common rule. However, who to receive, what to receive, and how to localize it to suit the cultural identity and aesthetic needs of the nation depends on the personal choice of each writer.

The second traditional reception characteristic is that in the mind of every Vietnamese writer and poet there is always the obsession of how to receive the good things of others without losing their identity, still enriching and promoting the Vietnamese language and expressing patriotism. Right from its starting point, the popular notion was "We must learn the French ideology to enrich our own ideology", and only imitate "the way ideas are tied together" [75, 20] "Receiving innovation to progress" [258, 8]. This is the general reception rule of our nation. Perhaps because of the reality that "Historical fate has successively or simultaneously brought this small country into relations with many great powers: China, France, the former Soviet Union - present Russia and the United States" [362], the relationship of invader - invaded always weighs heavily.

in the receptive mindset of a nation that has been colonized many times like ours. Therefore, the Vietnamese people's attitude in absorbing foreign cultures over the centuries has always gone hand in hand between accepting the new (passively and actively) and eliminating hybrids that are not suitable for Vietnamese cultural traditions, never accepting any foreign element without first finding a way to localize it, Vietnamize it, and leave their own mark on it. Accepting American literature and Edgar Poe is also in that traditional mindset of the nation.

2.1.2. Reception of Edgar Allan Poe in Prose

2.1.2.1. The first beginnings: Southern prose in the early 20th century

Almost all research works on Southern Vietnamese prose agree that the process of modernizing Vietnamese literature began its journey from Saigon to Hanoi. Perhaps because the Six Southern Provinces fell into the hands of the French nearly 50 years before the North and Central regions. Also in this land, Truong Vinh Ky, Huynh Tinh Cua, Truong Minh Ky, Nguyen Trong Quan, Ho Bieu Chanh, Nguyen Chanh Sat, Le Hoang Muu, Bien Ngu Nhy, Buu Dinh... soon appeared with the first embryonic Vietnamese prose works influenced by Western literature. The directory of Southern Novels and Short Novels (1887-1932) by Nguyen Kim Anh and Ha Thanh Van found 553 entries. The first creative team in the South was originally a class of interpreters who were Catholic intellectuals (most of whom were trained in French-Vietnamese schools, or directly in the "home country"; they were both fluent in French and knowledgeable in Latin). That favorable starting point leads to the assumption that this section received Western detective stories and EAPoe, forming the first modern detective stories for Vietnamese literature.

However, a survey of typical national language prose works such as Truyen Thay La aro Phien by Nguyen Trong Quan (1887), U tinh luc , ay moi phai by Ho Bieu Chanh (1913), Kim thoi di su by Bien Ngu Nhy (1917), anh trang thu , Giac mng by Buu Dinh, Nghia hiep ky duyen by Nguyen Chanh Sat (1920), Ha Huong phong nguyet , Oan hong quan Phong ng Kim Hue ngoai su by Le Hoang Muu (1920), Chau ve hiep pho by Phu Duc (1926)... are works that are popular with readers of the South.

very popular at that time, "selling like hotcakes in the morning market" [258, 208], we hardly find any trace of Edgar Poe. These stories often borrowed the form of Chinese chivalric novels to satisfy the tastes and entertainment needs of ordinary readers, evoking the old familiar expectations, but the content was psychological love stories close to the real life of the intellectual class during the turbulent transitional period of colonial Southern society.

There is only one case that is said to have the shadow of Edgar Poe. That is the series of stories with elements of detective stories of the Kim Dynasty by Bien Ngu Nhy. From around 1915, this writer kept the column "Mat tham truyen" in Cong luan bao, specializing in translating foreign detective works into Vietnamese such as Chuyen ac lai ac bao , printed until issue 51, released on April 19, 1917. Bi Duc Tinh commented on this work considered the first modern Vietnamese detective story: "The title Di su makes me think of the French translation of Histoires Extraordinaires (Strange Stories) consisting of many adventure stories by American writer Edgar Poe" [258, 236]. Coming into contact with the work, we see that Bien Ngu Nhy's "strange stories" are completely different from Edgar Poe's. In Poe, it is creepy, terrible, illusory, and unimaginable, while the “strange story” of the Five-Stars is the story of a special thief, in the style of the famous “chivalrous thief” character with supernatural talent, Asrène Lupin, by the French writer Maurice Leblance. This thief has the “strange talent” of opening the safe as fast as lightning in front of the victim, Black Ball, and escaping many times in front of the brokers and soldiers thanks to his quick wit. But the “strange thing” is that the money stolen from Ba Lau is used to help the “poor orphans”, or to help those in trouble, those who are discouraged in prison…

Perhaps due to the geographical environment, living in a newly discovered land, free and easy with nature, the people of Nam Ky have a liberal spirit, simple temperament, preferring frankness, not liking to delve into complicated and troublesome psychological developments like the complicated stories of E.Poe. The straightforward, frank personality, valuing righteousness over money, hating evil people like Luc Van Tien, Hon Minh, Tu Truc... of the people of Nam Ky Luc Tinh seem to be continued through many short stories and novels that are classified by critics as early detective novels.

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