Essay genre in Vietnamese Literature from 1930 to 1975 - 2

- Having gone through the challenges of practical writing for nearly half a century, by 1975, it can be said that the basic appearance of the essay genre had taken shape. The essay writing team , although not as numerous as in other genres, included famous authors with unique artistic styles. The number of essay works, although not many, had very special compositions, covering prominent topics, with diverse inspirations (from culture, customs to history, private self and collective self, both epic and worldly affairs, everyday life). Therefore, the issue of surveying Vietnamese essays from 1930 to 1975 was aimed at affirming a literary value that was stable and relatively complete in meaning.

Of course, to ensure systematicity and to compare in order to highlight the issue, we cannot help but review the works with increasingly clear essay elements in the periods before 1930 as well as the achievements of this genre since 1975. It should be added that the consideration to define the genre for specific works is not within the scope of this thesis. Based on the system of criteria

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Based on the classification criteria stated, a range of documents compatible with the research purpose of the Thesis is implicitly determined.

3. HISTORY OF THE TOPIC RESEARCH

3.1. About the essay genre

For a long time, due to having to exist in a position nestled in the memoir genre , the essay has not been thoroughly studied. Most theoretical and critical works and literary history works have paid more attention to the characteristics and achievements of the memoir genre - an important prose genre in every period of development of written literature. The essay is often only mentioned as a lyrical sub-genre, and of course, is subject to the characteristics of the memoir genre . Some researchers really pay attention to the lyrical element in the essay , not considering it as an additional component but having a decisive meaning in the characteristics to distinguish the genre. Some are also interested in intermediate manifestations, to examine the essay as a flexible way of writing or a genre located on the border, a hybrid between narrative and lyric.

It is possible to recognize two types of concepts that are both similar and have some disagreements.

Both of the above views acknowledge the permanent existence of the reserve factor.

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In Literary Theory - Problems and Thoughts , Nguyen Van Hanh also ranked

“The genres of writing that are present in both classical and modern literature are memoirs, notes, essays, diaries (…). In modern literature, the essay genre is used to refer to works written in a free and unrestrained manner, following the writer’s train of thought and association. Essays are also memoirs, records, but they do not only record events, but also record the writer’s thoughts and feelings when in contact with reality” [53; 100].

In Literature…near & far , Hoang Ngoc Hien also introduced a new term.

- essay signature - to determine the dependent relationship between essay and signature :

Many researchers are interested in the "self-expressive" nature of

essay , but still affirms its origin from memoir :

“A prose genre derived from the memoir , close to the memoir (...). The writer relies on the appeal of inspiration, can speak from one event to another, from one association to another (...) to express emotions, feelings, express thoughts, comments about life and people (...). The writer's ego is expressed in the essay almost like in lyric poetry. The essay is the most lyrical genre among the memoirs” [61; 1888].

In Vietnamese Literature of the 20th Century (Phan Cu De, editor-in-chief), although it is acknowledged that "Records include many main genres in the form of narrative prose such as notes, memoirs, travelogues,

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diaries, reports, essays,…” , but Le Duc Tu paid more attention to the nature of

Subjectivity and freedom of the lyrical ego in essays :

“By definition, essays are a literary genre with a relatively liberal and free writing style. Depending on the direction of the pen, the writer can write from one thing to another, from one issue to another. In this genre, the writer has the opportunity to express his subjective feelings about the object being reflected, so the ego has the opportunity to fully express itself” [34; 401].

Here, researchers have paid attention first of all to the presence of objective elements in essays , considering it as an indispensable material from life, through which the subjective self of the writer has the opportunity to be revealed. This concept is quite popular and many people have implicitly acknowledged that essays are a form, a lyrical sub-genre of the memoir genre .

But if we examine the actual writing, we will realize that in essays , storytelling and narration are not the artist's primary concerns; therefore, how can we base on an element that is not essential to distinguish the genre? Placed among the sub-genres of memoirs (along with memoirs, travelogues, diaries, reports , etc.), essays clearly show their inferiority in reflecting and thinking about reality with hot topicality. The narrative element, at different levels and natures, is mostly a means of conveying. Lyricism is the main purpose, the artistic salvation in essays .

In contrast to the above concept, some researchers categorically classify essays as lyrical works: “Lyric works do not only include lyric poetry, although it is the most typical. In addition to lyrical poetry , there are also essays , prose poetry, ca tru, tu khuc,…” (Nguyen Xuan Nam) [155; 188].

According to Nguyen Xuan Nam, lyricism is the basic element, the main thread to create the unique appearance of the essay . The objective element, no matter what level it is present at, cannot have meaning in itself, but is only a reason to evoke the second reality - the reality of the artist's soul (similar to the role of the scene, to create feelings in lyrical poetry). Therefore, in the essay , the need to express emotions, to express thoughts of the individual, subjective self, is especially emphasized:

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“Essays are a free-flowing genre of prose. The writer uses his pen to think and narrate, but in fact he lets himself follow the flow of associations and emotions to describe people and tell stories. The beauty of essays is that through the expression of the author’s emotions, comments, and thoughts, a personality and subject rich in sentiment and sharp in intelligence emerge” [155; 188].

In Tam Dien Tu But , before examining the three peaks of essay writing (Nguyen Tuan, Nguyen Ngoc Lan, Do Lai Thuy) - according to the understanding of essay writing as a type of writing style and based on the characteristics of the method and purpose of writing - Tran Thanh Ha also believes that classifying essay writing as lyrical is the most reasonable:

“From the origin and nature, memoirs do not aim to provide aesthetic information but information about the truth (…). However, essays do not aim to provide information about events but information about moods. In essays, the external truth only occupies a small part, but mainly the subject expresses his inner thoughts. So from the perspective of narrating real people and events, essays stand apart from other genres in the same group. This makes essays deeply lyrical and can only be classified as lyrical , while reports, memoirs, memoirs… are classified as narrative” [46; 11].

Although this type of conception seems to overcome the limitations of placing the essay in the system of sub-genres of the memoir genre - "a variant of the narrative genre" (Gulaiep) [155; 263], it is difficult to avoid the other extreme.

3.1.2. Because the genre characteristics have not been clearly defined from a theoretical basis, the work of surveying and evaluating specific essay works has encountered many obstacles. Sometimes the discrepancy is revealed right from the stage of genre distinction. Usually, people are used to calling Hanoi Thirty-six Streets by Thach Lam an essay , but sometimes it is considered a memoir (Dinh Quang Ton) [7; 81], or "a type of research but with many artistic qualities" (Pham The Ngu) [7; 65]. There are also many different opinions regarding the genre determination for Xuan Dieu's work Phan Thong Vang : while the author calls his work an "idea story" [184; 98], Nguyen Dang Manh affirms that this is "a collection of emotional essays" [184; 98], Luu Khanh Tho considers it a "collection of short stories" [184; 29]. The work " Playing in the Moonlight" by Han Mac Tu also falls into a similar situation: some people call it cautiously "a collection of prose" (Nguyen Toan Thang), but others define it in a different way.

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more complex, ambiguous: "essays written in poetic prose (similar to prose poetry)" (Le Huy Oanh) [33; 359].

Researchers also have a hard time defining the boundary between essays and other subgenres of memoirs (especially memoirs):

“Memoirs and essays are very close to each other, but if in essays, especially in Nguyen Tuan's essays, the presentation of the writer's thoughts, comments, associations, and imaginations accounts for a large proportion, and therefore the lyrical nature is often quite strong, then in memoirs, the honest recording of events is considered more important (…). In terms of the level of combining narrative with lyricism, in terms of the tightness or freedom in thinking and structure, memoirs can be considered to be between memoirs and essays” (Nguyen Van Hanh) [54; 100].

From the perspective of the author, Che Lan Vien proposed an interesting understanding, but not only did it not clarify the theory of the genre at all, but it also complicated the problem: “Some people distinguish that essays are more about the inner self, while memoirs are more about describing external events. That’s fine. But look at that. Many of Nguyen Tuan’s essays this year in Song Da are as full of events as memoirs. So we should unify memoirs and essays into one noun… memoirs and memoirs ” [217; 111].

In the textbooks and advanced grade 12 Literature teacher's books (both published by the Ministry of Education and Training in 2007), the concept of genre and approach to essay works ( The Ferryman of the Da River by Nguyen Tuan, Who Named the River? by Hoang Phu Ngoc Tuong) has not been presented clearly and consistently. For example, some specific unreasonable points are as follows:

a . " The article is essentially an essay because of its free-flowing writing style and the main character

is the author's ego, very lyrical" [160; 182].