Ma Van Khang's short stories in the renovation period seen from a cultural perspective

especially the collection of short stories by Ma Van Khang published by the Writers Association Publishing House in 2008 to serve as the research scope for this thesis.

There are also some of his short stories from before 1986.

4. Research methods.

4.1 Systemic method

It is a method that helps researchers systematically string together issues in a dialectical relationship to have a comprehensive, overall view of the issue. This method helps us find a system of arguments revolving around the exploration of Ma Van Khang's short stories in the renovation period from a cultural perspective.

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4.2 Statistical methods.

This method helps us to make statistics on all of Ma Van Khang's short stories to have a scientific conclusion about nature, people, types of people and personalities, psychological states, specific art, time and artistic space in Ma Van Khang's short stories.

4.3 Comparison method

This method helps us compare and contrast Ma Van Khang's short stories from the two periods before and after 1986. Compare Ma Van Khang's short stories with those of contemporary short story writers to see the characteristics from a cultural perspective.

4.4 Other support methods.

5. Thesis structure.

This thesis consists of three parts: Introduction, content, conclusion. The content has three chapters:

Chapter 1: People in Ma Van Khang's short stories during the renovation period from a cultural perspective.

Chapter 2: Nature in Ma Van Khang's short stories during the renovation period from a cultural perspective.

Chapter 3: The art of Ma Van Khang's short stories from a cultural perspective.

CONTENT SECTION

Chapter 1: PEOPLE IN THE SHORT STORY BY GHOST VAN KHANG IN THE RENOVATION PERIOD FROM A CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE

1.1. People in literature of the renovation period.

1.1.1. Changes in perception and thinking.

The great victory in the spring of 1975 opened a new period in the history of the nation, and at the same time led to a new stage of Vietnamese literature. However, the literature of the renovation period is defined from 1986 to the present, associated with the historical milestone of the 6th National Congress of the Party. In this congress, the comprehensive renovation policy was determined, opening a new period for the country to overcome the crisis period, entering a period of strong development. When social culture has fluctuations, it will create profound and strong changes in the concept of life, the way of looking at life of each person, especially in artistic creation - literature of this period is in a state of intense movement of a labor. First of all, it is "labor" in terms of perception. Writers have the need to perceive social reality again, look straight at the truth, and care about the chaotic, messy life of the present. Writers' perception and concept of reality are also expanded. Reality is not only historical events and community life, but also everyday life with inherently complex and multifaceted worldly relationships. Reality is also the personal life of each person with the most private and secret issues. In that atmosphere, a new artistic way of thinking was formed. Literature transformed from epic thinking to novel thinking, from noble and heroic inspiration to worldly inspiration, private life associated with contemplation and reflection. The new literary way of thinking was formed, changing the concepts of literary function, the relationship between literature and life, writers and readers, the reception of literature, artistic concepts of people...

1.1.2. Concepts and perspectives on people in literature during the renovation period.

Expanding the concept of reality goes hand in hand with renewing the artistic concept of man. Before 1975, epic literature raised issues of historical significance, related to the fate and survival of the nation. Man was idealized and deified in the noble and heroic inspiration of epics. Man was only viewed with a one-sided view and measured by the macro dimension, as a hero, a warrior. After 1975, especially after the 6th Party Congress, man was recognized and reflected in literature on many different levels, levels, and positions. Humans are not idealized or romanticized, but are seen as they are, under the multidimensional and complex influence of life: humans with society, with history, humans with customs, with nature, humans in relationships with others and with themselves... Humans are also explored by literature at both the conscious and unconscious levels, their ideological life, emotions and natural life, instincts, noble aspirations and mundane desires. Literature in the renovation period is especially interested in humans as individuals, living entities, which contain the universal humanity. It speaks loudly about what literature before 1975 often kept hidden or did not have the opportunity to say about humans. The issue of the individual becomes the primary concern of writers.

Thus, literary innovation is ultimately a renewal of concepts: concepts of people, of life, concepts of the function of literature and art. In literature during the renovation period, people are both the starting point, the main object of exploration, the final destination of literature, and at the same time the reference point, the measure of the value of all social issues. And because they are reflected from many different angles, people in literature during the renovation period appear more alive, more real, and more comprehensive than before. As Professor Tran Dinh Su said: "The innovation and diversity of literature is first of all the innovation and diversity in the artistic concept of people" [42].

1.2. People in Ma Van Khang's short stories during the renovation period from a cultural perspective.

Ma Van Khang is a typical prose writer of the literature of the renovation period. In particular, his short stories of the renovation period express a comprehensive, thorough and grateful view of humanity. With a tone that is both profound and satirical, both humorous and sarcastic, both bitter and cruel, and yet smooth and leisurely, Ma Van Khang passionately tells us about the lives and destinies of people directly influenced by the culture of the times they lived in. From a cultural perspective, the people in Ma Van Khang's short stories of the renovation period appear very multifaceted.

1.2.1. Human from the perspective of cultural behavior.

In the flow of history, each ethnic community has created its own culture. The cultural identity of the community is preserved from generation to generation. Literature is an element of culture. It is the cultural self-awareness of each ethnic group. The changes of history, society, ideology, new concepts of the times... always impact and influence the creative personality of the writer. In the spirit of renewing ideology, renewing thinking, Vietnamese culture in the period of renewal and exchange and integration has left a deep mark on people's behavior. Renewed culture affects literature. Or as Associate Professor, Dr. Doan Duc Phuong said: "The image of a person in literature carries qualities associated with a certain culture" [41; p. 30].

From the perspective of behavioral culture, the people in Ma Van Khang’s short stories during the renovation period appear both noble and ordinary, with both beauty and goodness as well as ugliness and evil. The people whose “epic distance” has been erased are placed in a multi-layered life, in intricate relationships. Therefore, even in their behavior, the people in his short stories are explored from many dimensions.

1.2.1.1. Beauty and goodness.

Reading Ma Van Khang's short stories in the middle of hot summer days, I was truly captivated by that kind of writing rich in life, full of the breath of life. Many pages of the story make us feel warm because the characters have used the beauty of human nature and human love to treat others, to overcome the usual habits of mundane, multifaceted life. The distorted, the paradoxical, the mundane, the incomplete always attract some other writers. Ma Van Khang "is a writer of beauty in the biochemical flow of life, simple, innocent, the beauty in the happiness of being human with its true meaning and not something else" [37; Page 7].

First of all, the beauty in human-to-human interactions becomes even more radiant when the writer puts his characters in awkward situations. The short story The Locksmith revolves around the main character Thieu. He wanders around practicing the profession of repairing locks, going everywhere to make a living and satisfy his flying spirit. He lives a carefree life like a carefree stroll. Besides the portrait of a talented person in everyday life, Ma Van Khang also directs readers to two women in Thieu's life. They are in a situation where "it is not easy for anyone to give up their husband to another". Yet they do not have any destructive jealousy fights. Perhaps because the loss is so great, it has the power to purify the soul. Thieu's death becomes a bond that connects strangers. "They became disciples of the same religion whose leader is their deceased locksmith husband" [16; p. 282]. The first wife suffered a lot but had a kind heart. Deep inside her is the instinct to preserve the sacred blood relationship, the deep love, the incense of worship. It is love that heals pain, erases hatred, and allows two women to be closer together. When Nep in Letter from the Countryside learned that her husband loved another girl, she did not rush to be jealous but tried to understand her better.

That girl. She knew that Nhung came to Duong with a sincere love. Before the shared feelings, she not only thought of her own sorrow and pity, but also thought of her husband who had fought for half his life, and was still lonely in his old age. She used love to explain and solve the problem. The letter sent from the countryside was full of tears and pain, but carried the weight of forgiveness. It was that behavior that made Duong and Nhung think even more to adjust their behavior. In Trai Chin Mua Thu , Mr. Thuy and Ms. Bung were both people with tragic fates. One had a wife who died, the other had a husband who sacrificed. The two broken lives were reunited by the sacred and noble sympathy and sharing. But the past love could not fade, could not lie still in the drawer without meaning. They broke up after a night when Bung looked at Luyen's mother's picture, cried for Luyen's mother and for her sacrificed husband.

Many characters in Ma Van Khang's short stories always behave towards life and people with their cultural background and rich experience. Through their behavior, we see that they are truly "worthy" people. Mr. Bang in The Last Patrol has reached retirement age. It is at this age of knowing his destiny that he is often moved, his talent for prediction develops to the point of sublimation thanks to his skillful inspiration combined smoothly with experience. The last patrol, as he himself had a hunch, did not go completely smoothly. Not because he could not catch the motorbike thief, but because the criminal before him was a young face, a student's face, a face of a person at the source of personality, a face that has not yet been touched by the dust of the world. He "felt weak in all his limbs, did not turn away but stood staring at the face of the young criminal, tears streaming down his face and cried out in anguish: "Oh my God, why did it come to this, my child. You make me so sad… It turns out that my whole life's experience was just to deal with you, my dear child” [27; p. 215]. Mr. Bang's behavior was not the same as his behavior.

The usual relationship between the person carrying out the mission and the criminal, not cold and principled but imbued with the spirit of humanity. He was stunned and heartbroken before a criminal who was a teenager. He trembled and screamed before its innocence, without lust, evil, and not yet tainted by evil thoughts. Perhaps, the beauty of humanity, human nature as the core of a simple, innocent life, influenced Mr. Bang's behavior. That is why the story does not have the tension of a patrol, it is balanced, "relaxed" thanks to Mr. Bang's hunches, intuition, talent and professional experience.

Beauty is not only expressed in the way people behave, but also in the relationship between people and nature. The boundless blue sky is a short story that conveys many messages from the author. The dove that Tho - a literary friend of his youth - gave to Mr. Khang each time it sings "reminds us of our homeland, it takes us back to the fields, the hamlets, the crops, it makes us feel a distant nostalgia" [27; p. 8]. But those smooth, golden sounds are actually "just the result of a human's torture and torment, simply the sobbing of a person imprisoned and isolated from his own kind" [27; p. 16]. Being locked in a narrow, dark cage, the suffocating, miserable living conditions make the bird angry and let out a cry. The song expresses the longing for the free blue sky, the flock, the friends, the fields. A bird's song that is filled with deep pain. Finally, Mr. Khang's grandson, although he loved the bird very much, released it back into the vast blue sky. That action showed the beauty of a person who had not yet abandoned his roots. It was harmony with nature, living according to nature. The child's behavior received his grandfather's approval. Because "he understood, realized an important thing with the innocent intuition of a carefree teenager. He could not help but

Ma Van Khang's short stories in the renovation period seen from a cultural perspective - 2

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