Short story Thanh Tinh in the Vietnamese lyrical short story stream 1930-1945

Like all other forms of prose fiction, it describes in words; and its success depends on the direct contact achieved between the reader and the object described. As a short story, of course, it cannot carry out this direct contact by the means common to novels, such as slow character development, detailed description, and repetition. In particular, it must describe with the quickness and completeness of a mirror" (quoted from Le Huy Bac) [14,19].

The dictionary of literary terms by authors Tran Dinh Su, Le Ba Han, Nguyen Khac Phi writes: “… short stories often aim to depict a phenomenon, discover an essential feature in human relationships or the life of the human soul… The plot of a short story often takes place in a limited time and space, its function in general is to recognize something profound about life and humanity… The most important element of a short story is the concise details, large capacity and writing style with many hidden meanings, giving the work untold depths.” [6,371]

Vietnamese Dictionary by Professor Hoang Phe (editor) recorded: short story is "a story in prose, small in length, few pages, describing an aspect of personality, a piece of a character's life" [8,1034]; lyrical: "has content reflecting reality by expressing the thoughts, emotions, and personal moods of people, including the artist himself, before life" [8,1035].

Regarding the term "lyricism", the Dictionary of Literary Terms writes: "If narrative expresses the author's thoughts and feelings by objectively reproducing life phenomena, then lyricism reflects life.

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live by directly expressing human consciousness, that is, people feel themselves through their subjective impressions, thoughts, and emotions towards the world and humanity. The lyrical method also reproduces phenomena of life, such as directly describing natural landscapes or recounting more or less relatively continuous events, ... but this reproduction does not have an end in itself, but creates conditions for the subject to express his emotions, contemplations, and thoughts. Lyrical works express mood. Therefore, it often has no plot, understood in the strict sense of the word, and its capacity is often short (because a state of mood cannot last) ... [6,373]

Bui Viet Thang calls lyrical short stories a type of short stories that are intimate: “Story-intimates are also called short stories that are close to poetry because they combine the expression of lyrical emotions with storytelling. Short stories in their essence are a concise narrative-lyrical genre, with ideas beyond words, creating impressions and associations [15,138] … “In the type of short stories that are intimates, the perception of nature in all senses is a characteristic in the writer’s way of describing” [15,140]

Nguyen Minh Chau explains the nature of this type of story: “There are short story writers who, after describing the external events, describe them very sparingly and only focus on the internal, on what the characters receive inside their souls, through dialogues and very subtle psychological reactions. Therefore, a type of short story was born that we often call a story without a plot. It is simply a literary device that allows the characters and their inner psyches to directly contact the readers” (quoted from Bui Viet Thang) [15,138].

In her thesis, Pham Thi Thu Huong wrote: “In lyrical works, the subjective element of the writer is always very strong, and it is expressed in all artistic aspects: Whether describing the scene, the character’s appearance or the character’s inner self,… Lyrical short stories often do not have a plot. They have a structure close to that of lyrical poetry. Lyrical short stories often go deep and subtly describe the reactions of the mind to “life experiences” (the words used by Nguyen Tuan). The meaning of the story is often associated with the pervasive atmosphere, mood… pervasive in the work” [80].

It can be seen that lyrical short stories do not have an official concept. As a form of short story genre, some people consider it as “story-confessional style”, some people consider it as “lyrical short story”, some people call it “story without plot”, or “lyrical prose”… In this thesis, we would like to borrow the characteristic analysis of “lyrical short story style” of previous literary critics as a basis for analyzing Thanh Tinh’s short stories before 1945 (non-plot nature, loose structure of the work, high level of subject disclosure, orientation towards nature, story situation, story characters, story language, …).

II. LYRIC SHORT STORY GENRE 1930-1945 IN THE PROGRESS OF MODERN VIETNAMESE LITERATURE

The differentiation of literary stages in the process of literary history is always difficult and controversial, and the question of when modern Vietnamese literature was formed still has no unified answer.

Modern literature is formed on the basis of certain historical, social and literary premises. Some people take 1900 as a milestone of modern literature, some people think that modern literature is associated with the period 1930-1945, some people classify 20th century literature as modern literature, ... Due to the limited scope of the research topic, here we only raise the issue of examining and researching the lyrical short story genre 1930-1945 in the process of modern Vietnamese literature in the 20th century, more specifically in the development process of modern Vietnamese short stories in the 20th century.

In the early 20th century, national short stories written in Quoc Ngu were marked by the works of many authors such as: Phan Ke Binh, Tan Da, Nguyen Phuong Chanh, Tam Lang, Nguyen Ba Hoc, Pham Duy Ton, Nguyen Ai Quoc, Tran Quang Nghiep, Huynh Minh Phung, ... Short stories in this period were often written in a writing style that turned the character into the writer's subjective ideological spokesperson, with lengthy dialogues, conventional language, clichés, parallelism, and happy endings...

Entering the 1930s, short stories flourished and quickly became a strong genre, truly dominating the literary world. In the fifteen years from 1930 to 1945, the number of short stories published sporadically in newspapers and published in separate collections must have been in the thousands. Writer Nguyen Cong Hoan alone had about 250 short stories. The public became familiar with the names of a series of writers such as Nguyen Cong Hoan, Nguyen Hong, To Hoai, Thach Lam, Nam Cao, Nguyen Tuan, ... Many researchers have commented that short stories in this period were truly rich, unique, diverse, diverse in aesthetic trends, styles, writing styles, themes, local colors ... The literary world gradually formed other short story genres.

each other, depending on the perception of life's reality, aesthetic concept, and writing style of the author. There are short stories that tend to reflect and criticize the reality of life full of oppression and injustice, such as the works of Nguyen Cong Hoan, Nguyen Hong, Nam Cao, Ngo Tat To, etc.; there are short stories that tend to analyze human spiritual life such as the works of Thach Lam, Thanh Tinh, Bui Hien, Do Ton, etc. The lyrical short story genre is formed from works written in the lyrical style, leaning towards analyzing human spiritual life by Thach Lam, Thanh Tinh, Xuan Dieu, etc. The success of short stories has affirmed the superiority of this genre in the country's literature.

After 1945, Vietnamese short stories entered a new era due to the influence of political and social changes. The success of the August Revolution opened a new era with an urgent pace of life, the people were liberated and rose to take control of their own destiny. A series of short stories were born, stories full of the breath of life and the atmosphere of the times, reflecting the arduous but heroic resistance of the people. Besides the writers who had become famous before the revolution, a new generation of young writers appeared, matured during the resistance such as Tran Dang, Ho Phuong, Nguyen Thanh Long, Nguyen Khai, etc. Short stories of this period were considered to have a "movement" nature.

In the period 1955-1975, short stories had more authors and some typical styles such as Nguyen Thanh Long, Nguyen Khai, Nguyen Ngoc, Nguyen Kien, Do Chu, Vu Thi Thuong, Le Minh Khue,... Besides good short stories written about typical moments of

Life in the war is short stories following a new trend, short stories-poetry by Nguyen Thanh Long with Lang le Sapa, Nguyen Ngoc with Reo cao, Do Chu with Huong co mat , Ma Van Khang with Khuc hat Meo... Ma Van Khang said: "Short stories must have something a little bit ethereal, should not be too dreamy, but too bare is not good either" (quoted from Bui Viet Thang) [15,197]. Short stories-poetry in this period were written from materials provided by life in the resistance war about beauty, poetry, heroism and the extraordinary, with a clear language and imbued with poetry. The artistic atmosphere in Lang le Sapa is a quiet, dreamy and profound atmosphere. Sa Pa is so beautiful that it touches the heart: "The clouds are driven away by the sun, rolled into clumps, rolled on the dewy leaf arches, fell onto the road, and even crawled under the car".

Short stories from 1975 to 1985 analyzed the spiritual and social status after the war. The spiritual life of people after the war with loneliness, physical and mental suffering, doubts between loyalty and betrayal, human situations and fates were exploited by writers such as Nguyen Minh Chau (The Woman on the Express Train) , Nguyen Quang Than (The Man Who Didn't Go on the Train) , Le Hoang (The Last Words in the Script) ...

Short stories at the end of the 20th century saw a series of new names such as Nguyen Huy Thiep, Pham Thi Hoai, Nguyen Thi Thu Hue, Phan Thi Vang Anh, Y Ban, Vo Thi Hao, Pham Ngoc Tien, Luu Son Minh... The topics, content, writing style, and story forms were rich and diverse, with many new discoveries and researches. Each author created an impression for himself.

quite distinct from the readers. Daily reality, the hidden feelings in people's spiritual life (especially women), post-war obsessions, the struggle in a new life according to the market mechanism, the struggle to find new values of life... are all included in the writings. Emerging as a special phenomenon of Vietnamese literature in the late 20th century, besides the short stories that caused a stir in the literary world because of their ability to reflect the reality of human degeneration in a complex society such as The retired general, No king, The sawmill workers,... Nguyen Huy Thiep also had another important literary vein full of romanticism and lyricism with The daughter of the water god, Flow away, Oh river, Missing the countryside, The crane just flew and cried out in surprise,... In the same literary vein in the lyrical style of this period are the short stories of Do Chu (The nightingale is singing) , Nguyen Ban (Moonlight) , Linh Vang (Rain on sadness, And the rain still falls, A branch of orchid) ,... Linh Vang's short stories often have a sadness spreading throughout every sentence and word, the sadness of unrequited love, not coming or coming but sadly, written in a gentle lyrical style. Her stories are rich in life, but they are not simply realistic stories. Here, the author has broken through the reality to find something higher in human beings, which is the spiritual life which is very unclear and mysterious and difficult to explain clearly by reason. “I stopped my car at a nursery selling ornamental plants and flowers, walked around, and chose to buy a pot of orchids. It was just a small, fragile orchid branch that had not yet bloomed. I wanted to take care of the orchid until the day I saw it bloom, to see the purple color of the flower” (A Branch of Orchid)…

Looking through the outlines of the development of the 20th century short story, it can be seen that there still exists a lyrical short story vein. This short story line originated in the period 1930-1945, stagnated and almost did not develop in the period 1945-1955 (in this period, short stories in the epic style and memoirs developed strongly), started again in some works that leaned more towards short stories-poetry in the period 1955-1975-1985, and developed strongly again in the late 20th century and early 21st century with Nguyen Minh Chau, Nguyen Huy Thiep, Do Chu, Nguyen Ban, Nguyen Ngoc Tu, Linh Vang, Mai Ninh, ... The reason we believe that this story line still exists and tends to develop strongly in the late 20th century and early 21st century is because it meets the typical criteria of the lyrical short story line: plotless, high level of subject disclosure, loose structure, oriented towards nature,

… One of the young writers who writes short stories in the lyrical style that has received special attention from the public in recent years is Nguyen Ngoc Tu. Nguyen Ngoc Tu's short stories are gentle, tender, not noisy and dramatic, but delve into analyzing human psychology in a gentle, sharp and subtle way. Her characters are ordinary, honest people in life, with beautiful, sad and seemingly unreal love stories of this life. These are simple, sincere and simple love stories like the people of the Southern Delta. Her stories are filled with nostalgia for their homeland: Stream of memories, Crossing the bridge, Missing people, Missing the river, Flowing water and floating clouds, ... and beautiful love stories: Hiu hiu gio bac, Thuong qua rau ram, Chieu voi, Hue got married, Moc tinh nam cuu, ...

Short story Thanh Tinh in the Vietnamese lyrical short story stream 1930-1945 - 3

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