Studies on Specific Authors and Works

has received the attention of many researchers and critics. In addition to approaches from the creative theme (short stories about war, marriage and love, family issues, soldier themes, short stories about the countryside, short stories about the mountains, gender and sexuality), there are approaches to innovation in genre form and narrative art.

1.2.2.2 Approach from phenomena

During more than twenty years of renovation, the life of the short story genre has had some remarkable phenomena.

The literary world in the late eighties once raised a debate about Nguyen Huy Thiep's works. However, even before that, Nguyen Minh Chau's short stories had attracted attention. Along with artistic declarations, especially the article "Let's read the eulogy for a period of illustrated literature", many of his works such as The woman on the express train, The guest from the countryside, Reed grass, and Giat market show a significant change in artistic thinking. Many articles highly appreciated the artistic innovations and affirmed Nguyen Minh Chau's contributions to the process of literary innovation in the years after the war ( Reading Nguyen Minh Chau (from The painting to Giat market ) - Hoang Ngoc Hien [56]), Reading Giat market by Nguyen Minh Chau (Do Duc Hieu) [63]. Reading Giat market, Do Duc Hieu commented: " Giat market is an open story; From the logic of the surface language, the story moves to the second language, the symbolic language, distorted, illusions, with shocks, paradoxes, that is, a blurred world of illusion and reality, those are the unique symbols of Nguyen Minh Chau in this short story. The story is not closed in any meaning, it opens up a horizon for each group of readers, readers participate in literature" [63, p.381]. Pham Vinh Cu realized that novel thinking has made significant changes in this writer ( On novel elements in Nguyen Minh Chau's short stories ) [26]. In the conference commemorating the 1st and 5th anniversary of his death, many papers highly appreciated Nguyen Minh Chau's role as a pioneer for literary innovation, which can also be considered as innovation in short stories.

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Nguyen Huy Thiep is a prominent phenomenon of literature in the renovation period. As soon as his work was published, there were mixed opinions about his creations. Year

In 1987, the short story The Retired General appeared, followed by the short stories The Water God's Daughter, No King, The Winds of Hua Tat and especially the historical short stories Gold Fire, Sword of Sharpness and Dignity . Nguyen Huy Thiep's works have sparked debates in the literary world with different, even contradictory opinions. Around this debate, there have been many notable articles: Is there Baroque art in Nguyen Huy Thiep's short stories or not ?, About the short story "Gold Fire" by Nguyen Huy Thiep (Ta Ngoc Lien), Reading literature must be different from reading history (Lai Nguyen An), There is a way to read "Gold Fire" (Do Van Khang), "Reading" Nguyen Huy Thiep (Van Tam), When the retired general appears (Dang Anh Dao). Important articles about Nguyen Huy Thiep's works are collected and introduced in Nguyen Huy Thiep's works and public opinion and Looking for Nguyen Huy Thiep . Most of the comments acknowledged Nguyen Huy Thiep's outstanding contributions, regarding the newness in his writing from the approach to the topic, the handling of realistic materials to the innovation of writing style. Although there were opinions, criticisms, and criticisms of Nguyen Huy Thiep's short stories, most of them acknowledged the author's talent. The articles mainly focused on understanding his short story's artistic innovations in the exploration, approach, and handling of realistic materials (including magical realism), and on the "right" to fictionalize to what extent the writer of historical short stories has. It can be said that Nguyen Huy Thiep has stirred up the literary world and opened up a new way of writing on historical topics.

The phenomenon of female short stories in the late 80s and throughout the 90s also attracted the attention of readers and critics. It can be seen that most contemporary female writers often choose short stories to try their hand and commit themselves, are recognized by readers as short story writers and many of them soon became famous in this genre. This is considered the period of sublimation of female short stories, the "yin flourishing" period. Writers such as Nguyen Thi Thu Hue, Vo Thi Hao, Le Minh Khue, Y Ban, Phan Thi Vang Anh, ... soon became famous in the literary world, their works created public opinion, attracted the attention of readers because of the way they posed and handled problems, because of their new, bold concepts about life. There have been many opinions, analyses and explanations surrounding this phenomenon. Literature Magazine No.

6/1996 published a report on the discussion Women and Literary Creation [120] which focused on the opinions of many researchers, critics and creators such as Dang Anh Dao, Le Minh Khue, Lai Nguyen An, Pham Xuan Nguyen, Vuong Tri Nhan. The opinions focused on explaining the large number of female short story writers after 1975 as well as the innovations in their approach to life and methods of expression in their writing. At the same time, there are many articles that choose women's prose and women's short stories as the subject of research: Prose of women (Bich Thu) [162], Gender consciousness in contemporary women's prose (Nguyen Thi Binh) [12], Sketching some features of the appearance of contemporary short stories and the presence of some female writers (Nguyen Thi Thanh Thang) [156],... From different perspectives, the authors have had a multi-faceted view of short stories by female writers, mentioning the outstanding features in their works. The articles affirm the continuity of the team as well as the characteristics of gender revealed through the perspective of reality and people. In recent years, in the life of literary criticism and theory, a trend has been forming to approach the works of female writers and women's short stories from a feminist perspective. In the world, the application of feminist theory to the study of female writers' writings has been done in many Western countries such as France and the US - where the feminist movement has become a political trend with widespread influence in life. In Vietnam, the situation is different because the struggle for feminism has not become a phenomenon with widespread influence. However, some articles have initially approached the writings of female writers from this theory. It is also necessary to note the fact that when approaching Vietnamese literary writing from Western theory, there have been works and articles that have effectively applied theories to practical research (reception theory), but there are also cases where it is unavoidable to be forced and therefore have not achieved positive results.

At the beginning of the 21st century, along with the movements of literary life, there were the phenomena of Canh Dong Bat Tan by Nguyen Ngoc Tu , Bong De by Do Hoang Dieu, short stories of the 8X generation. Canh Dong Bat Tan was first published in Van Nghe newspaper in 2005 and was awarded the Vietnam Writers Association Award in 2006. Right from its appearance, this short story received many positive responses from critics.

research as well as readers, was adapted into a movie script, translated into many languages and published abroad. There were many short story collections before, but with Endless Field , Nguyen Ngoc Tu had a spectacular breakthrough with a bold writing style. Although there were many opinions surrounding it, public opinion generally highly appreciated Endless Field: the pains and misfortunes of people, the realities of life were exploited to the maximum by Nguyen Ngoc Tu, pushed to the end but the work was imbued with a noble humanistic spirit. Besides, the successes in narrative art such as changing writing style and tone, the art of structure and language of the work were also recognized.

In 2005, the collection of short stories Bong De by Do Hoang Dieu was published and immediately received mixed public opinions. Opinions focused on the short story Bong De - the work used as the general title for the entire collection. A group of readers highly appreciated the short story, thinking that this was a good work in both content and writing style (opinions of Nguyen Huy Thiep, Pham Xuan Nguyen, Nguyen Ngoc). A group of readers thought that the work was quite vulgar, had debased the past, slandered tradition, and needed to be criticized in terms of ideology (Nguyen Hoa). It can be seen that each comment and assessment of this phenomenon is based on different positions, ideologies and literary concepts, but in reality, there are opinions that do not originate from the work itself but are heavily biased or flatter a phenomenon.

In recent years, a number of young writers of the 8X generation have begun to appear in the literary world and their works have received the attention of readers. That attention is, first of all, the attention to a new generation, the future of the literary world. The appearance of the collections of short stories 8X and Dance of the Skinny Body has sparked debates in the literary world and the Young Writers' Committee of the Writers' Association has opened a discussion with many opinions. In fact, their works have different and new things compared to the previous generation. Writers of the 8X generation almost live in a new biosphere, when the country no longer has gunfire, when social life has changed in many aspects. They are nurtured and matured in economic conditions that are no longer difficult during the subsidy period and they themselves are exposed to new technologies (such as information technology, digital, multimedia) early on - things that

Their fathers, uncles, and older siblings could not have. Therefore, the way they capture and portray life is also different. Besides acknowledging the creative efforts of new writers, there are also many criticisms, frankly pointing out the limitations in the short stories of this generation of writers. In any case, in our opinion, the works in these two collections of short stories should be considered as the experimental debuts of a generation, "trying to find a way to write", so that they either will no longer return to the literary world, or will be more steadfast on their literary path with new works.

1.2.2.3. Studies on specific authors and works

This group of articles is published in many newspapers and magazines as well as in research works, most commonly in the Van Nghe newspaper, Van Nghe Tre, Van Nghe Quan Doi magazine , Song Huong magazine , etc. In addition to Nguyen Huy Thiep and Nguyen Minh Chau, research and criticism articles often focus on a number of authors who appear regularly and have become famous, representing short stories of a period such as Xuan Thieu, Ma Van Khang, Nguyen Khai, Do Chu, Le Minh Khue, Y Ban, Vo Thi Xuan Ha, Nguyen Thi Thu Hue and a number of young authors who are gradually shaping their style such as Nguyen Ngoc Tu, Do Bich Thuy, Pham Duy Nghia, Phong Diep, etc. These articles often appear updated with the creative situation: from readings, introducing new works to articles identifying the works of each writer, each creative journey affirming the research and contributions of the writer to the process of literary innovation. In addition, there are many theses and dissertations that choose a short story author as the research subject. The authors of the work often develop their thesis in the direction of narratology and poetics, which often focus on aspects such as character, plot, narrator, language, tone, narrative point of view - the main aspects in narrative theory.

1.2.2.4. Approaching short stories from the perspective of theoretical application

- Approaching from poetics and narratology. This is considered the main research trend when approaching the life of the genre. By applying the theory of poetics (of Bakhtin), narratology (Roland Barthes, Genette, ...), reception theory of HR Jauss, R. Ingarden to the case study of contemporary Vietnamese short stories, the

Researchers have decoded many issues related to creative poetics and narrative art such as artistic inspiration, character world, plot, structure, space, artistic time, etc. This trend is meaningful in decoding issues related to writing style and narrative art - the main aspects in a narrative work and in fact has brought many research achievements. Applying narrative theory to short story research, many research works have pointed out the achievements and limitations of the writer. However, adhering to only one theory and applying a stereotyped, mechanical theory has also shown the inadequacies and limitations when studying the case of contemporary short stories as well as applying it to the analysis of a specific work.

- Approach from the perspective of psychoanalysis. This is a new approach with typical articles by Ho The Ha ( Some Vietnamese prose works through the perspective of psychoanalysis [53], Tran Thanh Ha ( Approach from psychoanalysis in Vietnamese short stories [52]. By applying psychoanalytic theory (mainly Freud's), the author has examined short stories in the renovation period through the issues of this theory such as the unconscious, sexuality, and psychology of artistic creation.

- Approaching from the theory of myth. There have been a number of works and articles that have chosen this approach to study and explain the appearance of the magical element in Vietnamese prose in general and contemporary short stories in particular ( The magical element in contemporary Vietnamese prose , doctoral thesis by Bui Thanh Truyen).

- Applying new theories such as postmodernism and existentialism to the study of short stories in the reform period. If about five or seven years ago, the concept of postmodernism was still mentioned quite cautiously, it has now attracted the attention of many researchers. Many researchers and translators have translated postmodern theories ( Postmodern Circumstances - Lyotard) [88] and applied surveys through many cases, with typical articles such as Signs of postmodernism in Vietnamese literature through the works of Nguyen Huy Thiep and Pham Thi Hoai by La Nguyen [100], History in Nguyen Huy Thiep's short stories and traces of the postmodern poetics system by Cao Kim Lan [79]. For

Although there are still debates about whether or not to classify some phenomena into the category of postmodern literature, these research movements have shown the changes in the life of the genre, showing the reality that postmodern consciousness and writing techniques are a state of existence in many works, even though the postmodern circumstances and conditions in Vietnam today have not yet fully appeared.

- In addition, there are interdisciplinary approaches: literary sociology, cultural anthropology, etc.

Through examining the history of the research problem, we come to the following conclusions:

- During the more than twenty years of renovation, the short story genre has been studied by contemporary literary researchers and critics as separate articles or comments on the genre in the research direction on issues of prose and literature in this period. Some other specialized works have stopped at a time more than ten years ago ( Basic characteristics of Vietnamese short stories 1975 - 1995 ) [74] while the genre's life has changed significantly since then. Paying attention to the object's updating, we consider it a suggestive basis for studying and identifying the characteristics and laws of movement of the genre in the process of literary renovation.

- The life of short stories from the perspective of genre is an aspect that is rarely mentioned by researchers, works, and articles. The thesis aims to study the life of genres in their internal development and interaction with the hope of partly overcoming and supplementing the identification and explanation of the life of the short story genre since 1986.

- Based on a survey of short stories from 1986 to present from a genre perspective, it contributes to identifying short stories in this period; explaining the laws of movement of the genre, and at the same time evaluating innovations in artistic thinking and trends in the creative consciousness of short story writers.

1.3. Short story development in the renovation period

In 2008, Van Nghe newspaper introduced to readers a collection of 60 years of Van Nghe newspaper's short stories . With this collection, readers can partly imagine.

The journey of the past 60 years of Vietnamese short stories. Looking at the five volumes of the collection associated with five periods: 1945 - 1954, 1954 - 1965, 1965 - 1975, 1975 - 1986, 1986 - 2007 with the title of each volume being the work selected to represent each period: The Road of Life (Minh Loc) , Blood Pen (Vu Hanh) , Seeds of Life (Trieu Bon) , Salt of the Forest (Nguyen Huy Thiep) and Debt of the World (Nguyen Ban), readers can see the movement of the genre's life, thereby seeing the changes, the marks of history, the times and the steps of the art of writing short stories through each period. Observing the life of the genre, it can be seen that, in the past few decades, with the trend of change in consciousness and creative behavior, short stories have been changing in response to the demands of life and the perception of readers. With the ability to transform flexibly, short stories have proven to be a favorable genre in promoting the ability to approach reality in the new period quickly and sharply.

1.3.1. The period from 1986 to 2000 with the leading role of the third and fourth generation of writers

After the ten-year transition period when the war ended, from the second half of the 80s of the 20th century, literary life really had changes: from unity with epic thinking as the main theme to novel thinking, from being influenced by the laws of war to being influenced by the laws of peacetime. The change of literature was expressed through poetry, drama, prose, in which the short story was a genre that left a clear mark. Along with the movements of the novel genre with the appearance of works that caused public opinion such as Cu Lao Tram, Standing before the sea (Nguyen Manh Tuan) , The season of fallen leaves in the garden (Ma Van Khang), Chim En Bay (Nguyen Tri Huan) , Noi buon chien tranh (Bao Ninh), Manh dat lam nguoi mem ma (Nguyen Khac Truong, . . .) was the return and rise of the short story with veteran writers who had contributed to the resistance literature. Writers Xuan Thieu, Bui Hien, Nguyen Minh Chau, Ma Van Khang, Mai Ngu, Do Chu, Nguyen Kien, Nguyen Quang Sang still regularly have works published. Bui Hien with the collections Tam Tuong, Ngo Ngan Mua Xuan ; Nguyen Minh Chau with the collections Ben Que, Co Lau, Nguoi Dan Ba Tren Chuong Tau Express ; Ma Van Khang

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