The Author's Ego and the Picture of Life in Vietnamese Prose from 1986 to Present

In essays since 1986, the author's ego boldly delves into aspects of political, social and human life to perceive and analyze. That has made political essays have a strong impact on the reader's psychology, deeply exploring the dynamism of analytical thinking, bringing readers intellectual pleasures through perceptions and explanations of burning issues of real life. The works, with their roles and missions, have clearly recreated a comprehensive picture of social, economic, political issues... All are depicted in detail, bringing new feelings in the reader's perception, as well as contributing to the trend of political essays in this period.

The three main trends of lyricism, narrative and political essays, since 1986, have significantly contributed to the modernization and democratization of literature. Essays have become a dynamic literary genre, diverse in quantity and quality, and have achieved remarkable achievements in contemporary Vietnamese literature. Essays since 1986 have demonstrated their role and mission as a flexible, "mobile" genre, closest to the reality of secular life but always ensuring the artistic characteristics of the genre, contributing to the construction and creation of a new and lively genre language. Therefore, essays since 1986 have established their own position and demonstrated their role in the system of genres of Vietnamese literature.

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Based on the analysis of the conditions governing the movement and development of Vietnamese prose from 1986 to the present (rich and complex social reality in the context of industrialization and modernization; openness and wide exchange with the world in the context of globalization; the explosion and strong development of the global telecommunications network; the inheritance and development of the prose genre in the context of renewed literature), the thesis has outlined the stages of movement of prose so that readers can compare and contrast the development process of prose through each stage. The thesis has systematized and outlined the appearance and typical trends of the prose genre.

in Vietnamese literature since 1986. In general, since the end of the 20th century, the new social context in politics, economics, culture, society, and literature has created conditions for prose to develop, gradually affirming its position. The explosion of information technology and the online environment is the ideal space for prose to exist and develop strongly. Modern Vietnamese prose (from the 20th century to the present) has achieved certain achievements. Particularly from 1986 to the end of the 20th century, prose is considered a prosperous period. The number of essays in this period has increased rapidly, the diversity of topics and themes, and the participation of many creative teams, such as: Hoang Phu Ngoc Tuong, To Hoai, Bang Son, Mai Van Tao, Ly Lan, Thanh Hao, Mai Ngu, Vinh Quyen, Kieu Ly, Nguyen Viet Ha, Vu Tam Hue, Le Minh Ha, Ta Duy Anh, Do Phan... From the beginning of the 21st century to the present, it is considered a boom period, the "era of essays". Thanks to the development of technology and the Internet, essays have achieved success in many aspects. The term "online essays" has become familiar, it is an inseparable part of Vietnamese essays, contributing to creating a new look for the most dynamic and developed literary genre in the first 20 years of the 21st century. In terms of the number of works, it is difficult to fully count the number of essays appearing in this period when there are many essay anthologies published for readers. Looking at the number of authors and works as well as the practice of composing, publishing, and reprinting works of some famous writers of the prose genre during this period, such as: Y Phuong, Bang Son, Nguyen Ngoc Tu, Nguyen Truong Quy, Nguyen Viet Ha... readers cannot help but be surprised at the achievements they have achieved. Up to now, Vietnamese prose has gradually affirmed its solid position in modern Vietnamese literature in general and the prose genre in particular.

Chapter 3. THE AUTHOR'S EGO AND THE PICTURE OF LIFE IN VIETNAMESE PROSES FROM 1986 TO PRESENT

Artistic images are the creative products of artists in the process of perceiving and reproducing life; they are a special means of art to reflect objective reality. The dictionary of literary terms has revealed: "The basic characteristic of artistic images is the reproduction of the world, making people and life appear as real as possible" [27, p. 24]. In literature, writers create artistic images to explain and interpret life, express their views, thoughts, feelings and attitudes. Thanks to those artistic images, things, events, phenomena and people are depicted clearly and vividly. In addition, through artistic images, the writer's strengths, style and talent are expressed most clearly and accurately. Studying artistic images in Vietnamese prose from 1986 to the present, we focus on understanding the author's ego and the world picture.

3.1. The author's ego

The author's ego is a very important category, a fundamental element that forms the writer's style. On the philosophical level, the ego is a concept understood as the inclusive ego, which has characteristics to distinguish it from the ego of other individuals. According to the philosophical viewpoint of Descartes (1595-1650), "the ego" is understood in the sense of: "I think and I exist". He conceived the ego as a thing belonging to a thinking entity, as the root of rational cognition, thereby affirming its independence. Psychoanalysis defines the ego as the core of personality related to reality and influenced by social impact. In Buddhist philosophy, the "ego" is often called "self", which is the "ego" presented with an eternal nature, unaffected by gathering and dispersing, birth and death.

It can be said that the image of the author's ego in a literary work in general is expressed and created by the writer as an independent character image and is organized according to its own artistic principles. If the character image in a work

Built by fiction, described according to the writer's artistic concept of humanity, the image of the author's ego is expressed according to the principles of self-expression, self-perception and the author's own aesthetic attitude towards the surrounding world.

The author's ego participating in the artistic creation process also means participating in the process of figurative thinking when the author forms the creative intention. From this perspective, the artist's ego participates in the artistic creation process with the function of controlling thinking in accordance with the laws of creation and perception. Through artistic images, the writer's artist's ego has a multi-dimensional perception of life and the world, helping to create the work, creating internal unity in the content and art of the work.

The author's image is a clear expression of the artist's self-awareness of his social role, especially his literary role, in the work. With its own characteristics as a genre, the essay directly reveals the author's ego. The ego is a direct form of the author's image, and at the same time, it is also an important narrative method as an artistic function: that ego goes, sees, tells, ponders, praises, criticizes, evaluates...

The dictionary of literary terms indicates: “The author's image represents the author's self-awareness of his social role and literary role in the work... The author's image in a literary work is associated with the author's awareness of his very diverse social role and literary posture... The psychological basis of the author's image is the image of the ego in each person's personality expressed in communication” [27; p. 149]. The image of the author's ego in fictional works (novels, short stories) is a fictional image, expressed in the world of characters or narrators, not easily recognizable. But the image of the author's ego in prose appears according to the principle of self-expression, shortening the maximum distance between it and the author, especially being close and bearing the author's mark. Therefore, prose writers often in many cases take their own biographical life as material to build their works. Essays are a genre that directly expresses the author's "ego". The writer is the subject of speech and naturally and inevitably "enters the role" of the narrator.

pronouns “I”; “we” or “us”. Regardless of which pronoun is used, in the essay, we will encounter the author’s own life, soul, and words in the work.

It can be said that the image of the author's ego in prose is expressed in a variety of ways. It comes from the reason that each writer has a different view of life's reality, has a unique voice, the writer often directly expresses his own views and thoughts on a problem, a person, a certain scene in life. Looking at prose from 1986 to the present, the image of the author's ego at the most general level appears with all its richness and liveliness, basically summarized into three main manifestations: the self-expressive ego; the ego participating in social life and the ego thinking about culture.

3.1.1. The self-manifestation

In a literary work, the author's image is the expression of the second self. If the first self is the self in the writer's real life, the second self is the self of the artist that exists in the literary work. The author is the one who creates the work, and at the same time leaves his mark and style through the artistic world he creates. The second self always appears in a certain literary posture, it leaves an imprint on the subject in the work, is the voice of the first self, represents and is responsible for the author's thoughts and views appearing in the literary work.

Authors write essays for many different reasons and needs. Among them, they do not hide the need to express their own private and personal lives. Therefore, for many authors, essays are the most authentic and vivid autobiography of their personal lives.

Di Li, a young writer who has recently emerged in the literary world. With a sharp and humorous writing style, Di Li brings readers new perspectives and emotions about life's issues. The essay book Adam & Eve is a collection of stories revolving around issues of everyday life, about love, marriage, family, men, women, gender equality... There, Di Li's self-expression talks about life, love, about men or women "with the mindset of a woman to

writing about women and from the eyes of women "glancing" at men to see how they think, how they behave, how they act". With Di Li "people often say I am a contradictory person. I say that human nature is contradictory, I am also human, so what is contradiction" ( Contradiction of women and the papaya guy - Di Li) . In the way of looking at life, Di Li's self-expression also has many new and unique points compared to other writers: "I hate having to answer questions that require choices, especially in cases where we do not have the ability to choose. Beauty or intelligence or wealth... God created it that way. Whatever God gives, use it, how can you choose now" ( Beauty or intelligence or wealth ). Whether writing about women or men, the author's self-expression always gives her own perspective, often completely opposite to the conventional notions of the majority. That ego believes that having a daughter, even a dozen of them, is still better than having a son, and gives many examples of the benefits of having a daughter. Meanwhile, men are born into this world to suffer, and when they die, they still carry countless more sufferings. Explaining the failure in love and marriage, the ego also expresses itself, saying that the only reason is that people cannot understand themselves and others. Although the explanation is through funny stories because of humor and sarcasm, the end of each story often brings a deeply sad smile.

For Nguyen Ngoc Tu, the ego always shows contemplation, reflection, and philosophy about the way of life and people. That ego is worried, troubled, and tormented by the inadequacies and difficulties of real life, because according to the author, "humans are more easily lost than nature, because people have the ability to lose themselves" ( The moment of the night-blooming cereus flower - Nguyen Ngoc Tu). The personal ego is also expressed through nostalgic lines about very peaceful childhood memories. Through the image of the reed in The flickering reed, Nguyen Ngoc Tu expresses his nostalgia for his homeland and childhood memories. It seems that the reed is the simple image of his homeland, carried with him like a very sacred piece of luggage: "The memory of the reed makes me unable to forget, remembering my grandfather when he was too angry, he often picked up a reed to hit his grandchildren. The whip did not hurt, I happily thought my grandfather was blind, when I grew up I realized that I was blind

eyes. The image of reeds also brings me many worries through the reeds swaying in clusters, spinning on the brick floor, feeling sad" ( Flickering reeds - Nguyen Ngoc Tu) . The image of reeds keeps flickering in nostalgia, tinged with longing. Sadness, loneliness and contemplation of life are also more imbued when the author's ego looks at a branch of water hyacinth swaying and wilting on the river surface: "For the first time I discovered the beauty of loneliness, collecting another symbol of the sadness of the homeland, along with the smoke of burning the fields fluttering under the sunset, along with the deep sound of the plover following the water, the swarm of fireflies flickering on the mangroves. A very strange, deep sadness, but does not confine people, is not stagnant, not miserable. The sadness is vast, open, immense, and open..." ( Water hyacinth - Nguyen Ngoc Tu) and the character I think: "If people can still imprison themselves with wild illusions, then what do they care about this lowly water hyacinth, what do they care about that bird in the cage..." ( Water hyacinth - Nguyen Ngoc Tu).

The ego in Nguyen Nhat Anh's prose always yearns to find ways to satisfy the nostalgia for his homeland. The homeland with its simple, close, and familiar things always appears in the writer's mind. That self-expressed ego frankly admits: "I am a writer. So I satisfy my nostalgia for my homeland in the way of a practitioner through writing. Memories, lands, and faces of childhood friends appear one after another in one book after another. Until now, I still wonder: is that the deep reason why I became a writer specializing in writing for children - a sparkling world that a person living in exile can't stop remembering and trying to recreate in every way in his writings" ( Homeland Mist - Nguyen Nhat Anh). Following the flow of his memories, the writer encountered the familiar image and scent of custard apples at a small roadside market. In the memories of my character and others, star apple is not just a dish but also a snack. It has become a part of the memories of the childhood days growing up in the poor countryside of Central Vietnam. Later, the author lived and worked in the South, the image and scent of star apple only followed him through nostalgic dreams. Therefore, when he saw a basket of star apples for sale on the roadside, the author stopped and bought the whole basket without needing to

pay the price. For the author, childhood memories have become priceless goods that cannot always be found again. The character I brought the basket of fruits back and placed it on the table to reminisce about the fragrance, to calm down with childhood, with nostalgia for the past ( Childhood Fruits - Nguyen Nhat Anh). Nowadays, when life is full, does anyone still remember those simple plants? Does anyone still mention the beautiful childhood memories they once had in their lives? In Missing Tra Long, family affection is also expressed in the author's feelings for his homeland. There, the author's ego tells about the difficult, hard childhood but full of sacred feelings: "When I was young, my family had many children and they were civil servants, so life was difficult and hard. Every month when the house ran out of rice and before I could receive my salary, my father went to my aunt's house. My aunt worked in the fields, her house was in Tra Long, and when she came home, my father was given a few dozen kilos of rice by my aunt to bring back to us. Every time my father mentioned the land of Tra Long, we all rushed to go there" ( Missing Tra Long - Nguyen Nhat Anh). Family affection is like that, even though she is not a parent, the affection of the aunt is still very affectionate and warm. The more time passes, the further away Tra Long is from her childhood. The distance between the character "me" and Tra Long during that period is not only the distance of space and time, but also the vicissitudes of life. Only years later, when life is less difficult, does the author have the opportunity to visit Tra Long again to witness the white hair of the uncle and the wrinkles carved by time on the aunt's face. The tearful moment because of the beautiful childhood memories that will never return. Simplicity, care, and love in the difficult years of life warms the human heart - that is family affection.

Writing about love, the ego manifests itself in Tue Man's essays with endless thoughts and worries. The intense desire in love is always accompanied by feelings of insecurity, fear that tomorrow the other person will leave you. The ego shows fear, fear of losing the beloved. Sometimes when I am next to him, being held tightly by him, feeling warm, safe, happy, the ego suddenly "has a nagging thought, not knowing why, thinking about what it would be like if one day I were no longer by his side, then feeling sad, naturally shedding tears" ( Or maybe, let's not talk about it) .

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