The process of modernization of Vietnamese literary research in the first half of the 20th century

To achieve this goal, the French colonial education system was adapted by the French in Vietnam to suit the realities of the colonial country. This education system is called Franco-Vietnamese education. In the Franco-Vietnamese education system, French is the main language used for communication in the classroom. Only in the first three grades of primary school is Vietnamese used, and in the following grades and levels, Vietnamese is only taught as a secondary language.

The French-Vietnamese education system is divided into two parts: general education and higher professional education (university). The French-Vietnamese general education program has three levels with 13 years. Primary level is 6 years. After completing the primary program, students take the Primary School Summary or Elementary School exam. High school level is 4 years, after which they take the Primary College exam (also known as the General Certificate). Specialized secondary level is 3 years, after completing the first 2 years, they take the first Baccalaureate exam. After having the first Baccalaureate, after completing the third year, they take the full Baccalaureate exam.

After obtaining a full Baccalaureate degree, students will be admitted to French-Vietnamese professional colleges (universities). However, as mentioned, the purpose of the French colonialists opening French-Vietnamese schools was to train a number of civil servants for their governing apparatus, so the system of schools established was not large and the number of students enrolled each year was very limited. Some of the colleges established at that time include: Pedagogical College, Agricultural College, Indochina College of Fine Arts, Indochina College of Medicine (later changed to Medical University), Law College (later also changed to Law University). And these were the places that trained high-level intellectuals, leading to the development of Vietnamese education at that time. In French-Vietnamese schools, they were directly exposed to modern cultural and scientific knowledge of the West, especially France. Moreover, they were deeply influenced by new ideas about literature, philosophy and society.

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modern Western society. The number of students with baccalaureate degrees, college and university graduates from French-Vietnamese schools is increasing. Most Western-educated intellectuals are oriented towards relatively free professions such as being teachers, journalists, scientific and technical activities, etc. Among them, some have entered the path of literary creation and literary research, becoming a team of new-school writers gradually replacing the team of old-school writers, such as: Le Thuoc, Dang Thai Mai, Hoang Ngoc Phach, Duong Quang Ham (graduated from pedagogical college), Pham Huy Thong (graduated from university in Paris), Pham Quynh (graduated from the School of Communication), Huy Can (graduated from the College of Agriculture), Thieu Son, Hoai Thanh, Vu Ngoc Phan, etc. (all passed the baccalaureate) and improved their qualifications through self-study.

During their studies at Franco-Vietnamese schools, Western-educated intellectuals acquired a large amount of basic knowledge about the history, culture, and literature of Western countries, especially France, including researchers and literary critics. Therefore, in terms of theory, they were the ones who were heavily influenced by Western research theories. For example: it is easy to see the influence of the intuitive method, the biographical method, the sociological method, the Marxist sociological method... in the works of researchers in the first half of the 20th century such as: Thieu Son, Hoai Thanh, Vu Ngoc Phan, Tran Thanh Mai, Hai Trieu, Dang Thai Mai... Especially due to the use of the book History of French Literature (1894) by Gustave Lanson (1857 - 1934) as a textbook on French literature in French - Vietnamese high schools, the historical and comparative method that Lanson applied to literary research has had a prominent influence in Vietnam. It can be said that the quick, selective absorption and quite successful application of modern Western research methods (from the intuitive method to the Marxist sociological method)

is one of the important conditions leading to the modernization process.

literary research activities during this period.

Of course, everyone is aware that: the introduction of the Western education system into Vietnam was aimed at imposing the colonial education system in the plot to assimilate the Vietnamese people; however, when everything has gone back to the past, with an objective scientific perspective, it can be said: it was that education system that contributed to transferring all aspects of Western scientific knowledge into Vietnam, pushing back the heavily theoretical education model of the formal, mandarin, and official education system lacking creativity under the domination of the pages of the sages. The Vietnamese have a saying "in misfortune there is fortune", perhaps from this perspective, it must be fair to say that: the new education system from the West imposed on our country as an assimilation tool, in fact has become a new wind that helps national education have the conditions to transform and absorb both the theoretical system and specific scientific knowledge, to perceive and apply new knowledge to life. Particularly in the field of literature, it has contributed to transforming the literary research thinking of the young generation of intellectuals.

1.2.3. New literature

Before the 20th century, Vietnamese literature still belonged to the category of medieval literature, deeply influenced by Chinese literature in terms of ideology, genre, and writing. At that time, official literature was written by Confucian scholars, literary activities were limited to the Confucian intellectual community. Literary works were not yet widely disseminated, but were mainly composed for individuals and friends. Writing was not yet a profession, literary works were mainly high-class spiritual food for the intellectual aristocracy. Literature was normative with strict rules, themes, characters, plots... were all within the system of conventions.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Vietnamese society had significant changes.

Many cities sprang up, many new social classes appeared. These new classes had new cultural and aesthetic needs, requiring a new kind of literature. Along with social changes, cultural activities had new elements such as: the appearance of the national language, press, printing, translation. These were the basic conditions that promoted the birth and development of a new literature to quickly modernize.

1.2.3.1. When Vietnamese literature entered the modern orbit, prose developed first and developed quite quickly. At the end of the 19th century, a number of simple prose works appeared such as: Old Stories (1866), Comedy Stories , Life of a Wanderer (1882), Trip to the North in the Year of the Pig (1876) by Truong Vinh Ky; Stories to Unhappy (1866) by Huynh Tinh Cua. But the milestone marking the formation of modern Vietnamese prose can be counted from when Nguyen Trong Quan published The Story of Teacher Lazaro Phien in 1887. This was the first national language novel of Vietnamese literature that had innovations, however, Nguyen Trong Quan's pioneering spirit was not continued, because "The Story of Teacher Lazaro Phien is just a lost bird from the West landing in a land where there were no other birds of the same kind. For that reason, it emerged as an isolated oasis in the second half of the 19th century, not only in the South but also in Vietnam" [44, p.303]. After Nguyen Trong Quan, it was not until the 1920s, with the appearance of Nguyen Ba Hoc and Pham Duy Ton (in the North), that modern national language short stories were truly affirmed. Reading the works of the two men, we see the dark, evil reality of contemporary society. Although their stories were only "stories that completely escaped the stereotypes of Chinese stories, and could not yet be considered realistic short novels" [139, p.120], they had the merit of pioneering and laying the foundation for modern Vietnamese short stories. Later on, Vietnamese short stories developed more and more richly in content, diverse in style and writing style. Works of Nguyen Cong

Hoan, Thach Lam, Nguyen Tuan, Thanh Tinh, To Hoai, Nam Cao... created the peaks of short stories.

1.2.3.2. The novel genre appeared late in our country. It was not until the beginning of the 19th century with the appearance of Hoang Le Nhat Thong Chi of Ngo Gia Van Phai that our country had a large-scale, high-caliber work worthy of being called a novel. However, in many aspects, it still belonged to the category of Oriental novels. In the early 20th century, along with the changes in society, people's cultural life became increasingly high, and the private life factor was increasingly paid attention to. People wanted to read works that described real life with all the messy, chaotic elements of life to reflect on themselves, to find their own way of behaving, their way of living. That was the condition for the novel to be born and develop.

The first novels appeared first in the South with typical authors and works such as: Tran Thien Trung ( Hoang To Anh ham oan - 1910), Truong Duy Toan ( Phan Yen ngoai su - 1910)... However, these were only initial experiments, the length of the works was still short, the artistic quality was not high. By Nguyen Chanh Sat ( Nghia hiep ky duyen - 1919), Phu Duc ( Chau ve Hiep Pho - 1926), especially Ho Bieu Chanh with a series of works: Ai lam doc (written in 1912 - published in 1922), Chua Tau Kim Quy (written in 1913 - published in 1922), Cay gnat mui doi (1922)..., the national language novel had a movement and had clear innovations: increasingly diverse in genre, tendency, art of expression, tone; the language was richer and closer to readers. Among these, Ho Bieu Chanh is a typical novelist of the South in the early 20th century who is of interest to readers, because his works have met the psychological requirements of the readers of the South at that time: respect for righteousness, compassion for people, loyalty, frankness... Ho Bieu Chanh's remarkable contribution in early novels is to include in his works the landscapes, people and lifestyles of all classes of people in the South. However, Ho Bieu

Chanh has not yet escaped the chapter structure, the content, no matter what aspect of life it reflects, or what social issue it discusses, is not beyond the issue of morality: advising good to avoid evil, evil is rewarded with evil, good is rewarded with good; therefore, the ending of the story is always happy. The language in Ho Bieu Chanh's novels is full of folklore, rich in reality but has not yet reached the standards of literary language. In short, although Southern novels appeared early, they have not had any significant breakthroughs, so their influence mainly spread only in the South.

In the North, novels were born later but gradually rose to the leading position. Among the works that appeared at that time were: Giac mong con - 1917, Giac mong lon - 1929 (Tan Da); Canh le diem tuyet - 1921, Cuoc tang thuong

- 1923 (Dang Tran Phat); Kim Anh Le Su - 1925 (Trong Khiem); Qua Dua Do - 1925 (Nguyen Trong Thuat); To Tam - 1925 (Hoang Ngoc Phach)... then To Tam by Hoang Ngoc Phach received special attention because it caused a big bang "like a bomb exploding in the sky of emotions", as soon as it appeared it created a wave of public opinion throughout the country "From North to South, no one does not know To Tam". With To Tam , Hoang Ngoc Phach is considered a pioneering writer who paved the way for the romantic movement in Vietnamese literature at the beginning of the century. To Tam is considered a novel that signaled a new development step in the genre of narrative prose. From here on, Vietnamese novels developed even faster with the modern styles of novelists in the Tu Luc Van Doan group as well as novelists belonging to the realistic movement: Nguyen Cong Hoan, Ngo Tat To, Nguyen Hong, Vu Trong Phung...

1.2.3.3. Researching the process of modernization of national prose cannot fail to mention the formation and development of the reportage genre. As presented, Vietnamese society in the first half of the 20th century was a turbulent society. In order to promptly record and reflect honestly and quickly the

urgent issues of life, a new genre of literature was born and developed strongly: reportage. This is a journalistic genre, with documentary nature, aiming to investigate the truth, record what is seen, heard and commented; then used by writers as a literary genre. Vu Ngoc Phan considers reportage as "the first child of journalism", because most of the reports reach readers through the press. However, if the reportage is purely in the form of journalism, its lifespan is often not long. Great reportages that pass the screening of time also rely on an important factor: literary quality. These are reportages that not only have the function of information and discovery but also have strong lyrical nuances. Readers not only see events but also see problems; not only see different segments of life but also reach the inner world, understand the circumstances of the characters...

The content of the reports in this period focused on two main topics: reports on urban life: I pulled a cart , The night on the Perfume River (Tam Lang), Human traps , Teacher's food , Luc xi... (Vu Trong Phung); Depraved youth , Where to go in the market (Nguyen Dinh Lap), Hanoi in misery , Making money (Trong Lang)...; reports on rural life: Being a citizen , Sticky rice and meat (Trong Lang); Village affairs , Dao cau thuyen tan, Tap an cai dinh (Ngo Tat To); A district celebrates Tet (Vu Trong Phung); Muddy water (Hoang Dao)... In addition, there were reports on the miserable, cruel life of colonial prisons, reports on culture, society, and customs of Vietnam... Some works on this topic include: Kontum Prison by Le Van Hien; Con Lon Island by Nguyen Duc Chinh; Saigon's big prison by Phan Van Hum; A pilgrimage to Ha Tien by Huynh Van Chinh…. Regardless of the topic, the reportage always focuses on describing the dark reality of contemporary society in an objective and realistic way. And not just describing, while investigating the incident, the authors of the reportage pointed out the cause.

people, as well as proposing some measures to solve the problem. In addition to the contributions in terms of social content, reportage also has artistic characteristics that can be mentioned such as: the art of approaching and reflecting reality, the art of satire and using language... With the content and artistic values of a new literary genre - "born later" (since 1930), reportage has affirmed itself when making significant contributions to the general picture of Vietnamese literature in the first half of the 20th century in the process of modernization. Notable reportage writers are: Vu Trong Phung, Tam Lang, Ngo Tat To, Trong Lang, Nguyen Dinh Lap... Among them, Vu Trong Phung is considered the "king of Northern reportage".

Along with reportage, essays, and memoirs, this period also developed, however, the number of works and authors was not much. The most outstanding writer of the essay genre must be Nguyen Tuan. In addition, there are some authors who, although not really specialized, also left behind a number of successful works such as: Thach Lam ( Hanoi Thirty-six Streets ), Xuan Dieu (Truong Ca)...

1.2.3.4. Poetry is a traditional genre that has affirmed its position in Vietnamese medieval literature. However, in the modernization process of Vietnamese literature in the first half of the 20th century, it also required strong innovations, requiring changes in both content and artistic form to suit contemporary aesthetic tastes. Everyone knows that medieval poetry considers poetry to express aspirations, to nurture the spirit, preserve customs, advise good deeds, warn against evil deeds, poetry is a tool to educate people... then at this stage, poets demand and affirm the individual ego with all its richness and complexity in the work. If medieval poetry is heavy on conventions, modern poetry focuses on the subtle expression of the soul, landscape and people with unique, emotional and tone-rich personal feelings. Poets have tried to record the lines, colors, joys and sorrows of life, of

The process of modernization of Vietnamese literary research in the first half of the 20th century - 5

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