MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
VINH UNIVERSITY
HO THI THANH THUY
CONTRIBUTION OF THE NARRATIVE PROSE
LUU TRONG LU
PERIOD BEFORE 1945
Major: Vietnamese Literature
Code: 9.22.01.21
ABSTRACT ON LITERATURE DOCTORAL THESIS
NGHE AN - 2019
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PREAMBLE
1. Reason for choosing the topic
1.1. In modern Vietnamese literature, Luu Trong Lu is considered one of the pioneers
of the new Poetry movement. Before the Revolution, besides the famous poems, he also
composed a large volume of prose works with 27 short stories, 27 novels. While Luu Trong
Lu's poetry has been well studied, his narrative prose has not been given adequate attention.
To fully understand the contribution of the name of a literary author of Luu Trong Lu, to get
a comprehensive view of the literary picture in general and prose in a period in particular,
we cannot help but care. studying the prose of Luu Trong Lu.
1.2. In 2011, on the 100th anniversary of Luu Trong Lu's birthday, Lai Nguyen An and
Hoang Minh released a large volume of books with 2 volumes (1145 pages of 16x24 cm
size), gathering all short stories and sub-stories. Luu Trong Lu's theory (both before and
after the Revolution). Reading a system of narrative prose works he wrote, readers deeply
felt that the context of quite open composition inspired the exploration and experience of
writers. Through the works, it is possible to recognize the influence of Western literature,
first of all French literature on writers' writing pages. Here there are imprints of emotional
love, imbued with romanticism. Not only that, the actual method, symbolic method of
masters of realism, symbolism is also absorbed and applied in a very specific way. Because
of this, the study of narrative prose Luu Trong Lu has a meaning to provide a convincing
parameter to help us understand the essence of East-West literary exchanges in the
Vietnamese literary context. is rushing to shift itself towards modernizing, Europeanizing,
understanding the role of famous writers before the Revolution like Luu Trong Lu in
creating the foundation for a modern and capable Vietnamese literature. integration with the
world. Also through short stories, Luu Trong Lu's novel, the researcher can also detect
interference between genres of different types of compositions. Thus, going into this topic,
the researcher will have the opportunity to see many aspects of literary life in the period of
1930 - 1945, through the creation of a particular author, Luu Trong Lu.
1.3. The topic contains the ability to provide data and materials for the study of prose
poetry, especially short stories and novels in Vietnamese literature in a period with many
achievements and many artistic styles. original In addition, the thesis can provide
meaningful literary materials for teaching Vietnamese literature in the period of 1930 - 1945
in high school. At the University level, the thesis will be a useful reference for studying the
type of narrative prose; studying literary history, specifically the acquisition of lessons from
Western literature to bring home literature into the way of modernization in all aspects.
That is the reason why we study the topic: The contribution of the prose of Luu Trong
Lu narrative period before 1945.
2. Research subjects and scope of survey materials
2.1. Research subjects
The research object of the thesis is: The contribution of narrative prose Luu Trong Lu
period before 1945.
2.2. Scope of survey materials
The scope of the main survey material of the thesis is 27 short stories, 27 of Luu Trong
Lu's novels composed before 1945, gathered in Luu Trong Lu, Works - short stories and
novels (full set of two volumes), Lao Dong Publishing House, Dong Tay Culture -
Language Center, 2011.
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In order to have an overview of the issue, the thesis also examines the compositions of
many authors who are close or different about the trend, the same period or different stages
of composition with Luu Trong Lu.
3. Research purposes and research tasks
3.1. Research purposes
Through a survey of the contributions of the narrative prose of Lu Trong Lu in the
period before 1945, the thesis aims to a more comprehensive assessment of Luu Trong Lu
as a versatile artist, saving the bold mark of I am on many genres of literature. Also through
that, the thesis wants to contribute additionally - adjust some evaluation points already on
characteristics and achievements of Vietnamese literature in the period 1930 - 1945 based
on newly discovered materials - distributed Show and publish.
3.2. Research tasks
Towards the purpose of the research presented above, the thesis focuses on solving the
following specific tasks:
- Overviewing of the research on the composition of Luu Trong Lu in general, the
narrative prose Liu Trong Lu in particular and defines a number of key concepts and terms
used to study this object.
- Identifying and analyzing the specifics of the aesthetic tendency of the prose of Luu
Trong Lu in the relationship with the major aesthetic trends of literature (first of all prose) in
the 1930s - 1945.
- Clarifying the uniqueness of prose Lu Trong Lu on the subject and image system, in
the same comparison with the composition of other writers of the same time.
- Point outing, analyzig and evaluating (on the basis of multi-dimensional comparison)
the specific types of artistic choices of the prose of Luu Trong Lu before 1945.
4. Research Methodology
To implement the topic, we mainly apply the following research methods:
- Method of studying poetics: This method requires first attention to verbal texts (27
short stories, 27 written by Luu Trong Lu before 1945) - an essential condition to help
researchers The rescue shows the formality of the object.
- Method of structure and system: This is a method to consider the object in the overall
view, visualizing each object is a small system of large systems, and in each such system,
the medium relationship Stable and variable between structural elements always have
special meaning.
- Method of type: This method proposes the prose of Lu Trong Lu on the appropriate type
to obtain satisfactory assessment, in accordance with the aesthetic characteristics of the object.
- Comparison method: This method requires the researcher to perform both
comparisons of a homogeneous nature and the comparative nature of the calendar.
- Historical - social method: This method helps the researcher to recognize the object
as a spiritual product of a specific historical age with many complex relationships.
5. Contributions of the thesis
The thesis is the first large-scale research project of Luu Trong Lu narrative prose
before 1945, after the book of Luu Trong Lu works on short stories and novels (full set of 2
episodes, about 1,500 pages, because Lai Nguyen An - Hoang Minh collects and compiles)
published in 2011. With this project, the very important and meaningful contributions of
Luu Trong Lu's narrative prose before 1945 are initially identified and analyzed. ,
affirming, through a rich data system, contributing to a more comprehensive assessment of
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the author Luu Trong Lu and partly about the diversity of Vietnamese prose in the period
1930 - 1945.
The dissertation also contributes more data to more fully acknowledge the issue of
receiving Western literature's influence in Vietnam in the first half of the twentieth century -
a specific reception, which helps the modernization process. Vietnamese literature gets
significant achievements.
6. Structure of the thesis
In addition to Introduction, Conclusion and Reference, the main content of the thesis
consists of 4 chapters:
Chapter 1: Overview of research issues
Chapter 2: The blending of aesthetic tendencies in the prose of Luu Trong Lu before 1945
Chapter 3: Imprint of the prose of Luu Trong Lu's autobiography before 1945 in the
system of topics and symbolic systems
Chapter 4: Types of specific artistic choices in the prose of Luu Trong Lu before 1945
Chapter 1
OVERVIEW OF RESEARCH PROBLEMS
1.1. Study the theory of narrative prose
1.1.1. Conception prose concept
We use the concept of narrative prose in relative distinctions with lyrical prose.
Calling relative because the boundary between them is not always obvious. When using the
concept of narrative prose, of course, the researcher is always conscious of distinguishing it
from other types of language products that also use prose form but not for aesthetic
purposes, without using fictional forms like Discourse prose and types of text are outside
the scope of word art.
Narrative prose focuses on describing people and social environment, describing
gestures, actions, and language characters. The narrative prose is a kind of narrative, having
the function of reproducing the "objectivity" of the world, there are always characters,
events, actions and conflicts. Autobiographical fiction has genres such as short stories,
medium stories, novels. While in the type of narrative, the narrative prose may still have
(even more) lyrical elements, but these factors do not break the narrative nature of narrative
prose. Of course, there are genres that can stand on the edge of narrative and lyrical such as
pen signing, literary writing, literary portraits...
1.1.2. Study the theory of foreign authors on narrative prose
This is a very wide field of research, which contains many rich issues, has achieved
great achievements. Referring to prose, people often think of it as a form of opposition
to poetry, which organizes language as ordinary speech, not governed by "equivalence
principle" or rhythm, rhyme. Thus, prose can fully exploit the ability to describe the
world of words, helping readers visualize specific things and situations; It feels like
they're showing up in the eyes of the reader. This is the strength of prose poetry that is
hard to match
When defining the concept of narrative prose and types of narrative prose, G.N.
Pospelov in his book "Literary Research Essay" (Episode II) states: "In addition to dividing
literature into genre (narrative, lyricism and drama) there is also the division of literature
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into poetry and prose. In ordinary language, the lyrical work is often identified with poetry,
while the narrative is consistent with prose. Using such a word is incorrect. Each type of
literature includes both poetic works (rhymes) and prose (without rhyme). The narrative in
the early stages of the development of artistic language is often rhyming (ancient epics,
French meritorious songs, Russian casts and histories...). The narrative works written in
poetry are also common in modern literature [122, p.12]. In the literary genre, both poetry
and prose are used, sometimes both in a work [122, p.12]. And all kinds of lyrical, mostly
written in poetry, but sometimes in prose [122, p.12].
Autobiographical works of prose are the main subjects of a major research industry that
is currently narrative. Narratology is a term used by Bulgarian French researcher Tz. Todorov
proposed in 1969 in the Book of Grammar Story ten days. This term makes the study of
narrative known by name, leading to the formation of an independent research department,
which gradually replaces the theory of fiction that has become too tight. Self-learning can be
divided into classic self-study (the 60s lasted until the 1980s of the last century) as a pioneer
of French scholars. The post-classic period takes place from the 90s of the twentieth century
onwards, with many theoretical additions of British, American and French scholars.
Acquiring the rich studies of scholars, we used the concept of narrative prose to study
the most important prose of Luu Trong Lu, with the understanding that prose fragment is a
kind of narrative, towards story telling, narrating people, events, space, time... objectively,
attached to the author's narrative.
1.1.3. Study the theory of domestic authors on narrative prose
For some domestic researchers, prose (including autobiographical prose) is considered
one of two forms of literature beside poetry. Author Do Duc Hieu in the Literature
Dictionary (New Ministry) said: "Literature at any time is diverse. It is possible to divide
literature in two types (forms) that are poetry and prose, and can also be divided into three
categories: narrative, lyrical and dramatic. Although there are no absolute boundaries
between categories and there are many types of transitions, the basic characteristics of each
type are quite definite. Each category includes certain categories or genres (for example, the
type of narrative includes genres: epics, stories, novels, etc.). Every era or period of
literature flourishes various forms of genres ”.
To find the concept of prose, some researchers often compare prose with poetry. For
example, Vuong Tri Nhan in the essay of Pre-war Writer and the Modernization of
Literature wrote: "Reading literary dictionaries, people realize that prose and poetry
concepts are often written in the world. opposites. One side is more about life (in many
Western languages, prose, proza, prose, when it comes to visualization, it means mediocre),
one is biased towards the noble, the transcendent. One side told me what to write; the other
side said no, my writing is a creative act with its full meaning [...]. Every piece of prose
written - no matter fiction, or long story signing - is a story. Listening to that story, people
imagine a scene there, there are people who work. Story telling means that the author
creates a miniature world. Where the author's voice is like a light beam, the reader follows
it. That guy who plays the god always stands a distance away from you, what he knows
well. But only gradually did he cleverly remove the clue and make things complicated by
his disposition become coherent "[106, p.226 - 227].
When discussing the modern narrative prose, author Nguyen Nghia Trong in the
article Vietnamese writers in the first half of the twentieth century talked about the
autobiography (Self-learning - Tran Dinh Su, editor-in-chief), leading to the judgments.