TYLA: Short stories by Nguyen Huy Thiep from the perspective of aesthetic categories

Author's name: Nguyen Thi Kieu Huong

Thesis title:Nguyen Huy Thiep's short stories from the perspective of aesthetic categories.

The field of study for this dissertation is Literature.

Major: Literary Theory Code: 60.22.01.20

Name of the postgraduate training unit: University of Social Sciences and Humanities - Vietnam National University, Hanoi.

1. Purpose and scope of the thesis

1.1. Research Objectives:

Applying the achievements of modern aesthetic theory to the study of Nguyen Huy Thiep's short stories aims to clarify the manifestation, nature, and effects of aesthetic categories in his works. From this, we can gain a proper understanding of the aesthetic value of the works, as well as the talent and creative individuality of the writer.

1.2. Research subjects:

The basic aesthetic categories are expressed in Nguyen Huy Thiep's short stories.

2. Research methods used

- Typological method

- Systems approach

- Interdisciplinary research method

- Poetics approach

- Cultural studies approach

3. Main results and conclusions

3.1. Main results

Chapter 1: OVERVIEW OF THE RESEARCH PROBLEM

- The theoretical foundations of modern aesthetics (regarding the concept, nature, and expression of aesthetics) revolve around the fundamental aesthetic categories (Beauty, the Sublime, the Tragedy, and the Comedy).

- A brief introduction to the author Nguyen Huy Thiep, his literary career, and his journey in creating short stories.

- Survey of approaches to Nguyen Huy Thiep's short stories and the state of research on Nguyen Huy Thiep's short stories from the perspective of aesthetic categories.

Chapter 2: BEAUTY AND NOBILITY

- To examine the author's conception of beauty and its manifestations in Nguyen Huy Thiep's short stories.

- Establishing the aesthetic nature and aesthetic effect of Beauty in Nguyen Huy Thiep's short stories.

- To examine the author's conception of the sublime, and the manifestations of the sublime in Nguyen Huy Thiep's short stories.

- To establish the aesthetic nature and aesthetic effect of the sublime in Nguyen Huy Thiep's short stories.

Chapter 3: The Tragedy and the Comedy

- An examination of the author's conception of love and compassion, the manifestation of beauty in Nguyen Huy Thiep's short stories.

- Establishing the aesthetic nature and aesthetic effect of Beauty in Nguyen Huy Thiep's short stories.

- An examination of the author's conception of humor, the manifestation of beauty in Nguyen Huy Thiep's short stories.

- Establishing the aesthetic nature and aesthetic effect of Beauty in Nguyen Huy Thiep's short stories.

Chapter 4: The Paradox and the Absurd

- An examination of the author's conception of paradox, the manifestation of beauty in Nguyen Huy Thiep's short stories.

- Establishing the aesthetic nature and aesthetic effect of Beauty in Nguyen Huy Thiep's short stories.

- An examination of the author's conception of crudeness, the manifestation of beauty in Nguyen Huy Thiep's short stories.

- Establishing the aesthetic nature and aesthetic effect of Beauty in Nguyen Huy Thiep's short stories.

3.2. Conclusion

1.Studying Nguyen Huy Thiep's short stories from the perspective of aesthetic categories is a significant approach, both theoretically and practically. It allows researchers to flexibly apply modern theoretical achievements while objectively and accurately understanding the nature of aesthetic phenomena in his works, avoiding extreme biases regarding Nguyen Huy Thiep's short stories in particular and literary phenomena in general.

2.Through studying Nguyen Huy Thiep's short stories from the perspective of aesthetic categories, we can clearly see the author's constantly innovative and creative thinking, evident in his conception of the presence of aesthetic categories in life, in people, and especially in art. Regarding Beauty, he considers accuracy as a prerequisite for creating worthy value for humanity, life, and art. With the Sublime, the writer demands the demystification of the sublime in tradition, striving to discover truly sublime values ​​in the present and everyday life. With Tragedy, Nguyen Huy Thiep guides readers towards an attitude of not avoiding but daring to confront pain and rawness, thereby giving rise to faith and positive values ​​for life. In Comedy, it is a rigorous proposal to re-evaluate the nature of life, the value of humanity, and oneself through laughter and satire. The Paradox is proof of the complex, impermanent, and uncertain "variability" of reality, allowing people to awaken from misconceptions and delude themselves with the truths of the masses. The Crudeness, on the other hand, is an attempt to accept the imperfections of reality in order to appreciate and empathize more deeply with the beautiful aspects of human existence.

3.Nguyen Huy Thiep has been highly successful in creating positive effects on aesthetic categories in his works. These effects are established by the writer with a keen and distinctive sensibility, through a world of incredibly rich and vivid imagery, with narrative situations that are both realistic and surprising, and a language style that optimizes complexity, polyphony, and multiple meanings. In each category, the writer usually only provides information and data that are highly suggestive of the object, always leaving room for the reader, as the subject, to contemplate and gain their own aesthetic understanding, while simultaneously guiding the reader towards a multi-dimensional perspective on all aspects of life. Therefore, the emotions regarding the presence of Beauty, the Sublime, the Tragedy, the Comedy, the Paradox, and the Crudeness in his works are extremely natural and deeply resonate with the consciousness of contemporary readers. At the same time, the expanded and maximally accessible scope of reality has helped Nguyen Huy Thiep's short stories break free from the narrow confines of small-scale narrative works, seemingly perfected, to become captivating and informative "variations" of short stories, short stories transformed into novels, for readers.

4.The writer Nguyen Huy Thiep consistently demonstrates a resolute and decisive attitude when expressing aesthetic categories in his works. However, in his efforts to achieve these ideal aesthetic values, not all of his artistic experiments have been successful or recognized. The fierce criticism from a segment of readers against "excessive fiction" or vulgar and extreme details surrounding the categories—especially the sublime, the paradoxical, and the vulgar—is entirely justified because they have not been truly convincing or had a positive aesthetic effect on the public and readers. Ultimately, overcoming all undesirable limitations, the rich and multifaceted coexistence of aesthetic categories in Nguyen Huy Thiep's short stories remains a testament to the innovative spirit in terms of perception and aesthetics. The exploratory efforts and creative individuality consistently displayed in each of his works deserve to be recognized by us as one of the most outstanding short story writers of modern Vietnamese literature.

SUMMARY OF DOCTORAL THESIS

The author's name: Nguyen Thi Kieu Huong

Thesis title:Nguyen Huy Thiep's short story from the perspective of aesthetic categories.

Scientific branch of the thesis: Literary

Major: Literary Theory Code: 60.22.01.20

The name of postgraduate training institution: University of Socia Sciences and Humanities - Viet Nam National University, Hanoi.

1. Research methods

- Type of message

- System prompts for methods

- Interdisciplinary research method

- Approach to the poetic method

- Approach to the cultural method

2. Major results and conclusions

3. The major results

Chapter 1: OVERVIEW OF RESEARCH ISSUES

- Introduce the theoretical basis of modern aesthetics about the categories of aesthetic (such as: the Beauty, the Great, the Tragedy and the Comedy).

- Introduce the Nguyen Huy Thiep author, his literary career and his journey of creating short stories.

- Survey the approaches to short story of Nguyen Huy Thiep and the research situation of short stories Nguyen Huy Thiep from the perspective of aesthetic categories.

Chapter 2: THE BEATY AND THE GREAT IN NGUYEN HUY THIEP SHORT STORY

- Survey the Nguyen Huy Thiep's concept about the Beauty and survey the expression of the Beauty in the Nguyen Huy Thiep's short story.

- Establish the nature of Beauty and its aesthetic effect in the Nguyen Huy Thiep's short story.

- Survey the Nguyen Huy Thiep's concept about the Great and survey the expression of the Great in the Nguyen Huy Thiep's short story.

- Establish the nature of Great and its aesthetic effect in the Nguyen Huy Thiep's short story.

Chapter 3: THE TRAGEDY AND THE COMEDY IN NGUYEN HUY THIEP SHORT STORY

- Survey the Nguyen Huy Thiep's concept about the Tragedy and survey the expression of the Tragedy in the Nguyen Huy Thiep's short story.

- Establish the nature of Tragedy and its aesthetic effect in the Nguyen Huy Thiep's short story.

- Survey the Nguyen Huy Thiep's concept about the Comedy and survey the expression of the Comedy in the Nguyen Huy Thiep's short story.

- Establish the nature of Comedy and its aesthetic effect in the Nguyen Huy Thiep's short story.

Chapter 4: THE PARADOX AND THE ROUGH IN NGUYEN HUY THIEP SHORT STORY

- Survey the Nguyen Huy Thiep's concept about the Paradox and survey the expression of the Paradox in the Nguyen Huy Thiep's short story.

- Establish the nature of Paradox and its aesthetic effect in the Nguyen Huy Thiep's short story.

- Survey the Nguyen Huy Thiep's concept about the Rough and survey the expression of the Rough in the Nguyen Huy Thiep's short story.

- Establish the nature of Rough and its aesthetic effect in the Nguyen Huy Thiep's short story.

3.2. Conclusions

1. Reseaching the short story of Nguyen Huy Thiep from the perspective of aesthetic categories is a significant approach in both theoretical and practical aspects. It helps researchers flexibly apply modern theoretical achievements while being more objective and meaningful than the nature of aesthetic phenomena in writing, avoiding the extreme bias about the case of short stories. Nguyen Huy Thiep in particular and literary phenomena in general.

2. We can see clearly the author's relentless innovation and creativity from about theaesthetic categories thingkings of Nguyen Huy Thiep in the life, in the people and especially in the art. With Beauty, he considers accuracy to be a prerequisite to creating worthy values ​​for the people, the life and the art. With the Great, he made a request to award the sacred image of the Noble in the tradition in an attempt to find the true and correct values ​​in the present and daily life. With Tragedy, Nguyen Huy Thiep directed the reader to the attitude of not avoiding but daring to look directly at the pain, the nakedness to generate faith and good values ​​for life. In the Comedy, it is a strict proposal to re-realize the nature of life, the value of people and oneself through laughter and ridicule. In the Paradox, it's a demonstration of the complicated, impermanence and uncertainty of reality in order for people to awaken themselves from misunderstandings and to lull themselves into crowd truths. In the Rude, it is an attempt to accept the flaws of reality to appreciate, empathize more than the good parts of human life.

3. Nguyen Huy Thiep has been had very successful when he's created positive effects about the aesthetic categories in his works. These effects are set by an exciting point of view, a special character world, the unexpected story situations and a strange new language style... In each aesthetic category, the writer often only presents information and data "suggestion" about the subject, but always leaves room for the readers in the subject role to contemplate and enlighten themselves. Aesthetic perception according to their own opinions, and at the same time direct the reader to a multi-dimensional, multi-dimensional view of all aspects of life. Therefore, the feelings about the presence of Beauty, the Great, the Tragedy, the Comedy, the Paradox, or the Rough in his works are very natural, reaching the minds of the readers. Besides it, the expanded reality and maximum reach of the scope helped Nguyen Huy Thiep's short story to escape beyond the narrow restrictions of small-sized narrative compositions, which seemed to be perfect for becoming short-form "variations", short stories of fascinating and informative novels with readers.

4. Nguyen Huy Thiep's always showed a consistent and drastic attitude when he's written about the aesthetic categories in his works. However, there are some unsuccessful in his artistic experiments about the aesthetic categories. These are "excessive fantasies" or vulgar, extreme details that revolve around categories especially the Great, the Paradox and the Rude in his short story... which are not really convincing and positive aesthetic effect to the public, or the readers. Thruogh although, Nguyen Huy Thiep still deserves to be one of the best short stories of modern Vietnamese literature because his short stories're really interesting and exciting.