INFORMATION ABOUT THE MASTER'S THESIS
1. Student's full name:Nguyen Hoai Thu
2. Gender: female
3. Date of birth: October 25, 1977
4. Place of birth: Hoai Duc, Hanoi
5. Decision on student admission No. 2998/2013/QD-XHNV-SDH dated December 30, 2013, by the Rector of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, Hanoi.
6. Changes in the training process: None
7. Thesis title:The literary portrait genre in the works of M. Gorky and K. Paustovsky: typological characteristics.
8. Major: Foreign Literature Code: 60.22.01.45
9. Scientific supervisor:Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pham Gia Lam,Faculty of Literature, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, Hanoi
10. Summary of the thesis results:
This thesis identifies the origins and formation of the literary portrait genre in Russian literature as dating back to the latter half of the 19th century. Based on the general characteristics of Soviet Russian prose from the 1920s to 1950s, the thesis studies the literary portrait genre in the works of M. Gorky and K. Paustovsky and draws the following typological characteristics of the genre.
Literary portraiture is an artistic phenomenon that incorporates elements of both documentary and artistic genres. In a literary portrait, the central figure is the creative individual, and the plot "oscillates" between real events in their biography and conceptions of their character constructed from the author's imagination. Therefore, the starting point of the literary portrait plot is "new knowledge" about the subject.
Regarding the subject matter: The author views a real-life character as an artistic entity, their biography as an independent, completed "plot" upon which to create a literary portrait. The aesthetic essence of literary portraiture lies in depicting the subject's vivid personality – the unique nature of their "appearance," their thoughts, their language, expressed through their character, behavior, and creative biography. Therefore, literary portraits incorporate the author's conception of the character being depicted, resulting in the character not perfectly matching their biography.
Regarding genre models, the characteristics of literary portraits are reflected in the genre and style choices of the literary portrait authors. M. Gorky's portrait essays were written in the 1920s and 1930s – a period when prose had a narrative structure leaning towards direct expression of the author's viewpoint due to the infiltration of journalistic and political elements into literature. Meanwhile, K. Paustovsky's portrait stories, with the dominant role of the "lyrical climax" in the narrative structure, are part of the general trend of prose in the early 1950s, marked by the rise of romantic elements combined with philosophy.
Regarding narrative structure, the common, typological conflict in all works of literary portraiture is the conflict between the author's point of view and the point of view of "others" regarding the subject being reflected. One of the prominent features of narrative in literary portraiture is that the author's inner world—the narrator—also becomes the subject of reflection, expressing the writer's creative personality.
11. Practical applications:
Reference material for research and teaching on genre theory.
12. Future research directions: None
13. Published works related to the thesis: None
INFORMATION ON MASTER'S THESIS
1. Full name:Nguyen Hoai Thu2. Sex: Female
3. Date of birth: October 25th1977.4. Place of birth: Hanoi, Vietnam.
5. Admission decision number: 2998/2013/QD-XHNV-SDH, dated on December 30th2013 by Rector of The University of Social Sciences and Humanities – Vietnam National University, Hanoi
6. Changes in academic process: None
7. Official thesis title: Literary portraiture genre in works of M.Gorky and K.Paustovsky: The characteristics of genre
8. Major: Foreign Literature Code: 60.22.01.45
9. Supervisor:Associate Professor - PhD Pham Gia Lam – Faculty of Literature – The University of Social Sciences and Humanities – Vietnam National University, Hanoi.
10. Summary of the findings of the thesis:
The thesis determines the origin and development of the literary portraiture genre of Russian literature from the second half of the 21ststcentury. Being based on reference to the general characteristics of Russian Soviet prose from the 1920s to the 1950s, the thesis researched the part of literary portrait on the works of M.Gorky and K.Paustovsky and inferred the typical characteristics of genre as follows.
Literary portrait is an artistic phenomenon including elements of the documentary and artistic genres. Within works of literary portrait, the central image is the creative human, the plot oscillates among the real events during the biographies and attitudes to characters that were built by the writers' fancy. Therefore, the point of departure of literary portraiture plot is “a new knowledge” about candidate.
The reflective candidate: The real candidate was considered as the whole perfect art. Its biography was considered as independent “plot”, finished in order to rely on making a picture by words. Aesthetic substance of literary portraiture genre is in describing the candidate's lively character – that is the special nature of “aspect”, thought, language; expressions through characters, behaviors and in its creative biography as well. As a result, in literary portrait, there has been writer's attitude of candidate who was described, which made the candidate wasn't completely coincident with its biography.
The typical model. The characteristics of literary portraiture genre are shown through the choice genre and style of the literary portraiture writer. M.Gorky's portrait essays were written during the 1920s and the 1930s – a period of prose that had story's structure leaning towards the comprehensive journalistic elements on literature. Meanwhile, K.Paustovsky's portrait stories with the governable role of the lyrical climax on story belong to the general flow of prose in the early 1950s, with the rising of the romantic and philosophic elements.
The structure of the story. The general conflict, has typical nature to all works that belong to the literary portraiture genre, is the conflict between writer's view and the view of “others” about the candidate that was reflected. One of the remarkable characters of story on literary portrait is the writer's internal world – the teller also became the reflected candidate, showing the writer's creative individuality.
11. Practical applicability, if any:
Being a consultative document to research and teaching about the typical theory.
12. Further research directions, if any: none
13. Thesis-related publications: none
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