Information about the thesis "The Fantastic Element in Nguyen Tuan's Short Story Collection 'Love Words'" by graduate student Nguyen Thi Thanh Chung, majoring in Literary Theory.1. Student's Full Name: Nguyen Thi Thanh Chung 2. Gender: Female 3. Date of Birth: September 16, 1988 4. Place of Birth: Dong Tao, Khoai Chau, Hung Yen 5. Decision No. 1883/2010 dated October 21, 2010, by the Rector of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, Hanoi 6. Changes during the training process: None 7. Thesis Title: The Fantastic Element in Nguyen Tuan's Short Story Collection "Yêu ngôn" 8. Major: Literary Theory; Code: 60220120 9. Scientific Advisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ton Thao Mien. Affiliation: Institute of Literature 10. Summary of thesis results: *By choosing the topic "The Fantastic Element in Nguyen Tuan's Short Story Collection 'Love Words'," the author aims to clarify the unique artistic world in Nguyen Tuan's literature, while contributing to a more complete understanding of the author's creative career, which is considered to be in the essay genre, along with the peak achievement of the short story collection "Echoes of a Bygone Era." Simultaneously, studying the fantastic element in the short story collection "Love Words" also aims to clarify the values, experiences, and traditions of the fantastic story genre as applied in contemporary literature, thereby better understanding and correctly evaluating the direction of this genre. *The fantastic element is the thread connecting artistic space and time to create characters with unique destinies and extraordinary personalities. As a writer always yearning for and seeking novelty, yet living in a suffocating feudal colonial society, Nguyen Tuan had to turn to another world – the world of "Love Words" – to express his hidden feelings. Ultimately, writing about the illusory realm is also about the real world – about human life. There, we still encounter scenes of life, the traditional beauty of our ancestors, and the distinctive cultural features of Vietnam: the tradition of studiousness, the character of the talented Confucian scholar... The fantastical world in "Love Words" is created by its unique artistic space and time. It could be the familiar setting of a paper-making village by West Lake, the scene of an examination hall, an ancient Thang Long gate… It is also here that we encounter familiar scenes of Vietnamese villages and the Vietnamese soul. Even more special, these familiar scenes are reflected through fantastical elements to give them a more "supernatural" feel. Artistic time is also constructed using artistic techniques to become illusory, eternal, and a time filled with emotion. Alongside the fates of individuals with unusual and extraordinary personalities, there is the world of ghostly characters – acting as a bridge between the two worlds of the living and the dead, and also as a reflection of human life and destiny. Characterized by the romantic style of pushing things and phenomena to the point of being unusual and bizarre, in "Love Songs," we also encounter strange scenes and objects. These are products of a rich imagination, creating the appeal of "Love Songs." With exaggerated descriptive techniques and the technique of defamiliarizing language, each story in "Love Songs" is full of meaning and symbolic elements. Like all works of art, the artistic language in this work is rich in visual and scene-creating value, full of ancient Sino-Vietnamese words… But the most prominent characteristic of the work is the element of fantasy, adding ambiguity to the work. Writing about fantastical worlds, realms of ghosts and fairies, Nguyen Tuan never creates a sense of bewilderment for the reader. The writer imbues these stories with philosophies of life, prompting reflection on human destiny, compassion, and the Vietnamese tradition of gratitude and loyalty. The source of "Yêu ngôn" (Love Stories) lies in these humanistic values, which is what ensures the enduring value of this collection of short stories. *In contemporary literature, the fantasy genre is developing. It brings novelty and appeal to novels that attract public attention: "The Pyre" (Vo Thi Hao), "The Angel" (Pham Thi Hoai), "The Legend of a Beautiful Day" (Hoa Vang)... Nguyen Tuan's "Yêu ngôn" is a starting point for this literary movement. In this respect, the content and artistic values that "Yêu ngôn" brings blend seamlessly into today's fantasy literature, creating new and fresh values.
INFORMATION ON MASTER'S THESIS
1. Full name : Nguyen Thi Thanh Chung 2. Sex: Female 3. Date of birth: September 16, 1988 4. Place of birth: Dong Tao- Khoai Chau-Hung Yen 5. Admission decision number: 1883/2010 Dated October 21, 2010 6. Changes in academic process: (List the forms of change and corresponding times) 7. Official thesis title: Mysterious (extraordinary) issue in a collection of short stories “Love is delicious” by Nguyen Tuan 8. Major: Literary theory 9. Code: 60220120 10. Supervisors: Associate Prof. Dr. Ton Thao Mien 11. Summary of the findings of the thesis: By choosing the theme “mysterious (extraordinary) issue in a collection of short stories “Love delicious” by Nguyen Tuan”, I would like to highlight the unique style of art in Nguyen Tuan's literature and contribute to fully recognize his career which is highly evaluated with remarkable achievements of his short story collection “Vang bong mot mot”. Also, I wish to clarify the values and experiences of mysterious stories which are used in contemporary literature. Mysterious factor is the thing that connects the art space and time to create a character with extraordinary fate and personality. Although Nguyen Tuan is a writer who always seeks new feelings, he lives in an old feudal society. Therefore, he has to find and come to another world – the world of “Delicious Love” to express his secret personal thoughts as well as the real world of human life. And we still find the beautiful life with the cultural characteristics of Vietnam: the tradition of hospitality and great personality reinforced by Confucian. Unique space and time art plays an important role in creating the virtual world in “Lovely” for example a familiar paper village by West Lake, the scene examination in old time and the Thang Long ancient gate. These places help the readers find the familiar views of the Vietnamese village and Vietnamese soul. More particularly, these scenes are reflected through mysterious elements to be more attractive. The time in the collection is also unreal, eternal and full of feelings. Besides the fates of the extraordinary personalities, we also find the world of ghost characters - acting as a bridge between the world of yin and yang and it is also the reflection of human life and destiny. With the romantic writing style and his wonderful imagination, Nguyen Tuan gives the readers the extraordinary scenes and people. The exaggerating writing style of the author makes each story in “Love Delicious” full of meanings and symbolic values. Like other works of the author, the language is full of visual value and old Chinese Vietnamese words. But the most obvious characteristic of the work is mysterious elements to create more versatile means for works. Writing about the unreal world of ghosts, Nguyen Tuan doesn't make the reader confused and scared but sends them the philosophy of human life and meaningful thoughts about human fate, compassion and kindness of Vietnamese people. The origin of “Delicious Love” is these human values which makes this collection of short stories invaluable all the time. This kind of genre is very popular in contemporary literature and has obvious attraction to readers for examples Gian Thieu by Vo Thi Hao, Thien su by Pham Thi Hoai, Story of a beautiful day by Hoa Vang which are influenced by the initial steps – Love by Nguyen Tuan. It cannot be denied that the values of Love are still precious and modern to this genre of literature today.
