1945-1975: A Look at Vietnamese Poetry from Two Sides

(ReadPanorama of Vietnamese Poetry 1945-1975, monograph by Nguyen Ba Thanh, Hanoi National University Publishing House, 2016)

1.It can be said that this is the first time a comprehensive, profound and interesting monograph on Vietnamese poetry in a memorable historical period from 1945 to 1975 has been published. There will be many conflicting opinions surrounding this work, we imagine, but that is a good sign when we are trying to abandon the one-sided, simple and easy-going way of thinking before any event in social life and literature. It must be said right away that to complete this great work, our colleagues have spent a lot of time, effort and money to be able to collect and own a huge amount of documents with thousands of pages, not only in Vietnam but also in countries in Asia - Europe - America (such as Japan, France, Italy, Netherlands, Belgium, America). But the effort can be spent a lot but the results will be meager if we still follow old habits, old methods, that is, "being ourselves but still being obsessed with ourselves". It can be said that for the first time, Vietnamese poetry in the period of 1945 - 1975 was recognized as a unified, diverse and complex poetic entity due to the political weather and historical changes in the stormy era of 30 years of revolution and war, in the context of the country being divided for 21 years, in the same period where on the same territory there existed many different political regimes, excluding each other. For a long time, being governed by somewhat mechanical research viewpoints, when talking about Vietnamese poetry in 1945 - 1975, researchers often limited and circled the appearance of Vietnamese national poetry in this period as only revolutionary poetry, only poetry composed in the political - cultural valley of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. That move is not wrong but not enough, it is one-sided, lacking objectivity, even unfair. And if so, our descendants in the future will only perceive onemissing poetry- that is, there are only fiery, passionate poems that lack the passionate, multi-tonal voices of the entire Vietnamese community from North to South, all descendants of the Dragon and Fairy. It can be said that for the first time, the author of the work has opened wide the door to national poetry in the most painful, most tragic, most proud, but also most diverse, rich and complex period in the history of modern Vietnamese poetry in the 20th century. To be precise, the work demonstrates a spirit of innovation in literary research, for example, when it does not try to "dethrone" New Poetry 1932-1945, but rather repositions it on the modern poetry scene in a serious, scientific comparison with Vietnamese poetry from 1945-1975: "But if we stand from a panoramic perspective, looking at all parts, schools and entire regions, we will have an optimistic view, a completely different assessment.That, Vietnamese poetry 1945-1975 is the most brilliant, freest, and most successful poetry. The New Poetry Movement (1932 - 1945) in terms of both quantity and artistic quality, in terms of the significance of poetry to the spiritual life of society, in terms of the types of authors, types of lyrical characters and central images, as well as the modernization trend in poetic language and symbols... cannot be compared with the achievements of poetry from 1945 - 1975" (p. 44). We imagine that this opinion of the researcher will provoke emotions in the theorists and critics who have not easily given up their biased beliefs when assessing the progress and typical literary phenomena.

 2.The monograph consists of four major chapters: Chapter 1/Conception of Vietnamese literature 1945 - 1975 as a whole; Chapter 2/Poetry under the Democratic Republic of Vietnam regime; Chapter 3/Poetry under the National Government of Vietnam and the Republic of Vietnam; Chapter 4/Common characteristics of Vietnamese poetry 1945-1975. Thus, it can be seen that the content of chapters 1, 3 and 4 represents the serious professional work of researchers in the spirit of innovation - which can only be integrated with the modern world when we are truly unified from within, specifically in terms of culture and literature. More broadly, the spirit and intelligence of the people also need to be on an organically unified foundation. That is our inner strength not only in the field of art but also more broadly in politics, economics, culture and ethics. To have a structure that convinces readers, the researcher has simultaneously applied the maximum power and effect of research methods (typology, sociology, cultural studies, poetics, etc.). But the most important thing for the researcher to delve into the structure of a unified poetry, in a scientific spirit, is to approach Vietnamese poetry 1945-1975 from the perspective of artistic thinking. As a premise for the research on Vietnamese poetry 1945-1975, the author himself has published two works of high scientific quality:Poetic thinking and modern Vietnamese poetic thinking(1996) andModern Vietnamese Poetry Thinking(2012). Researching Vietnamese poetry from 1945 to 1975 from the perspective of artistic thinking has helped the author escape the trap of social, political, and ethical prejudices that have long controlled us in our lives and scientific, literary, and artistic activities. For example, relying on artistic thinking and poetic thinking, in this work the author can confidently and affirm the research object when placing poets Vu Hoang Chuong, Bui Giang, Thanh Tam Tuyen next to great poets Ho Chi Minh, To Huu, and Che Lan Vien. This is a method of author typology, it is not too strict with political and ethical criteria, only following the characteristics of the writer type and artistic thinking type, especially poetic thinking. That is also a form of impartiality in research. Impartiality helps to change the habit of ranking artists according to social status and power.

The spirit of innovation and scientific method allowed the researcher to leisurely and calmly devote chapter 3 (185 pages long) just to research.Poetry under the regime of the State of Vietnam and the Republic of Vietnam. Some colleagues expressed concern for the author, who was like a tightrope performer. Risks and dangers awaited at any moment. But reading the text, one would feel reassured because: the evidence was complete (understood as rich sources of information, with clear origins), but more importantly, the way of doing it, that is, the scientific operation was careful, transparent, fair, and clear. The ten subsections of this chapter (Poetry under the National Government of Vietnam/Overview of the poetic composition force under the Republic of Vietnam government/New Poets following the old path/Criticizing reality as a main inspiration/Trend of open struggle in Southern urban poetry/Anti-Communist ideology in Southern urban poetry/Inward-looking poetic thinking/Image of the sorrowful Fatherland and the resentful soldier/Sexual expression in Southern urban poetry/Importing Western modern philosophical and artistic perspectives), in our opinion, is a vivid proof of a democratic spirit of scientific research. It conquers even the most demanding, even the most conservative readers. We think that the spirit of wisdom in research helps the author of the work sooner or later, and no matter how difficult it is, in the end, to defend his own views and the truth.

3.The spirit of scientific national harmony and solidarity of the research work is especially demonstrated in the convincing demonstration of the high level of unity of Vietnamese poetry in chapter 4:General characteristics of Vietnamese poetry 1945-1975(Aspiration for independence, peace and national unity/Liberal trend in genre movement/Development of long poems and epic poems/The process of modernization of poetic language and imagery). We think, not like someone who has ill-intentionedly said that this is a “hybrid”. Practice is the first priority. The author has generalized the characteristics of poetry on the basis of a rich poetic practice from different parts, different trends and styles formed under different political regimes. But as a rule - all rivers flow into the sea. The so-calledspirit nationhas gathered and unified culture, literature and art, including poetry. Here there is not only love or reason, but alsoreasonable.

4.We would like to mention the research style as an advantage of the work.Panorama of Vietnamese Poetry 1945 - 1975. Passion, enthusiasm, and passion for national poetry are the constant feelings of the author. That ferment helps the researcher escape the precise but cold and rigid writing style. Writing criticism with prose is difficult, writing research with prose is even more difficult. The sometimes "crazy" appearance of a scholar from Nghe An suddenly disappeared from every page of writing. Perhaps this flexible writing style makes readers not feel tired on more than 500 pages of a large research work. For example, Vu Hoang Chuong - a representative of "New Poetry writers continuing on the old path". The comments about Vu Hoang Chuong, according to the researcher's writing style, are both precise and flexible: "His poetry collections after New Poetry seem to continue the romantic style of the previous period. His thoughts and feelings about the revolution only stop at the initial enthusiasm, after that we do not see them again" (pp. 253-254). But it is inevitable to write: "His drunken poetry before 1945 is still the pinnacle of his contribution to national poetry. In general, during the period 1954-1975, if we put aside political misconceptions, his poetry left many impressions on readers, the most profound of which was his heavy heart for his homeland, especially for Thang Long with its thousand years of history" (pp. 257-258).

ProjectPanorama of Vietnamese Poetry 1945-1975It is not that there are not things that are not satisfactory to readers, that is inevitable. In the current spirit of openness, we deeply believe that the book will bring to the literary world a new, revelatory look at a unified national poetry. Reading this book, we hope it will be an inspiration to anyone who loves modern national poetry../.