Introducing the book "A brief study of literary cases in Vietnam in the 10th and 19th centuries"

The book is 210 pages thick, published by Hanoi National University Publishing House in the fourth quarter of 2013. (Photo: Thanh Long/USSH)
 

The role of language, first of all speech, then writing, in human life is very special, and seems to become more and more important as time goes on. At a certain stage in history, it seems that language itself has an enormous power, surpassing and beyond the control of the speaking subject. All designs of power have considerable power, even after they have disappeared into the flow of time, leaving behind countless remnants of prestige in the books of "classics, histories, philology, and collections".

Vietnam, in tradition, up to the time of historical belief, was a country with “the same culture” as other East Asian countries. The ruling dynasties who led and also governed the country gradually refined the “literary governance” policy, turning “literate” people into privileged people, turning literature into a spiritual activity that was both noble and potentially dangerous.

Giving literature such great power, in China and other countries with similar cultures in the Middle Ages, also gave writers and literary works to develop, but it also brought dangers and unpredictable traps for those who were "literary".

For a long time, from professional literary researchers to general readers of literature, they have focused their attention and experience on great works and great authors. That way of behaving is not wrong but not enough. Lack of understanding of "three trivial matters, digressions" in many cases has harmed the correct and deep understanding of the author and the work, sometimes causing misunderstandings in the evaluation of an entire period, a literary stage!
 

Author Pham Van Hung is currently a lecturer at the Department of Vietnamese Medieval Literature - Faculty of Literature - University of Social Sciences and Humanities. (Photo: Thanh Long/USSH)

This meticulous, detailed approach to literary history has nothing in common with the popular approach of the time, which is now often recalled with disdain as a “vulgar sociological approach.”

Young researcher and lecturer Pham Van Hung has a high awareness of the importance and prospects of such a research direction. This not-so-thick but quite elaborate book is the initial result of a journey that is perhaps “still consuming rice” to build what Pierre Bourdieu calls a “literary school”. It may be necessary to consider some conceptual terms in this work, but in my humble opinion, the collection of literary cases in the history of Vietnamese literature in the 10th and 19th centuries is a useful and attractive work. From the results of such research and systematization, it is hoped that researchers and readers who love the history of national literature in general will be provided with “food for thought” materials, to help them perceive and think more deeply and correctly about the regularity of the movement and development of national literature.

Respectfully introduce to readers near and far.