Pham Quang Long is a teacher, even a teacher of literary theory, a profession that is completely “contrasting” with the field of “creative writing” such as stage drama, which is even more “strange”. Pham Quang Long has been involved in management for many years in many different positions: Head of the Department of Literature, Principal of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vice President of Hanoi National University, and most recently, Director of the Hanoi Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism. His sudden release of this script surprised some people, but if you consider it carefully, I think it was inevitable. In all those years of training and struggling: a little bit of the qualities of a teacher, theorist, manager, along with the experience accumulated in many types of work, that is the material for him to write his plays.
It is reasonable for Pham Quang Long, a teacher who is only familiar with conceptual thinking, to suddenly switch to figurative thinking. At least, his contribution, no matter how small, in this field, if placed in the context of the theatrical life in the North of our country over the past years, according to many researchers, is too "weak", then it is even more meaningful. Although he is an amateur playwright, but at the same time he has produced a thick collection of scripts, many of which have been successfully staged on stage, creating public opinion, it can be affirmed that Pham Quang Long has truly contributed to the national theater. More specifically, among the plays printed in the book, there are 4 plays on historical topics. I am really interested in this very "sensitive" topic. This is also the concern of many creators, and even managers. "Writing history" or "copying history"? How is the work of a writer different from that of a historian? Through the case of "Debt to the Country" by Pham Quang Long, I think we can see more clearly the above "sensitive" issue. "Debt to the Country" is truly a break from the historical genre by the author.
Cover of the book "Debt of the Country" by author Pham Quang Long
Writing historical themes is always a difficulty and challenge for all writers, playwrights, and filmmakers, not only in our country, but also in many other places in the world. For Vietnam, a country where “ideology” is always considered a particularly “serious” field, a sensitive area, choosing to write in this field is even more difficult. The evidence is that, over the past many years, in many fields of artistic creation, from literature, theater to cinema, we have received feedback from those involved that it is too weak, not commensurate with historical reality. So what are the difficulties for writers in this field? Why do artists who are considered “those who dig deep into their thoughts, explore untapped sources, and create things that have not yet existed” have such difficulties in their creative work? I think that the difficulty lies in our own clichéd thoughts. The field of “creative writing” itself does not pose any obstacles for artists. The lesson of Pham Quang Long’s “Debt to the Country” may open up some thoughts for us. Perhaps, with historical works, writers must first dare to “break the mold”. That is, they must dare to overcome an invisible barrier that prevents their own creative thinking. The “breakthrough” must start with themselves, then consider the audience. And finally, the art managers.
Before talking about the "innovation" in the four historical plays of Pham Quang Long, I would like to recall an experience in the writing of historical plays in the West, specifically in the romanticism movement of French literature.
Writing historical themes in general, or historical dramas in particular, is a typical product of the Romantic literary movement. In the history of the development of Western Romanticism, we have witnessed the names of great historical writers: Walter Scott in English literature, Victor Hugo, A. Dumas the father, A. Vigny in French literature. In the Preface to Cromwell, considered the Manifesto of French Romanticism, the leader of this literary school once affirmed that young Romantic playwrights, before putting pen to paper, must remember one "thing by heart" that historical truth must always be "re-examined" by chroniclers. To ensure historical authenticity, Romantic writers must know how to "fill in the gaps that chroniclers have cut out", while at the same time "cut out the excess that chroniclers have arbitrarily added"; “It is not the historian, but the writer who writes the real history of life”, the writer M. Gorky himself once stated that truth. V. Hugo’s thoughts from the 19th century until now are still true. What Soviet writers said nearly a century ago are still true. The problem is how do we think about writing historical topics today? How do we get the audience used to the way of thinking, history is not always true and accurate, if we only base it on the chronicles left behind. And moreover, historical writing is different from historical recording. If these two issues are confused, it is difficult to give historical writers the space for creative freedom. And therefore, it is also difficult to have literary works on historical topics worthy of the nation and the era.
From the above starting points, I completely agree with Pham Quang Long in his concept of writing historical genre: “I write about them as people who lived before us. They were famous through many real and unreal stories. I learn about them and history (official and unofficial) can only provide me with the results of their work, the reasons why they are honored or criticized. I learn about the ways they got there and am helpless because nowhere shows me these specific things. I have to write about them through what I imagine. So my character is also a fictional character, a product of me, like a novel character, nothing is taken from their biography”. On this point, Pham Quang Long has many similarities with the viewpoint of A. Dumas, a great romantic writer of V. Hugo's time. In the last lines of the Preface to the Playbook, Pham Quang Long cited this unique viewpoint of the French writer: “History is just a nail for the writer to hang the picture drawn according to his imagination”. In the most famous historical novel by A. Dumas, “The Three Musketeers”, the main event is the stolen diamond necklace, which people suspect is the culprit of Queen Marie Antoinette, wife of King Louis 16. That is a historical event of the 18th century. But the image of the character of Prime Minister Richelieu, also in this work, is a historical event of the 17th century. Prime Minister Richelieu died in 1642, while Louis 16 only ascended the throne in 1774, after more than a century.
A little comparison like that helps us understand more clearly the historical issues in Pham Quang Long's plays. Reading and watching his plays, we have the feeling that everything related to historical events in them is only "similar" to real. There are stories about Confucian scholar Cao Ba Quat, about Nguyen Cong Tru, Phan Thanh Gian and Ho Chi Minh, but all those real historical figures are just excuses for Pham Quang Long to build his scripts. The historical genre in all of his plays is always unconventional. I say unconventional because normally when people create historical genres, historical events must always be put in the top position. It must be the main pillar for the writer to cling to in leading the story. The fictions allowed in a historical play can only be considered "secondary". But it seems that Pham Quang Long does not follow that direction. He creates history according to his own thoughts and imagination. For example, in the three-act play about Cao Ba Quat, a mandarin under the Nguyen Dynasty, because of dissatisfaction with the times, he rose up in revolt with the people of Son Tay, and was sacrificed. Writer Nguyen Tuan once used this prototype to write the short story "The Death Row Prisoner's Calligraphy". Nguyen Tuan only exploited the short period of time when the character Huan Cao was in Son Tay prison on the day he received his sentence. The character of this Quan Ho Cao was fully expressed in that short period of time. In addition, we do not know anything more about him, except for his talent, his "khoanh" nature of only giving calligraphy to his soul mates. Pham Quang in the play Cao Ba Quat, only spent the last act talking about the prison. The reason why Cao Ba Quat was convicted of a felony was because he intentionally corrected his students' papers in an important national exam. Playwright Pham Quang Long exploited more of this real historical character in his relationships with the people, with his students, and even with a certain beauty, also a "village girl". Those were bold innovations of a historical playwright. Other plays about Nguyen Cong Tru, Phan Thanh Gian (the author only left the unclear name Phan Thuong Thu), and Ho Chi Minh all followed the same innovative direction. With Nguyen Cong Tru, although innovative, I found that Pham Quang Long closely followed two personality traits that were widely circulated among the people about him: "arrogant" and "infatuated". With the character Phan Thanh Gian, some people think that because he loved this Minister too much, Pham Quang Long seemed to "defend" him. Phan Thanh Gian’s debt to the French treaty, which led to the death of this mandarin named Phan, in Pham Quang Long’s historical creation, is ultimately just a “debt to the country”, a historical “injustice”. Thus, from his interpretation and “re-creation” of history, Pham Quang Long has brought modern viewers to a different perspective than what official historians have long thought.
The case of the character Ho Chi Minh in the play Ho Chi Minh Moments is exploited in a different direction: the author only uses 5 very ordinary moments in his life to come to an overview of him. Ho Chi Minh is already a very famous character. He left behind many legends, and for a long time people have tacitly acknowledged that. Even enemies, no matter how much they hate him, do not dare to insult him. The innovation in this special play by Pham Quang Long is that it seems that the author only relies on his imagination to portray the beloved leader of the nation. However, as we have said, because the character Ho Chi Minh is so famous, his portrait, soul, and personality seem to have been deeply ingrained in the thinking of all of us, including author Pham Quang Long, so those imaginations are actually very close to historical truth. Through the 5 moments of Ho Chi Minh, we see that he has indeed revealed quite fully his personality, intelligence, tolerance and wisdom in different relationships. And in any relationship, the consistency of this outstanding leader is also revealed quite fully. Thus, Pham Quang Long's imagination in the historical genre seems "unconventional", but in fact it is still acceptable.
Pham Quang Long's way of thinking about history and historical figures, as I understand it, is the right way. I always think that history has been made too "serious" by some people, and people always force people to think of history exactly like textbooks. Therefore, today, when students are not interested in History in high schools and get bad grades, people immediately accuse them of "not loving the country" (is it true that only studying history makes students love the country?). Because of the concept that there is only one history in textbooks, and therefore it is "unchangeable", people forget that there still exists a flow of history in ordinary daily life, in the people, in the small people, the lives of wandering on the sidewalks... That is, there is a history that is not recorded by chroniclers, but is still as "real" as the History textbook. Victor Hugo, the leader of the French Romantic school, always reminded the Romantics to know how to fill in the gaps that the chroniclers cut out, and to cut out the extra spaces that the chroniclers added. That was a completely correct “reminder”. We should not blame the chroniclers. They are “special characters”, so they cannot do otherwise. Therefore, in my opinion, we should still leave some free space for writers to “copy the real history of life”. Those are also events that deserve attention and respect. Perhaps that is why I lean towards the “innovations” in the historical genre of Pham Quang Long in his play “Debt to the Country”.
June 2014
Author:Tran Hinh
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