Presentation on ancient Korean literature

The presentation was attended by Vietnamese and Korean scientists, aiming to introduce and provide information about ancient Korean literature from many perspectives: genre theory, comparison of ancient Korean and Vietnamese literature, the current situation of translating ancient Korean literature in Vietnam...

The first speaker was Prof. Choi Wonoh from the Department of Korean Language Education, Gwangju National University of Education, Korea. He presented the concept and classification of seolhwa (a genre of Korean oral literature) and the relationship between seolhwa and Korean classical novels. The talk also explained the concept, scope, and characteristics of Korean oral mythology genre.

The second speaker was lecturer Tran Thi Bich Phuong from the Faculty of Korean Language and Culture, University of Foreign Languages, Vietnam National University, Hanoi. The presentation shared a study on comparing the narrative structure of the Korean folk tale “Truyen Xuan Huong” and the Vietnamese “Truyen Kieu”, thereby finding similarities and differences in the narrative structure of these two works. The author believes that the two stories are similar in that they are both formed from a series of closely related stories. These stories are both stories with complete structures developed around the main character, and at the same time play an indispensable role in constituting the main story. The happy ending is the similarity of the two stories. However, "The Tale of Xuan Huong" contains the popular philosophy that "good people will be blessed" but with "The Tale of Kieu", on the basis of the popular philosophy "good people will be rewarded" also contains the author's empirical philosophy about karma and the relationship between mind and talent according to the Buddhist perspective.

Prof. Choi Wonoh from the Department of Korean Language Education, Gwangju National University of Education, Korea

Representing those working in publishing management, Ms. Nguyen Anh Ngan (Women's Publishing House) shared about the current situation of translating Korean classical literature books in Vietnam. Accordingly, from 2000 to now, there have been about 100 translated Korean literary books published, of which the number of classical literature books accounts for about 10% and focuses on the following genres: folk literature, literary history, literary theory. This number is still too small to attract the interest of Vietnamese readers in Korean classical literature, but only stops at meeting the needs of a narrow group of readers such as researchers or a few interested people.

Ms. Anh Ngan also pointed out specific reasons leading to the above situation such as: lack of knowledge about ancient Korean language and ancient Korean culture of translators, ancient Korean literary works are not suitable for readers, there are no large translation projects invested in... Finally, the author also recommended that there should be closer cooperation between publishers and Korean studies at Vietnamese universities and research institutes in selecting and translating ancient Korean literary works; pay attention to promoting communication work about ancient Korean literature with more diverse forms...