Vietnam Literature

Vietnam LiteratureIs a literature, both oral and

written, created largely by Vietnamese speaking people.

 For much of its history, Vietnam was dominated by China and as a result much of the written work during this period was in Classical Chinese.

Vietnam literature came into being at an early date with its two major components: FOLK LITERATURE and WRITTEN LITERATURE.

FOLK LITERATUREIt held a great significance in

Vietnam and made immense contribution to preserving and developing the national language as well as nourishing the Vietnamese soul.

Folk literary work were diversified by mythologies, epics, legends, humorous stories, riddles, proverbs and folk songs and featured the influence of Vietnamese various ethic groups.

WRITTEN LITERATURE

It was born in the 10th century. Up to 20th century, there had

been components existing at the same time:◦Works written in the Han Chinese

Characters◦Works written in the Nom

‘Vietnamese’ character.y.

WRITTEN LITERATURESince the 1920’s, written

literature has been mainly composed in the National language with profound renovations in form and category such as novels, new style poems, short stories and drama and with diversity in its artistic tendency.

SCRIPTClassical Chinese/Hán Văn (漢文 )

Chữ nôm (字喃 )Quốc ngữ

Classical Chinese/Hán Văn (漢文 )

Many of the official in Vietnamese history were written in Classical Chinese.

These works are mostly unintelligible even when directly transliterated into the modern quoc ngu script due to their Chinese syntax and vocabulary.

These works include official proclamations by Vietnamese Kings, Royal histories, and declarations of independence from China, as well as Vietnamese poetry.

Chữ nôm (字喃 )They can directly transliterated into the

modern quoc ngu and be readily iunderstood by modern Vietnamse speakers.

Some highly regarded works in Vietnamese literature were written in chữ nôm, including Nguyễn Du's Truyện Kiều, Đoàn Thị Điểm's chữ nôm translation of the poem Chinh Phụ Ngâm Khúc (Lament of a Warrior Wife) from the Classical Chinese poem composed by her friend Đặng Trần Côn (famous in its own right), and poems by the renowned poet Hồ Xuân Hương.

Quốc ngữWhile created in the seventeenth

century, quốc ngữ was not widely used outside of missionary circles until the early 20th century.

During the early years of the twentieth century, many periodicals in quốc ngữ flourished and their popularity helped popularize quốc ngữ.

While some leaders resisted the popularity of quốc ngữ as an imposition from the French, others embraced it as a convenient tool to boost literacy.

After declaring independence from the French in 1945, Ho Chi Minh's Viet Minh provisional government adopted a policy of increasing literacy with quốc ngữ.

By the mid-20th century, all Vietnamese works of literature are written in quốc ngữ, while works written in earlier scripts are transliterated into quốc ngữ for accessibility to modern Vietnamese speakers.

The use of the earlier scripts is now limited to historical references.

GENREFOLK LITERATURELEGENDSMYTHSCADAO

FOLK LITERATUREIs an intermingling of many forms.

It is not only an oral tradition, but a of mixing three media.HIDDEN- only retained on the memory of folk

authorsFIXED- writtenSHOWN- performed

Usually exist in many versions, passed down orally, and have unknown authors.

MYTHSConsists of stories about

supernatural beings, heroes, creator gods, and reflect the view point of ancient people about human life.

They consists of creator stories, stories about their origins (Lac Long Quan, Au Co), culture heroes (Son Tinh or Mountain Spirit; Thuy Tinh or Water Spirit)

CADAOAre folk poemsTerm CADAO is derived from a

line in the WEI WIND section of the Chinese Classic Folk Poetry Anthology, Shih-Ching (Book of Odes) can be loosely translated as “unaccompanied songs”.

It was transmitted orally, sustained and nourished the Vietnamese language through its centuries of domination and influence by China.

Cadao poems flourished, telling of

the every day life and concerns of ordinary Vietnamese.

Poems tends to be short--- with many comprised of a single couplet of fourteen syllables--- but there are also many longer ones with 20 lines or more.

Spanning all genres: flirting poems, work songs, lullabies, etc. some cadao deal with trivia, such as the rituals of farming life, when to plant certain crops.

VIETNAMESE POETRY

Vietnamese PoetryNew Poetry Movement