Vietnamese literature, especially in the 19th century, was renowned globally with works by the likes of great authors Nguyễn Du and poetesses Hồ Xuân Hương and Bà Huyện Thanh Quan. It flourished despite the upheavals experienced by 19th century Vietnam, where power was starting to shift, with a recession of the feudal empire, peasant uprisings, and civil wars. This period is considered the most prolific and brilliant of Vietnam's “medieval literature”1, also known as the “Classical Literary period”. The literary scene drastically changed with the arrival of French colonizers from 1883. They introduced translated works by authors such as Montesquieu, Diderot, and J.J. Rousseau, popularizing quốc ngữ, a phonetic and romanized transcription of Vietnamese, developed by Alexandre de Rhodes in the early 17th century.
Changes in style and rise of a new movement
The construction of French schools such as the College of Interpreters in 1864 in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City today) and 1905 in Hanoi, or the College du Protectorate in 1908 in Hanoi, also led to an increase in the number of French speakers in Vietnam. Thus, the influence of French literature became increasingly evident. In the early 1930s, Vietnamese prose adopted romanticism and realism. The New Poetry Movement was born, seeking to use new poetic genres rather than obeying the rules of ancient “Tang poetry”2.
Romantic prose introduced progressive ideas of Western romanticism into Vietnamese literature, including anti-feudalism and the promotion of individual consciousness. With this acquisition, Vietnamese romantic literature underwent new shifts in structure, storytelling, and other forms of reflection.
Trịnh Xuân Hoành, a translator who grew up and studied in this era of new wave literature, states: “ Exposure to French literature helped Vietnamese literature develop a new perspective on society, family, ideas, and actions, differing from Confucianism that to an extent represses individual feelings and thoughts. This movement was illustrated in the novel Tố Tâm by author Hoàng Ngọc Phách, the first ever Vietnamese novel to be written in quốc ngữ.”
The story is about a young couple falling in love, but because of Confucius’s view of the relationship between a man and a woman: “nam nữ thụ thụ bất thân” (meaning unless related by blood or marriage, men and women should avoid physical contact) they suffered a bitter end. His writing tells the story like a tragedy, highlighting its outdated views. This novel was officially considered one of the first modern Vietnamese novels and was even translated into French by professors Michele Sullivan and Emmanuel Lê Ốc Mạch.
In 1932, the first major Vietnamese literary group was born under Western influence: the Self-Strengthening Literary Union. This literary movement brought together writers who had created a new school of literature. It was initiated by Nguyễn Tường Tam in 1932 with a weekly newspaper, Phong Hóa, which published many stories and novels with anti-French, anti-colonial themes, written in the style of western realism. The group was presented in 1934, in Phong Hóa, with the union’s statement and principles3. ---------------------------------------
1. In Vietnam, the pre-reform scholarly concept in the feudal monarchy started in the 10th Century and ended in the 1900s was called medieval literature (Hán-Nôm: 中 代).
2. Tang poetry (traditional Chinese: 唐詩; simplified Chinese: 唐诗; pinyin: Táng shī) refers to poetry written in or around the time of or in the characteristic style of China's Tang dynasty, (June 18, 618 – June 4, 907, including the 690–705 reign of Wu Zetian) or follows a specific style, often considered as the Golden Age of Chinese poetry.
Public and non-public works
Under French influence, two prominent literary factions emerged in Vietnamese literature: a legal, public faction, and a non-public faction, considered illegal under colonial rule.
Works belonging to the public sphere had two notable tendencies: romanticism and realism. The romantic style represents the lyricism of humankind filled with emotions, passions, and dreams. The themes often feature love, nature, and religion. Authors Thạch Lam and Khái Hưng’s novels were inspired by the French romantics, particularly Lamartine.
The most outstanding example in poetry is Xuân Diệu, also known as "The King of Love Poetry”. With the influence of the French Decadent movement, Xuân Diệu writing style is best exemplified through his collection of poems Thơ Thơ (1938). This collection’s title can be interpreted in two ways: “young poetry” or “poetic poetry5” These two interpretations both fit with his general themes praising youth and love. The opening line of his poem “Yêu” is often used to illustrate Xuân Diệu’s poetic style best: “Love is just a little bit of death in the heart,4” for it was inspired by Edmond Haraucourt's "Rondel de l'adieu": "Partir, c'est mourir un peu.”
The realist literary trend reflects real life with society’s problems, describing the daily lives of peasants and Vietnamese people in general. One outstanding author of this trend is Nam Cao. His works vividly illustrate the suffering of Vietnamese farmers in the 1930s and 1940s through psychological analysis of characters, a prominent trait from western literature.
During the French colonial period, press agencies could be privately owned, and there were limited media. Only revolutionary organizations and newspapers were equipped to inform about World news. Private media could only publish information authorized by the government, which was often censored and incomplete, while revolutionary news tended to be propaganda. Most citizens lacked information about current events and would have to eavesdrop to stay informed. Colonial rulers heavily monitored the non-public faction. Their works indirectly supported the Vietnamese revolution with anti-colonial themes, representing the hope of independence and the patriotism of the Vietnamese citizens through images of Uncle Ho's soldiers. As the war for the country’s independence gradually intensified, these works had to be more discrete and circulate clandestinely around the country.
Post-war literature
During the development and modernization process after both the wars against French and American invaders, Vietnamese literature was still constantly under western influence. The varying degrees of imprint by foreign literature on Vietnamese works had a strong impact and significantly contributed to modern Vietnamese literature development. Although there were some limitations in ideologies when adapting the contents and forms of Western literature, it is clear that through these works, many authors have opened a new chapter to the literary scene and built the foundation for many aspects of Vietnamese literature today.
---------------------------------------
4. The group has ten articles as follows 5. Neil Jamieson's translation (Jamieson, 1992, p.86-87) 6. The word “thơ” can mean both “poetry” and “young.”