Vietnamese literature
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Vietnamese literature is literature, both oral and written, created 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. Chữ nôm, created around the 10th century, allowed writers to compose in Vietnamese using modified Chinese characters. Although regarded as inferior to Chinese, it gradually grew in prestige. It flourished in the 18th century when many notable Vietnamese writers and poets composed their works in chữ nôm and when it briefly became the official written script. While the quốc ngữ script was created in the 17th century, it did not become popular outside of missionary groups until the early 20th century, when the French colonial administration mandated its use in French Indochina. By the mid-20th century, virtually all Vietnamese works of literature were composed in quốc ngữ.
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[edit] Script
[edit] Classical Chinese/Hán Văn (漢文)
Many of the official documents in Vietnamese history were written in Classical Chinese. Not only is the Chinese script foreign to modern Vietnamese speakers, these works are mostly unintelligible even when directly transliterated into the modern quốc ngữ script due to their Chinese syntax and vocabulary. As a result, these works must be translated into Vietnamese in order to be understood. These works include official proclamations by Vietnamese kings, royal histories, and declarations of independence from China, as well as poetry.
[edit] Chữ nôm (字喃)
Works written in chữ nôm don't suffer the understandability problems that those in Classical Chinese are susceptible to. For the most part, they can be directly transliterated into the modern quốc ngữ script and be readily understood by modern Vietnamese speakers. However, since chữ nôm was never standardized, there are ambiguities as to which words are meant when a writer used certain characters. This resulted in many variations when transliterating works in chữ nôm into quốc ngữ. 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 (征婦吟曲 - Lament of a War 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.
[edit] Quốc ngữ
While created in the seventeenth century, quốc ngữ was not widely used outside of missionary circles until the early 20th century, when the French colonial government mandated its use in French Indochina. 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. Their efforts were hugely successful, as the literacy rate literally jumped overnight.
In those early years, there were many variations in orthography and there was no consensus on how to write certain words. After some conferences, the issues were mostly settled, but some still linger to this day. 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.
[edit] Genres
[edit] Folk literature
Unlike written literature, early oral literature was composed in Vietnamese and is still accessible to ordinary Vietnamese today. Vietnamese folk literature is an intermingling of many forms. It is not only an oral tradition, but a mixing of three media: hidden (only retained in the memory of folk authors), fixed (written), and shown (performed). Folk literature usually exist in many versions, passed down orally, and have unknown authors.
[edit] Myths
Myths consist of stories about supernatural beings, heroes, creator gods, and reflect the viewpoint of ancient people about human life. They consist of creation stories, stories about their origins (Lạc Long Quân, Âu Cơ), culture heroes (Sơn Tinh - Thủy Tinh).
[edit] Legends
[edit] Fairy tales
[edit] Humorous stories
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[edit] Fables
[edit] Proverbs
[edit] Riddles
[edit] Ca dao
Ca dao are traditional oral poems sung without accompaniment. About 5000 Ca dao are said to exist at a given time.
