Tự Lực văn đoàn

The Tự Lực văn đoàn ("Self-Strengthening literary group" or "Self-Help", in chu Han 自力文團) was a pro-independence literary group in colonial Vietnam in the 1930s.

The group was founded in 1932-1933 by Nhất Linh and Khái Hưng, who started to publish the weekly magazine Phong Hóa ("Mores") and later Ngày Nay ("Today").[1] For a period the Tự Lực văn đoàn group were at the forefront of new developments in journalism, the "New Poetry," and the introduction of realism in the novels and stories serialised in Phong Hóa.[2] Novels serialized in Phong Hóa were later published complete in the Self-Strengthening publishing series.[3] The group was identified as anti-French and, for example, excluded from French-organized literary and art conferences.[4]

The groups activities coincided with the emergence of Vietnam's feminist movement,[5] and the Tự Lực văn đoàn's novels often described - under the tenets of realism - the traditional obligations of women.[6]

References

  1. ↑ East Asian cultural studies: Volume 6 Yunesuko Higashi Ajia Bunka Kenkyū Sentā (Tokyo, Japan) - 1967 "Aware of their historical duties, some young scholars formed in 1932 the Tự Lực văn đoàn or Self-help literary group, a politico-cultural organization, and published a weekly magazine the Phong Hóa to disseminate their doctrine, the main ..."
  2. ↑ Colonialism and language policy in Viet Nam John DeFrancis - 1977 "For a period the Self-Help Literary Group surged to the forefront of a prodigious journalistic expansion, the birth of a New Poetry, and the emergence of the realistic novel (Durand and Nguyen Tran Huan 1969: III, 206-207).
  3. ↑ Postwar Vietnam: Dynamics of a Transforming Society - Page 263 Hy V. Luong - 2003 "Many novels that still captivate Vietnamese readers today were first serialized in Phong Hoa, then published in the Tu Luc Van Doan (Self-strengthening Literary Group) book series, also edited by Nhat Linh. In 1934, the same editorial team .."
  4. ↑ SERAS: Volume 27 Association for Asian Studies. Southeast Conference - 2006 "exclusion from the first General Conference on the Arts of such patriotic and anti-French factions as the Self-Help Literary Group of Nhat Linh and Khai Hung, ...
  5. ↑ Handbook of the media in Asia Shelton A. Gunaratne - 2000 "... 935) both published by Tu Luc Van Doan (Self-Help Literary Group) in the north (Thai, 1971). Another characteristic of this period was the rise in Vietnam's feminist movement and with it the emergence of a number of newspapers for women."
  6. ↑ A Dragon Child: Reflections Of A Daughter Of Annam In America - Page 46 Lucy Nguyen-Hong-Nhiem - 2004 "... like the traditional ones so often described in the novels by the “Self-Help Literary Group” (Tự lực văn đoàn) of the 1930's. These mothers-in-law believed that the daughter-in-law should be trained to serve the family into which she married."