Patriotic literature against invasion has the highest cultural value.
Reporter (PV):
Associate Professor, Doctor, writer Nguyen Thanh Tu: Literature during the anti-American imperialist period, and before that, literature during the anti-French colonialist period, vividly described the fundamental contradiction of the era as the conflict between justice and injustice: “They want to burn us to ashes/ We turn our dignity and conscience into gold/ They want us to sell ourselves in disgrace/ We become fragrant lotuses in the pond” (To Huu, “Vietnam, blood and flowers”).
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Associate Professor, PhD, writer Nguyen Thanh Tu. |
Accompanying history, contributing to making history, the revolutionary war literature has contributed to clarifying the principle of the people's war, the all-people war; proving that a justice of faith, of love for freedom, self-reliance, and self-determination will always win.
It is also an affirmation of historical truth - a nation with self-respect and a love for peace always has a patriotic literature against invaders. The highest cultural value of this literature is to affirm that the resistance wars to liberate our nation are deeply expressed in the aspect of protecting people, protecting reason, justice and righteousness.
PV:
Associate Professor, PhD, writer Nguyen Thanh Tu: Looking at literature from 1945-1975 today, we see this phenomenon: Because it was pushed beyond the usual limits, the categories of the novel were also broken, beyond the conceptual framework. Characters became super characters, space became super space, then super structure, super language, super tone...
It is no longer the structure of a normal novel but follows the structure and layout of battles and campaigns; it is no longer the language of ordinary people but becomes the language of conscience, responsibility, ideals, and justice; it is no longer the voice of a single individual but the voice of the times... In our opinion, this is also natural.
War is an unusual phenomenon. Our war of national defense had to fight against and defeat the imperialist superpowers (France and America). Revolutionary literature tried to describe and reflect that great war. We must affirm the value and record in the golden pages of our country's history this humanitarian literature, in which novels play a key role.
Of course, it was born in a special period that had its own characteristics. Because it served the greatest political task of national liberation, it needed to be encouraged and called upon, so there were some literary works that sometimes followed and valued the event. That was the reason why the human issue had not been deeply exploited in many aspects. This was a characteristic of Vietnamese literature in the period 1945-1975, and should not be considered a limitation (if any, this limitation belonged to history). Therefore, it should not be denied.
To cut off from the past is not only “ignorance” but also “inhumanity.”
PV:
Associate Professor, Doctor, writer Nguyen Thanh Tu: Ultimately, the highest function of literature is to humanize people. No one wants war. Everyone wants peace, love, and development. Every nation must take historical traditions as a fulcrum for development, as a foundation for taking flight. Cutting off from the past is not only "ignorant" but also "inhuman". Healing the wounds of war, building a bridge of love, and breaking down prejudices... is the mission of literature today.
Literature also has the function of reviving history. Acting as the spiritual foundation of society, in any time and any country, culture (in which literature is the basic element) is also the source of development. The great resistance wars of the nation have become invaluable spiritual heritage, an endogenous strength, using that as a fulcrum for the descendants of Lac Hong today to lead the country firmly into the new era.
A cultured patriot is first and foremost a person who must not forget the past of his nation. An extremely noble, beautiful, heroic past like the time when “the whole country set out” must always be revived in the hearts of every Vietnamese person today. Yesterday’s literature has contributed to fulfilling that task well. The whole nation had to shed blood to regain independence and freedom. There was a mother who sacrificed nine or ten children for the cause of national salvation. The enemy poured millions of tons of bombs and bullets on this beloved land, killing tens of thousands of civilians, burning down hundreds of villages...
This is not an “ideological war” as some unkindly asserted, but a just war of self-defense by a nation that longs for peace, respects humanity, loves freedom, and refuses to be humiliated, so it stands up against the invaders. For the Vietnamese people, it is an extremely civilized war, because it is a war to protect humanity, to protect justice, reason, and righteousness!
Saigon people parade to celebrate the city's liberation. Photo: VNA |
PV:
Associate Professor, PhD, writer Nguyen Thanh Tu: Taking advantage of the ambiguity, polysemy (ambiguity) which is an inherent feature of art; taking material from real life, thanks to the talent of fiction, imagination, association, the writer creates the work. From objective reality, the artistic image entering the work will be refracted by the subjective prism of the writer, so it always has a certain degree of "opacity".
The farther the image is described from the present, the greater the “blur”. Therefore, most of the “works” that follow the “de-idol” style are usually historical stories/novels. Those “authors” have done the paradoxical thing of planting a poisonous tree on the golden foundation of history, so the tree cannot survive, it withers by itself, and sooner or later will be thrown away by readers.
Some people base on a characteristic of resistance literature, which is the polarization of enemy-us, good-bad, brave-cowardly... and then classify this literature as a type of fairy tale thinking, that is, pushing it back to ancient, backward times. Taking only one characteristic, deliberately ignoring other characteristics to force the problem into another type, people sarcastically call this way of doing things "cutting the foot to fit the shoe". This forced classification not only shows a lack of scientificity but also an attitude of disrespect for history, a lack of appreciation for the cultural and literary values of the nation.
PV:
Associate Professor, PhD, writer Nguyen Thanh Tu: “Desacralization” is a literary and artistic creative trend of modernism and postmodernism, with the purpose of dissolving the mysteries and sacredness of historical characters and events; bringing characters and events back to their true nature, to normal life. A few writers have the bad intention of “debasing” (also “de-sacralizing”) many heroic examples such as To Vinh Dien, Phan Dinh Giot... especially “de-sacralizing” the heroine Vo Thi Sau, a shining example of courage, steadfastness, and indomitability that even the enemy, the French colonialists and their lackeys, had to respect; yet some people still deliberately say the opposite to confuse public opinion!
In my opinion, the main cause of the above phenomenon is the consciousness and responsibility of citizens, not the technique of composition or perception. It would be true and just if people only “de-sanctified” historical figures who are perceived as wrongly, who are inherently bad but are judged to be good, and then clearly pointed out their merits and crimes. Intentionally distorting history means distorting people.
Being honest with history is being honest with people, especially with celebrities, heroes, and warriors, which is truly honorable and respectable because they have become cultural symbols of the whole community. Damaging those symbols is also damaging the whole community. When someone uses literary works to “de-sacre” in a distorted way, it is not only insulting the blood sacrifice of millions of Vietnamese people for a great cause, but also is isolating oneself from the flow of civilization and progress of the nation and society.
I would also like to reiterate that our Party, State and people always wish for a long-term peaceful environment for the country to develop. For the overall benefit of the nation, we attach importance to fostering solidarity and unity among communities, classes and social groups, and are willing to put the past behind us and look towards the future.
As an elite member of the intellectual community, sensitive to current events and a person who is sensitive to the times in society, when creating works, writers should not be ambiguous or tricky in order to swap concepts, blur the nature of our nation's just war, or even incorporate political intentions to completely deny the class of people who sacrificed for the independence, freedom, and unity of the Fatherland. Such a writing attitude is ungrateful even to one's own people, doing so is very bad!
PV:
“Strengthen the protection of the Party's ideological foundation; fight against erroneous and hostile views in the fields of literature and art; promote the core role of artists and writers in building and protecting national culture, literature and art, for the comprehensive development of Vietnamese culture and people”. (Conclusion No. 84-KL/TW dated June 21, 2024 of the Politburo on continuing to implement Resolution No. 23-NQ/TW of the 10th Politburo "On continuing to build and develop literature and art in the new period") |
CULTURE reporter group (performed)
Source: https://www.qdnd.vn/phong-chong-tu-dien-bien-tu-chuyen-hoa/khong-duoc-loi-dung-van-chuong-de-xoa-nhoa-ban-chat-cuoc-khang-chien-vi-dai-cua-dan-toc-bai-2-van-hoc-giai-thieng-lech-lac-la-xuc-pham-su-hy-si-cua-hang-trieu-nguoi-viet-nam-825539
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