The allure of "dangerous locations"

"Literary Detriment" (Vietnam Writers Association Publishing House, 2023) is a collection of essays and literary criticism by Associate Professor, Dr. Phung Gia The, offering readers a profound perspective on the path to literature, a path fraught with hardships, but one that, if overcome, will reveal a garden full of sweet fruits.

Author Phung Gia The and the cover of the book "Dangerous Literary Landscape".

Each person's "danger zone"

The title of this book is taken from Do Anh Vu's essay on "traditional poetry" - a type of poetry "considered a dangerous territory in literature". Compared to the other 26 articles in the collection, the essay "The Dangerous Territory of Literature" is not particularly "impressive".

However, that is precisely the author's "suggestion" to approach a thorny and timeless issue: The path to literature is a challenging one, like entering "dangerous territory," and in literary creation, how can one explore the sensitive issues of life...?

With "vulgar poetry" - the vulgar poems of Do Anh Vu - using an approach that "primarily leans towards description," Phung Gia The dissects and attempts to point out the glints in poems that address issues traditionally considered ugly...

And from recognizing the extremely fragile, challenging, yet fascinating path through the "dangerous territory" of Do Anh Vu, Phung Gia The argues that "in literary life, there are always special spaces that are not easily accepted, and even always cause controversy"...

With Phạm Duy Nghĩa, a renowned military writer, Phùng Gia Thế read and recognized other "dangerous territories." After nearly 10 years of writing, Phạm Duy Nghĩa cemented his name with sharp, impressive short stories, and then he felt compelled to write to "surpass that reputation."

Pham Duy Nghia's latest collection of short stories, "The Man Flying in the Green Wind," is a testament to that transcendence, but it is also in this collection that this military writer must overcome a series of other "difficult terrains," as his stories delve deeply into contemporary issues, about evil, human degradation and indifference, and the tragic fates of individuals.

Fortunately, "with groundbreaking explorations in the narrative of social, humanistic, and spiritual fantasy themes, through a sharp, meticulous, naturally varied, close-to-the-top yet subtle writing style, both bitter and poignant, yet romantically melancholic, Pham Duy Nghia continues to affirm his leading position on the map of contemporary Vietnamese literature."

Similarly, by searching and examining through the "lens" of these "dangerous territories," Phùng Gia Thế vividly portrays the portraits and stature of many other authors, from Nguyễn Đức Sơn, Phùng Văn Khai, Đỗ Tiến Thụy, Cao Kim Lan... to Uông Triều, Tống Ngọc Hân, Lê Anh Hoài, Vũ Thanh Lịch, Nguyễn Thế Hùng...

And the "dangerous territory" of Vietnamese literature.

Drawing inspiration from Roland Barthes's thesis "The Death of the Author," Phung Gia The discusses the journey and efforts at innovation in Vietnamese literature through the lens of several representative authors.

These are unusual and unprecedented styles of writing, such as Nguyen Huy Thiep's short stories where "the power to decide the story rests with the reader." Or the spirit of "consciously decentralizing the subject" in Nguyen Viet Ha's novels; or the "multi-subject, multi-point-of-sight narrative organization and the creation of mythical worlds " in Ta Duy Anh's novels.

Along with that are techniques such as pasting, swapping, fragmentation, quotation, subject substitution, etc., in the works of Nguyen Binh Phuong, Pham Thi Hoai, Nguyen Dinh Tu, Vu Dinh Giang, Phong Diep...

And not only in creative writing, Vietnamese literature also has to navigate "difficult terrain" in the field of criticism, where the trend of innovation is always pressing, "it is impossible to use traditional theoretical concepts without explanations, corrections, and necessary attachments."

Another issue is the "carnational trend in Vietnamese prose," which, according to Phùng Gia Thế, is manifested in three basic aspects: the aesthetically unappealing vulgarization of language, the expansion of the expressive potential, and the chaos of discourse.

This trend once surprised, annoyed, and even provoked strong negative reactions from many; but then, in its own inherent and inevitable development, it acquired certain values, at least in making literature more authentic, more lifelike, closer to, and even directly connected to, life itself...

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