Why was the work 'The Sorrow of War' chosen to be included in textbooks?

The Editor-in-Chief of the Literature textbook series “Connecting knowledge with life” said it is difficult to find a work more suitable than “The Sorrow of War” to meet the requirements of the 12th grade program.

The work "The Sorrow of War" by writer Bao Ninh. (Source: Fahasa)

The work “The Sorrow of War” by writer Bao Ninh has just been honored by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism as one of the 50 outstanding Vietnamese literary and performing arts works after the country’s reunification. In the field of literature, 14 works were honored.

The works of writer Bao Ninh were selected by the authors who compiled textbooks according to the new general education program of all three sets of books to include in the Literature books, in which the work "The Sorrow of War" is present in two sets of books.

“It would be difficult to find a more suitable work”

Sharing about the selection of the work "The Sorrow of War" into the Literature textbook for grade 12, Associate Professor Bui Manh Hung, Editor-in-Chief of the Literature textbook, the book series "Connecting knowledge with life" commented: it is difficult to find a work more suitable than the novel "The Sorrow of War" to meet the requirements of the 2018 general education program, grade 12, in terms of recognizing and analyzing some elements of the novel (modern or postmodern) such as: language, psychological developments, character actions...

Associate Professor Bui Manh Hung said that in textbooks, Bao Ninh is a new name, whose works are taught in schools for the first time. However, in the 2006 textbook program, his work “The Sorrow of War” was mentioned in the overview of modern Vietnamese literature.

In the 2018 textbooks, Bao Ninh's works appear in all three sets of books: the "Connecting knowledge with life" set has the works "The sadness of war" and "The mystery of water"; the "Creative horizon" set has the work "Giang", the "Kite" set has the work "The sadness of war".

The work "The Sorrow of War" in the 12th grade Literature textbook, "Connecting Knowledge with Life" series. (Screenshot)

“The fact that all three groups of authors included Bao Ninh's works in the new Literature textbook shows a high consensus among Literature pedagogical experts in assessing his great contribution to Vietnamese literature and is also consistent with the assessment of the creative community as well as literary researchers and critics,” said Associate Professor Bui Manh Hung.

In addition to “The Sorrow of War”, the book series “Connecting Knowledge with Life” also selected another work that represents the achievements of Vietnamese literature in the field of novels, such as “So Do” by writer Vu Trong Phung.

Determined fight to put into textbooks

Associate Professor Do Ngoc Thong, Editor-in-Chief of the Literature Department of the book series “Canh Dieu” said he was very happy when Bao Ninh’s novel “The Sorrow of War” was awarded the prize and it was well deserved.

The recognition of the work by experts and the highest State agency in the field of culture and art also proved the correctness of Associate Professor Do Ngoc Thong when he said he had to "resolutely fight" to include this work in the 12th grade Literature textbook "Canh Dieu".

Associate Professor Do Ngoc Thong said that at that time, many members of the National Appraisal Council were worried that including "The Sorrow of War" would cause mixed public opinion.

Writer Bao Ninh and the work "The Sorrow of War" in the 12th grade Literature textbook, volume 2, Canh Dieu series. (Screenshot)

“It took me a whole week to search for articles and evidence about the success of this novel to send to the Evaluation Council, to serve as a basis to explain that selecting this work to study modern Vietnamese novels is correct and necessary, and finally it was approved,” Associate Professor Do Ngoc Thong shared.

According to Associate Professor Do Ngoc Thong, in addition to writer Bao Ninh, the 2018 textbook program also includes works by writer Nguyen Huy Thiep.

Bringing multidimensional perspectives to students

Associate Professor Bui Manh Hung affirmed that some opinions that the new textbooks have "forgotten" works about war that were previously taught or that including the work "The Sorrow of War" in textbooks causes students to have a pessimistic, pessimistic view of war are completely unfounded.

In a more specific analysis, Associate Professor Bui Manh Hung said that before studying Bao Ninh's "The Sorrow of War", students had studied many other literary works about war. In the Literature textbooks according to the 2018 General Education Program, there are many literary works about the topic of soldiers through two resistance wars.

The book series “Connecting knowledge with life” includes many literary works that are familiar to many generations of students such as “Comrades” (Chinh Huu), “Red leaves” (Nguyen Dinh Thi), “The squad of cars without windows” (Pham Tien Duat), “Distant stars” (Le Minh Khue)… The book series “Connecting knowledge with life” adds some outstanding works about soldiers who have never been taught in school by famous writers such as “Spring nursery rhymes” (Nguyen Khoa Diem), “Meeting sticky rice leaves” (Thanh Thao) and the work of a soldier who fell on the battlefield “Forever twenty” (Nguyen Van Thac).

Associate Professor Bui Manh Hung said that in the same Lesson 1 “The Great Potential of the Novel”, in the writing section, the author of this lesson (Associate Professor, Doctor Phan Huy Dung) also intentionally included the reference articles titled “The Last Moon in the Forest” and “Children in the Family” – two typical short stories of Vietnamese revolutionary literature in the period 1945-1975.

Reading comprehension questions for the text "The Sorrow of War" in the 12th grade Literature book "Connecting Knowledge with Life" series. (Screenshot)

“Along with introducing many literary works with heroic tones into previous classes, including such a reference article in Lesson 1 of grade 12 shows the author's intention to show students 'two sides of war'. Thanks to that, students have a multi-dimensional and profound view of the war that our nation has gone through, including heroism, glory and also pain and tears,” said Associate Professor Bui Manh Hung.

That intention is also shown through a reading comprehension question of the text “The Sorrow of War”: In Kien’s memories, what “face” did war appear with? According to your understanding, is this the only “face” of war? Why?

Also according to Associate Professor Bui Manh Hung, in addition to “The Sorrow of War” in grade 12, in the Literature 9 textbook of the “Connecting Knowledge with Life” series, there is also a short story by Bao Ninh, titled “The Mystery of Water.” This is a very short short story, less than 2 pages long, but has a unique plot, deeply moving the reader and evoking many thoughts about humanity.

The work "The Mystery of Water" in Literature book 9, series "Connecting knowledge with life". (Screenshot)

“Every time I witness the loss of my fellow countrymen in flood-hit areas, I keep thinking of Bao Ninh’s ‘The Mystery of Water’. I am also sure that many teachers and students who have studied this work also think the same way,” Associate Professor Bui Manh Hung said emotionally.

According to Vietnam+

Source: https://baoquangtri.vn/van-hoa/202512/vi-sao-tac-pham-noi-buon-chien-tranhduoc-chon-dua-vao-sach-giao-khoa-18b7a22/