NGUYEN Nam, Modern Vietnamese Literature: Course Syllabus

Fall
2012

Modern Vietnamese Literature in Translation

Course Syllabus
Fall Semester 2012
Instructor: NGUYEN Nam, PhD
Ngnam2@gmail.com
Class meetings:
Tuesdays (11:00-12:00) and Thursdays (10:00-12:00), plus weekly screenings
Office Hours:
By appointments
Course Description
The course offers a unique chance to explore the richness of Vietnams long literary journey to students
being deeply engaged in socio-cultural aspects of the country during an entire study-abroad semester.
Since one must know the past to understand the present, although titled as Modern Vietnamese
Literature, the course does not limit itself within the modern framework, but also provides its students
with a brief introduction to Vietnamese history, culture, and pre-modern Vietnamese literature to establish
an essential foundation for a better understanding of the targeted subject. On the other hand as the
modern can continuously expand towards the contemporary time, this course also takes a closer look
into recent literary works to cover a wide range of stages in the growth of Vietnamese literature. In brief
this is an introductory course on Vietnamese literature with an emphasis on its modern period.
Presented in cultural and historical contexts of Vietnamese society, modern Vietnamese literature also
reflects socio-political changes of the country. In addition to primary and secondary sources employed as
reading assignments, weekly screenings of representative Vietnamese cinematic works, some of which
being actually film adaptations of modern Vietnamese novels, present vivid images of Vietnam through
ages and help to enrich students literary perceptions. Moreover, as indicated in the courses title, literary
works taught in this course are translations, and students should be aware not only of the translational and
transcultural nature of their readings, but also of the roles and the choices of the translators situated within
their specific contexts.
The course will meet twice a week on Tuesdays (from 11:00 to 12:00), and Thursdays (from 10:00 to
12:00). Thursday sessions comprise one-hour lecture followed by one-hour discussion. Weekly
screenings time to be announced.
No prerequisites for this course.
Requirements
Attendance: Regular attendance is crucial; bad attendance will result in a lower grade
Reading: Students will be expected to cover all the assigned reading before attending classes
Tests:
- There will be a detailed paper outline and annotated references due at the courses mid-term and a
final paper due in ONE WEEK after the end of the course.
- The final paper will be a close reading of one (or two) literary works introduced during the
course, or recommended by the instructor. The close reading can be an analysis based on a
Page 1 of 5

NGUYEN Nam, Modern Vietnamese Literature: Course Syllabus

Fall
2012

specific literary theoretical approach, or from a(n) (inter)disciplinary perspective. More

importantly students should incorporate their Vietnam experience into their reading/analysis of
the selected works. The final paper should be from 12 to 15 pages in length.
- Students are encouraged to browse over the courses contents and figure out what they are
interested the most. Starting from Session 4 students should discuss their potential paper topic(s)
with the instructor.
Responses to Reading:
- Students must post their response to weekly reading on the course website on Wednesdays by
10:00 PM. The response should be around 150 words in length. First response due on
WEDNESDAY 15, 2012
- Responses may focus on ONE of the followings:
o Most interesting issues students found from the selection
o Discussions of what students learnt from the reading about Vietnamese literature, culture,
or history
o Puzzling problem(s) from the reading, or question(s) to discuss with the class
o Preliminary interpretation of a selected literary work from the reading
- Students must print out their responses, bring them to class discussion, and keep them in a folder
as references to be collected at the end of the course
- Students should post their response PRIOR to reading responses from their classmates
Grading
Attendance: 15%
Class Participation: 15%
Mid-Term Detailed Paper Outline & Annotated References: 12%
Responses to Reading: 18%
Final Paper: 30%
Class Schedule
Session 1 (Tuesday, February 14): Introduction: What is Modern Vietnamese Literature in Translation?
Readings
General in Maurice Durand and Nguyen Tran Huan, An Introduction to Vietnamese Literature,
translated by D. M. Hawke, New York: Columbia University Press, 1985, pp. 1-15
Cng Huyn Tn N Nha Trang, The Emergence of Modern Vietnamese Literature (course website)
David Damrosch, Reading in Translation in How to Read World Literature, Wiley-Blackwell, 2009, pp.
65-85 (packet)
Session 2 (Thursday, February 16): Vietnamese History at a Glance
Readings
Alexander Woodside, Vietnamese History: Confucianism, Colonialism and the Struggle for
Independence, Vietnam Forum 11 (Winter-Spring 1988), pp. 21-48 (packet)

* Screening
Dong mau anh hung (The Rebel) by Truc Charlie Nguyen
Session 3 (Tuesday, February 21): Glimpses of Vietnamese Language and Writing Systems
Readings
Nguyn Vn Huyn, Intellectual and Artistic Life in The Ancient Civilization of Vietnam, Hanoi: Th
Gii Publisher, 1995, pp. 267-293 (packet)

Page 2 of 5

NGUYEN Nam, Modern Vietnamese Literature: Course Syllabus

Fall
2012

Session 4 (Thursday, February 23): Understanding Traditional Vietnamese Literature (1): Folk Literature
and Poetry Written in Chinese and Nm
Readings
Folk Literature in An Introduction to Vietnamese Literature, pp. 29-50
Wynn Wilcox, Women and Mythology in Vietnamese History: Le Ngoc Han, Ho Xuan Huong, and the
Production of Historical Continuity in Vietnam, History Faculty Papers, Paper 1 (course website)
Spring Essence The Poetry of H Xun Hng, translated by John Balaban, Copper Canyon Press,
2000, pp. 18-27 and 117-118 (packet)

* Screening
Hat ma ri bao lu (Bride of Silence) by OAN Minh Phng & OAN Thanh Nghia
CONSULTING WITH THE INSTRUTOR ABOUT POTENTIAL TOPICS FOR THE FINAL PAPER
Session 5 (Tuesday, February 28): Understanding Traditional Vietnamese Literature (2): Verse Narratives
Readings
Growth of Narrative Verse in An Introduction to Vietnamese Literature, pp. 95-98
The Historical Background and Introduction in Nguyn Du, The Tale of Kiu, translated by Huynh
Sanh Thng, Yale University Press, 1983, pp. xi-xl, plus excerpts from the tale (packet)
Session 6 (Thursday, March 1): Early Modern Vietnamese Novels
Readings
The Twentieth Century in An Introduction to Vietnamese Literature, pp. 107-130
Cng Huyn Tn N Nha Trang, Embodiment of Social Moods: Hoang Ngoc Phachs Novel, T Tm
(course website)
Nht Linh, Severance, translated by James Banerian, 1998 (selected chapters, packet)
NO screening for this week
Session 7 (Tuesday, March 6): The Self-Reliance Group and Its Contemporaries
Readings
Neil J. Jamieson, "The Battle of the Novels" in Understanding Vietnam, University of California Press,
1995, pp. 117-154 (packet)
Thach Lam, The Market Girl (short story, packet)
Khai Hng, Monk Tue (short story, packet)
Nht Linh, Two Beauties (short story, packet)
Session 8 (Thursday, March 8): Critical Realism: Novels and Reportage Works
Readings
John C. Schafer, "Introduction" to When the Light's Put Out (packet)
Ng Tt T, When the Light's Put Out, translated by Ng Vinh Long (selected chapters, packet)
Tam Lang, I Pulled a Rickshaw in The Light of the Capital: Three Modern Vietnamese Classics,
translated by Greg and Monique Lockhart, Oxford, 1996 (packet)

* Screening
M Thao Thi vang bong (Glorious Time in M Thao Hamlet) by Vi t Linh
Session 9 (Tuesday, March 13): Documentary Literature, Satires and Social Criticism: Vu Trong Phung
Readings
Peter Zinoman, Vu Trong Phungs Dumb Luck and the Nature of Vietnamese Modernism in Vu Trong
Phung, Dumb Luck, edited by Peter Zinoman, translated by Nguyn Nguy t Cm and Peter Zinoman,
University of Michigan Press, 2005, pp. 1-30 and selected chapters (packet)
Page 3 of 5

NGUYEN Nam, Modern Vietnamese Literature: Course Syllabus

Fall
2012

Thuy Tranviet, Vu Trong Phungs The Industry of Marrying Europeans A Satirical Narrative in Vu
Trong Phung, The Industy of Marrying Europeans, translated by Thuy Tranviet, Cornell Southeast Asia
Program, 2006, pp. 9-21 and selected chapters (packet)
MID-TERM DETAILED PAPER OUTLINE & ANNOTATED REFERENCES DUE
Session 10 (Thursday, March 15): Socialist Realism Literature
Readings
Trng Chinh, "The Stand of Marxist Culture" and "Some Concrete Problems of Our Country's Present
Literature and Art" (Chapters II and VII from Marxism and Vietnamese Culture) (packet)
L Minh Khu, "Distant Stars" (short story, course website)
Nguyn Sang, "The Ivory Comb" (short story, packet)
Selected scenes from the movie Canh ng hoang (The Abandoned Field) by Hng Sn

* Screening
Bao gi cho n thang 10 (When the Tenth Month Comes) by ng Nh t Minh
Session 11 (Tuesday, March 20): Revolutionizing Vietnamese New Poets
Readings
Neil Jamieson, "Shattered Identities and Contested Images: Reflections of Poetry and History in 20thCentury Vietnam," Crossroads, vol. 7:2 (1992), pp. 71-134 (excerpts, course website)
Selected poems from Anthology of Vietnamese Poems, translated by Huynh Sanh Thng, Yale University
Press, 2001 (packet)
Session 12 (Thursday, March 22): Pre-1975 Southern Vietnamese Literature: An Overview

Readings
The Man from Binh inh and An Exile in His Own Country in John Schafer, Vo Phin and
the Sadness of Exile, Northern Illinois University Monograph Series on Southeast Asia, 2006
(excerpts, course website)
Cng Huyn Tn N Nha Trang, "Women Writers of South Vietnam (1954-1975)", Vietnam
Forum 9 (Winter-Spring, 1987), pp. 149-221 (excerpts, packet)
Vo Phin, Love Cherished for a Thousand Years (short story, packet)
Binh Nguyn L c, The Mam Grove (short story, packet)
Duyn Anh, The Thien Ly Flower (short story, packet)

* Screening
Mua len tru (Buffalo Boy) by Nguyn Vo Nghim Minh
Session 13 (Tuesday, March 27): Post-1975 Literature of Reunified Vietnam
Readings
Nguyn Minh Chu, "Writing about War", translated by Huynh Sanh Thng, Vietnam Review 3 (AutumnWinter 1997), pp. 438-446 (packet)
_____, "A Boat in the Distance" (short story, packet)
_____, "A Ferry Stop in the Country" (short story, packet)
Session 14 (Thursday, March 29): Renovation Literature (1): Nguyn Huy Thi p
Readings
Dana Healy, Literature in Transition: An Overview of Vietnamese Writing of the Renovation Period.' in
David Smyth (ed.), The Canon in Southeast Asian Literatures, Curzon Press, 2000, pp. 41-50. (course
website)
Page 4 of 5

NGUYEN Nam, Modern Vietnamese Literature: Course Syllabus

Fall
2012

Interview with Nguyn Huy Thi p , Journal of Vietnamese Studies, vol. 1:1-2 (February/August 2006),
pp. 485-498 (course website)
Nguyn Huy Thi p, The General Retires (short story, packet)
-----------------------, The Winds of Hua Tat Ten Stories in a Small Mountain Village (short stories,
packet)

* Screening
Rng en (Black Forest) by Vng c
Session 15 (Tuesday, April 3): Renovation Literature (2): Bao Ninh
Readings
Steven P. Liparulo, Incense and Ashes: The Postmodern Work of Refutation in Three Vietnam War
Novels, War, Literature and the Arts, vol. 15:1&2, pp. 71-94
Bao Ninh, The Sorrow of War, translated by Phan Thanh Hao, edited by Frank Palmos, Riverhead Books,
1996 (selected chapters, packet)
Session 16 (Thursday, April 5): War Diaries and the Revitalization of Revolutionary Tradition
Readings
Vng Tri Nhan, The Diary of ng Thuy Trm and the Postwar Vietnamese Mentality, Journal of
Vietnamese Studies, vol. 3:2 (2008), pp. 180-195
Dang Thuy Tram, Last Night I Dreamed of Peace, translated by Andrew X. Pham, Introduction by
Frances Fitzgerald, Three Rivers Press, 2007, Introduction and selected chapters (packet)
Selected scenes from Con lai vi thi gian (Lasting with Time)

* Screening
ng t (Dont Burn) by ng Nh t Minh
Session 17 (Tuesday, April 10): The Multifacetedness of Contemporary Vietnamese Literature
Long S. Le, The Politics of the Vietnamese Post-War Generation, Education about Asia, vol. 14:2 (Fall
2009), pp. 43-48 (course website)
Pham Thi Hoai, The Machinery of Vietnamese Art and Literature in the Post-Renovation, PostCommunist (and Post-Modern) Period, Occasional Paper, UCLA Center for Southeast Asian Studies
(course website)
Pham Thi Hoai, Nine Down Makes Ten (short story, packet)
Tran Vu, Gunboat on the Yangtze (short story, packet)
Session 18 (Thursday, April 12): An Old Theme Revisited: Love in Contemporary Vietnamese Literature
Phan Thi Vang Anh and Pham Thu Thuy, Lets Talk about Love Depictions of Love and Marriage in
Contemporary Vietnamese Short Fiction in Lisa B. W. Drummond and Mandy Thomas (Eds.),
Consuming Urban Culture in Contemporary Vietnam, RoutledgeCurzon, 2003, pp. 202-218 (packet)
Phan Thi Vang Anh, Thuong (short story, packet)
Nguyen Ngoc Tu, The End of a Season of Beauty (short story, packet)
Doan Le, The Last Night in Our Double Bed (short story, packet)

* Screening
e mn (Giving Hired Birth/Hired Pregnancy) by L Bao Trung
FINAL PAPER DUE BY 10:00 PM ON APRIL 19, 2012

Page 5 of 5