Communist Review - During the cause of national renovation, Vietnamese writers, poets have probed into and exposed themselves to real practice to gain transformation in their perceptions, mindsets, writing styles, which reflect years of national struggle to overcome post-war consequences and gradually adapt to market mechanism, growth and integration. These shifts marked such a positive recovery of local literature that researchers regard it as “Renaissance”, opening to a new chapter in the Vietnamese literature termed contemporary literature since 1986.

1. A panoramic view

In the early stage, contemporary literature was under multidimensional impacts of the political and social context, which was characterized by the mixture of peacetime and wartime, of the bureaucratic centralized subsidized economic mechanism and the market mechanism; of convention and emergence, causing inevitable confusion and eagerness among art creators for social diversity and complexity.

On November 28, 1987, the 6^th Politburo issued Resolution No. 05-NQ / TW on “Innovating and improving skills of literary, artistic and cultural management and leadership towards a higher level”. The document was primarily aimed at “Encouraging the exploration and experimentation of all methods and styles to meet public demand for a healthy and useful spiritual life. Boycotting decadent, inhumane tendencies in writing”. Under this Resolution, democracy in literary and artistic creation is respected, experimentation and creativity encouraged, cultural exchanges expanded.

On June 16, 2008, the Resolution No. 23-NQ / TW was adopted by the 10^th Politburo on "Continuing to build and develop literature and arts in a new period". Accordingly, literature and art are vital fields that contribute to building the spiritual foundation of the society and the comprehensive development of Vietnamese people. The resolution also affirms the need to extensively develop universal culture along with focusing on building and promoting professional culture and art. With the preservation and development of the values ​​of national culture and arts being at the core, the Resolution gave priority to continuing to promote international cooperation, selectively absorb humanistic, scientific and progressive values in the world; at the same time, resolutely prevent and defeat all schemes and tricks of imposing and “invading” the culture by hostile forces.

Among pioneers in literary innovation, several writers had made monumental achievements in the resistance war such as To Hoai, Che Lan Vien, to name a few. Those who had grown in maturity during the resistance war against French colonists still followed their consistent path towards literary renewal such as Nguyen Dinh Thi, Chinh Huu, Tran Dan, Le Dat. Writers who swiftly gained their popularity in the resistance war against American imperialists made breakthrough in both ideological content and expressive writing such as Nguyen Minh Chau, Ma Van Khang, Le Luu, etc. Following in their footsteps, writers of the new period gradually got matured. In addition to traditional topic-inclined authors, newly-emerged writers immediately gained outstanding achievements, including Nguyen Huy Thiep, Bao Ninh, Ho Anh Thai, Nguyen Quang Thieu, Y Ban, Nguyen Thi Thu Hue, Phan Thi Vang Anh, Nguyen Viet Ha, Nguyen Binh Phuong, Do Bich Thuy, etc. Ethnic literature also showed vast potential with Y Phuong, Lo Ngan Son, Cao Duy Son, Inrasara, among others.

Writers and poets became increasingly mindful of art mindset renovation and identity determination. Awareness of the integration with regional and world literature was manifested in all aspects of composition, theory, criticism, research, translation, direct exchange and the like. This period also witnessed a growing diversity of media modes and methods and an expanding overseas Vietnamese patriot community. In addition, the expansion of external relations in economic and cultural fields created favorable conditions for deeper, more intensive and comprehensive exchanges in literature.

Conceptions of art were no longer homogeneous as they used to be. Instead, they became diverse with varying "colors" in composition. Basically, this period’s literature was characterized by democratic and human evolution. Composers boldly created a breakthrough in writing methods, daring to mention and reflect realities previously considered “sensitive”, even “forbidden areas”.  New artistic tricks were practiced to approach and integrate with contemporary world culture. This period gave birth to a circle of writers and poets with a new way of thinking and writing, contributing to a multicolored literary period.

Besides these successes, contemporary literature also faces significant challenges. Under negative impacts of market economy, many writers and poets tend to immerse in the permissive, vulgar writing style and art commercialization alien to cultural norms and social ethics. The contradictions between integration and the demand for selective absorption of foreign cultures, national cultural value preservation and promotion​​ led to inconsistency or derailment among a host of artists.

2. Writing situation and achievements

a. Poetry

Compared with prose, contemporary poetry's achievements are somewhat more modest. Despite constant renovation, major trends and schools of poetry have not been established yet. When it comes to innovation of contemporary poetry, it is impossible not to mention the innovation in some poets with certain achievements. That is the "ripeness" and success of Nguyen Khoa Diem, Huu Thinh, Tran Manh Hao, Anh Ngoc, Bang Viet, Vu Quan Phuong, Tran Dang Khoa, Hoang Nhuan Cam, Vuong Trong, and among others in the subject of revolutionary wars, national construction and defence.

Among constituents of literary renovation, the reform in poetry appears to attract the most attention of readers. The “revolution” of words and poetic tone was “initiated” by a number of poets in previous generations. With the notion of trying to create many “shadow words” in each verse, “simply homogenizing poetry into words”, poets Le Dat, Tran Dan, Dang Dinh Hung, Duong Tuong made innovations in linguistic with some successes to certain extent. The reform of poetry form has been pursued by many poets, creating a trend in research and creativity to overcome the inertia of the old ways of writing, which were somewhat permissive and topic-based rather than art-based with little or no interest of readers.

In recent decades, there has been a movement of poetry emphasizing on the freedom of word form and creating new meaning. The verses in this poetic trend are particularly free, close to prose, even inclined to create simple words and sentences. The failure to comply with the traditional poetic law, breaking the sentence syntax, expressing ideas in simple words, and maximally stimulating the reader's thinking has created a new way of writing; concerns, searching for new themes, poetic themes beyond the limits of tradition emerge a remarkable trend in contemporary poetry. Outstanding authors are Nguyen Quang Thieu, Duong Kieu Minh, Mai Van Phan, Truong Dang Dung, Inrasara, etc. The prose-imitated words in Nguyen Quang Thieu's poetry when they first appeared fueled negative feedbacks from readers and poets of traditional tendency stick to the fixed concept that “poetry must be poetic, melodious”. Typical representatives of that trend are Day River, Echo, Women carrying river water, Song of the old country by Nguyen Quang Thieu, Imaginary memories by Truong Dang Dung, and so on.

In the contemporary period, some female authors who had grown in literary maturity during the resistance war against American imperialists made endeavours in their creation. Apart from changes in reality perception, unconventionality was also manifested in writing styles. Inner emotion-inclined, free-styled works by eminent writers like Doan Thi Lam Luyen, Le Thi May, Lam Thi My Da, Nguyen Thi Hong Ngat served as motivation for young ones such as Vi Thuy Linh, Phan Huyen Thu, Pham Thi Ngoc Lien, Da Thao Phuong, Bui Tuyet Mai to make breakthrough in literary creation.

Works of a number of poets tend to have fairly clear characteristic of post-modern poetry with changes in poetry construction, random collage, mocking, sudden appearance. However, it is worth taking “postmodern” poetry into consideration as to whether it brought about a poetry revolution for the reason that innovation did not mean creating such complicated lyrics that were beyond the heads of readers.

Another recent trend in poetry innovation is language confinement among authors of the 1970s, 1980s generation. This tendency contributed to the diversity, richness and vibrancy of the literary life, be it not really successful.

An integral part of contemporary poetry, poetry of ethnic minorities also recorded remarkable successes and innovations. While poems by Ban Tai Doan, Nong Quoc Chan, Cam Bieu created unique beauty in the resistance wars against French colonists and American imperialists, the contemporary literary period witnessed sustained popularity of Y Phuong, Ma A Lenh, Po Sao Min, Inrasara, Lo Ngan Son, Hung Dinh Quy, Mai Lieu, Niê Thanh Mai, Ho Vo, Bui Tuyet Mai thanks to their tradition-based creativity and deep insights into community’s potentials.

In addition to the above achievements, there remained poem collections with formal manifestation. Particularly, some included none-artistry language and images, or about obscene topics alien to true art; some tended to be “junk poetry”, “dust poetry”, “dirty poetry”, and misleading poetry. Even worse, poems cheered the spirit of resistance, undermined idol prestige, or insulted the noble and true values of the nation in total contrast to traditional customs and norms.

b. Prose

In this article, short stories, novels and autographs are mentioned as elements of prose. Compared with other genres in the literary sphere, contemporary prose gains encouraging achievements, pioneering in the innovation process with famous writers such as To Hoai, Nguyen Khai, Ma Van Khang, Le Luu, Chu Lai, and especially Nguyen Minh Chau who is considered symbol of drastic innovation.

Following in the footsteps of the pioneers, Nguyen Manh Tuan with informative novels such as The remaining distances, Standing in front of the sea, Tram islet; Nguyen Khac Truong with Land of ghost; Duong Huong with Port without boat and notably, Nguyen Huy Thiep typical short stories such as A retired General, Salt of the forest, Daughter of water God, Dignity, Fire Gold, Sharp sword, Bao Ninh with The Sorrow of War (formerly named The fate of love) really called public attention. Universal prose also showed positive growth with The exile by Vi Hong, Heaven music, A clutch of three houses, The house across the stream by Cao Duy Son.

In a nutshell, both short stories and novels showed some signs of improvement. Fragments of reality, which have been less reflected for a long time, are now more focused by writers to create new trends as a deeper awareness of history and reality. There are short stories and novels that have reached the regional level, gaining the attention of readers of prestigious literature and blending into the flow of world literature. In the writer's creative consciousness, there have been important changes; even a critic has once mentioned the change in the “writer's ideological system”. The relation between writers and the real life has seen different developments and perspectives. Writers examined reality in a more objective way, reflecting and explaining more limitations of the society.

There existed a shrinkage of epic works about nation, class, historical events and figures, which was contrary to the increase in daily-life material employed in the innovation of artistic language. Contemporary novels were characterized by the replacement of “epic look” with “novel look”. Writers highly appreciated the critical and self-conscious spirit of each person on the basis of the humanist spirit. The concept of epic-modeled people who rose to a symbol of beauty and heroism in previous literature gradually shifted to the concept of a worldly person with everyday concerns, including good and bad sides.

There were noticeable changes and breakthroughs in prose on history topic, especially novels. Apart from works faithful to the history recorded in the chronicles, writers only took historical material as the excuse in their worldly creations. Dialogue with history, history consideration, “anti-fairy”, “legendary extraction” fueled reaction from public opinion and readers. Some short stories on historical topics by Nguyen Huy Thiep served as good examples of this trend. In another aspect, Nguyen Xuan Khanh with his novel Ho Quy Ly, Bringing rice to the pagoda, Mother Forest made a great contribution to the new artistic expressions of the novels written on the subject of history from culture perspectives.

Unlike previous period, contemporary literature experienced remarkable changes in prose. Novel reference was extended to various aspects of daily life, especially, the reasonable “pauses” when it came to hidden corners and tragedies of human destiny. Characters depicted in novels were multidimensional and involved in intertwined relationships. Compared to former works, novel structure was more flexible and plots were compressed in a narrow space. Regarding the genre of short history, there appeared types of characters that were brand new in literature. One of the changes considered as “a turning point” of contemporary short stories was the ability to identify and discover reality with individual eyes, flexible stretchy storylines, loose storylines or open-ended textures.

Generally, the above-mentioned transformation signs could be considered as the beginning and booming period of experimenting, exploring new forms of expression in terms of texture, tone, style, and language, creating an innovation in literature, especially in novel genre. Undoubtedly, not all experimentations ended up successful, but the achievements were promising.

Beside short stories and novels, there appeared massive innovations in novella. Contemporary novella boldly and confidently entered the hidden corners of real life; directly, frankly expressing points of views, attitudes as well as thoughts and concerns about a new life. However, the creative breakthrough of novella was the renewal of the narrative techniques: a shift from monologue to dialogue, from a single viewpoint to multiple viewpoints. A remarkable feature of the contemporary literary period is the renaissance of reportage - a subtype of journalism. Despite its young age, strong and pioneering breakthroughs of reportage have paved the way for literary renewal. Since 1986, reportage has had a more multi-faceted view of reality. Dark, "obscure" angles of life, human destiny and bright spots, new factors bringing about belief and hope, especially the fate post-war soldiers, the fate of people on their journey to seek justice, human destiny under grim circumstances were an array of reality shown quite successfully in contemporary reportage. At this stage, the writing and realism in war memoir was no longer smooth and mainly unidimentional. Rather, multidimensional reality, including loss and betrayal, were added to works. However, only when reflecting life problems ranging from outdated policies and guidelines to the types of people who were no longer suitable for the new reality after the war did novella really blossom. For instance, That night, which night? By Phung Gia Loc about tax and fee collection in Thanh Hoa printed on Van Nghe newspaper was like an alarm bell about the "new mandarins" oppressing poor people. A series of reports on special eventful incidents, such as The kneeling woman (Tran Khac), Justice, Don't Forget Anyone (Lam Thi Thanh Ha), Procedures for alive people (Minh Chuyen), came into being to reflect the unresolved shortcomings of the mechanism and society in various aspects, especially sharp criticisms of laws, policies, mistakes and inadequacies of policies, mechanisms at the macro level. In this perspective, literature and journalism made an important contribution to the country's renewal process, discovering and resolving the weaknesses, shortcomings and difficulties of the society to meet the need for innovation and integration to the region and the world.

On January 16, 2012, the 11^th Central Committee issued Resolution No. 12-NQ /TW (Resolution of the 4th Central Conference 11^th Session) on "Current urgent issues in Party building". More than four years later, the 12^th Party Central Committee continued to approve the Resolution of the 04-NQ / TW Central Conference, on “Strengthening the building and regulating the Party; preventing and repelling the deterioration of political ideas, ethics, lifestyle, inner “self-evolution” and “self-transformation” manifestations”. These resolutions served as fresh, strong wind adding creative energy to the artists. "obscure angles” and “darkness" were exposed to the light in form of reportages. Corruption with daring, sophisticated tricks; social evils, such as drugs, prostitution, cross-border human trafficking, etc; environmental pollution and protection were mentioned as well.

Beside these two domains, outstanding examples in social life drew special attention of contemporary reportages. These included intellectuals who were passionate about creativity; legal workers who strived to acquire wealth through their bravery, dynamism, creativity; great contributions and untold sacrifices of soldier; the journey of the disabled who escaped their destiny; miraculous revival of the lands subjected to bombardment during the war; positive changes in the path toward development and integration. These reportages fostered public trust in the leadership of the Party, life and country’s future.

Essays were also among the most favourite genres in literature in the beginning of the twenty first century with a large reservoir of talents such Hoang Phu Ngoc Tuong, The Mac who were followed by Nguyen Quang Thieu, Nguyen Viet Ha, Thao Hao (Phan Thi Vang Anh). There were noticeable essay collections whose focus placed on multifaceted life such as Nhan dam, Giddy, Beautiful girl land by Hoang Phu Ngoc Tuong; The smell of memory, Alive heritage of Thang Long, Someone left the city, Talking about dead trees by Nguyen Quang Thieu.

When it came to contemporary prose, it is impossible not to mention the mix of genres as a characteristic of the literature of this period. That is to say, the biography was added to novels and short stories; poetry in stories.  The blur between genres and the mixture of languages ​​and genres in the same works marked unique impression in contemporary narrative prose.

Special importance is attached to "post-modern" literature in the Vietnamese contemporary literature by researchers. Based on "indicative sign" of the innovation, some critics claimed that postmodern trend had emerged in literature after 1986. It was those who brought about innovation in contemporary literature that promoted the establishment and flourishment of post-modern trend. The signs of the "postmodern" trend could be seen quite clearly in the late career works of Nguyen Minh Chau (Giat market day, Lau plants, The boat in the distance, etc.). The feeling of "postmodern" in composition manifested itself in a certain "fracture" of the social order and the crisis of human trust, which were starkly reflected in short stories by Nguyen Huy Thiep such as Retire general, Without King, Salt of the Forest, Daughter of Water God, among others. Pitiful and distorted scarce beauty, the manifestations of postmodern nihilism, the deterioration of the social and family order, the loss of character, the corruption of morality, the alienation were illustrated in these works.

Post-modern literature is somewhat endogenous and under the influence Western literature.  However, "postmodernism" in Vietnamese literature, like other literary and cultural trends, when entering Vietnam is not radical. In other words, it does not have all the characteristics of Western "postmodernism." It is difficult to point out a truly postmodernist writer and poet in Vietnamese contemporary literature. The style of contemporary Vietnamese writer is characterized by the mixture of tradition and modernity, between modernity and postmodern, between old writing style and the use of postmodern artistic tactics in composition. Talking about the achievements of the Vietnamese contemporary literature, it is impossible not to mention the modest but remarkable contributions made by overseas Vietnamese writers such as Nguyen Van Tho, Nguyen Thi Hoang, Nguyen Sa, Nguyen Thuy Vu, Nguyen Ba Chung, Hoang Khoi Phong, Nguyen Phan Que Mai.

In addition to the above efforts and results, there existed intentional or mistaken trends of the contemporary Vietnamese literature. Some writers mistook just war with unjust war, war of aggression with war against aggression. The nation's holy war was even depicted as a civil war. Some either openly criticized or alluded to the regime, denied Party's leadership towards art, urging “writer's wisdom?”, igniting riots, quitting socialism. Some books presented misleading and ambiguous contents, looking at the gloomy life, prejudice, causing confusion at different levels for readers. Some books with false, distorting history, denigrating foreign socialism were even translated, published or stealthily distributed in Viet Nam.

On March 3, 2014, writer Nguyen Ngoc publicly announced the establishment of the so-called "Independent Literary Group" - an illegal organization, self-proclaimed "civil society, professional philanthropy, completely independent of all domestic and foreign organizational and institutional systems". Among its members, some were notorious for defaming the regime such as Ha Si Phu, Chau Xuan Dien, Vu Thu Hien.

The reality of literary life in recent years has proved that works intentionally alien to the main stream will, as a matter of course, soon evade in true readers’ mind; Illegal organizations will have no room in terms of both legality and profession./.

This article was published in the Communist Review, No. 945 (July 2020)