The Effect of Colonialism in Mười ngày ở Huế of Phạm Quỳnh from the View of Travel Stories in Vietnamese Medieval Literature

Author: Do Thu Hien (University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University- Hanoi)
Speaker: Do Thu Hien
Topic: Narrative and metanarrative
The (SCOPUS / ISI) SOAS GLOCAL CALA 2019 General Session

Abstract

Mười Ngày Ở Huế (10 days in Huế) is a travel story of Phạm Quỳnh in the early of 20th century in Vietnam. This is the writing of Phạm Quỳnh under the French colonialism in Vietnam which noted the journey of the author, a journalist, to the Capital of Vietnam at that time. The paper analyses how the colonialism affected on the country in terms of narative: time, space, the point of view of author… The comparison between Mười Ngày Ở Huế and the travel stories of medieval time in Vietnamese literature, such as Thượng Kinh Ký Sự (Travel Story to the Capital) of Lê Hữu Trác in the 18th century, is made to clarify the changing of the society and narrative from the medieval time to the modern time. The evolution of travel stories as a genre in Vietnamese literature is a case study for the effect of colonialism on the narrative and literature of Vietnam.

Keywords: Travel story, colonialism, narrative, Vietnamese literature