The 5th Conference on Literary Theory and Criticism: 50 years of Vietnamese literature since 1975, achievements and trends organized by the Vietnam Writers Association, the Vietnam Council of Literary and Art Theory and Criticism, and the Vietnam Education Publishing House.
The conference received 43 presentations, thereby providing both a general and in-depth view of the achievements of Vietnamese literature over the past 50 years and of the trends of Vietnamese literature in a new era.
Speaking at the opening of the conference, poet Nguyen Quang Thieu - Chairman of the Vietnam Writers Association - emphasized: "This Theory and Criticism Conference will bring a scientific, historical, and summary view as well as outline a picture of Vietnamese literature in the coming decades of the country.
The conference once again affirms and honors the existing values of Vietnamese literature over the past 50 years, and at the same time welcomes a new era of Vietnamese literature as we have been waiting for."
Writers, researchers, and literary critics believe that Vietnamese literature after 1975 exists and develops in a new historical, cultural, and social context.
The collapse of the Soviet Union and the socialist system in Eastern Europe, globalization and market economy, the explosion of science and technology, the internet and modern communication have created a new face of the contemporary era. These are factors that have a profound impact on Vietnamese social life, culture and literature.
The literary Renovation movement that took place in the mid-1980s and continued to expand later witnessed the emergence of a team of talented writers. In prose, there were Bao Ninh, Nguyen Khac Truong, Le Minh Khue, Ho Anh Thai, Nguyen Viet Ha, Nguyen Binh Phuong… In poetry, there were Duong Kieu Minh, Nguyen Luong Ngoc, Nguyen Quang Thieu, Tran Quang Quy, Inrasara… In drama, there were Luu Quang Vu, Xuan Trinh…
In an environment of expanded social democracy, where the creative freedom of artists was respected, post-1975 literature attempted to portray life in its multidimensionality with many bold artistic innovations. Thanks to that, contemporary Vietnamese literature is diverse in trends and writing styles, rich in artistic style and tone.
In the field of theory and criticism, the awareness of innovation in research thinking and efforts to modernize theory and criticism have helped to improve the life of theory and criticism.
Writer Nguyen Binh Phuong assessed that literature began to divide into sections that were quite compatible with the reality of life: "With its natural conscience, literature half a century after the country's reunification, both painstakingly mended the wounds and tears of humanity, and gradually led people forward in the light of optimism."
In addition, the delegates' presentations pointed out some limitations such as the lack of proportionality between quantity and quality, more published works but still modest in quality; the negative side of the market economy and the differentiation and changes in reception tastes have a significant impact on literary life; the absorption of the world's modern literary and artistic influences is sometimes not selective, still imitative, hybrid...
