HUE UNIVERSITY SCIENCE UNIVERSITY NGUYEN VAN TONG THE CHARACTERISTICS OF AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL NOVELS IN VIETNAMESE LITERATURE IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY PhD THESIS OF VIETNAMESE LITERATURE HUE – 2019 HUE UNIVERSITY SCIENCE UNIVERSITY NGUYEN VAN TONG THE CHARACTERISTICS OF AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL NOVELS IN VIETNAMESE LITERATURE IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY MAJOR: VIETNAMESE LITERATURE Cod: 62.22.01.21 PhD THESIS OF VIETNAMESE LITERATURE Science instructure: Dr TON THAT DUNG Dr HA NGOC HOA HUE - 2019 This thesis finished in: Supervisors: Reviewer 1: Reviewer 2: Reviewer 3: The thesis was protected before Hue University Thesis Review Board meeting at In the day: day month 2019 Can search thesis at: THE BEGINNING 1.The reason of choosing topic 1.1.Nowadays, Autobiographical novel terminology (“autofiction’’ in French, or “autobiographical novel” in English) is not strange in the literary This terminology was known the first time in 1977, when Serge Doubrovsky had the invention of combining two words together: “auto’’ and “fiction” [20, p.43] On the world, autobiographical novel became popular from the 20 th century, connected closely with some famous writers such as: Ch.Dickens (the author of David Copperfil), M.Gorki (the author of “Thoi tho au”, “Kiem song”, “Nhung truong dai hoc cua toi”), L.Tolstoy (the author of “Thoi tho au”, “Thoi nien thieu”, “Thoi nien”), Aragon( “Ga dan que” ), Claude Simon ( “Dien vien”, “Cay keo”), M.Duas ( “Nguoi tinh” ), etc However, that does not mean that autobiographical novel had become familiar to all the readers as well as had been recognized by literary researchers and critics Because in the way of defining the genre, literary researchers and critics are also not homogeneous: according to some documents, autobiographical novels are novels which were written in the form of narration through fiction; some documents have the different definition of autobiographical novels, in which the author is both a narrator and a character, sharing the same title, and the name proves that it is a novel…[20, p,34-35] Up to now, in Vietnam, autobiographical novel have not yet a specific genre However, in the process of artistic creation, many writers used the element of autobiography as material in their novels From early test of writers in the first half of the twentieth century such as Tan Da, Nguyen Hong, Manh Phu Tu, Lan Khai, etc to the writers in the southern city: Thanh Tam Tuyen , Mai Thao, Duyen Anh, Vo Hong, Tuy Hong, etc Especially, after the period of renovation, the number of autobiographical novels appeared plentiful in the literature circles, formed the strong flow Many writers have used the autobiographical element as a form of art to innovate and refine the novel 1.2 This is also the reason why we choose "The features of autobiographical novel in Vietnamese literature in the twentieth century" as a research topic in order to find the movement, the development process as well as the achievement both in terms of content and form, contributing to clarify the aspect of autobiographical novel - a potential sub-genre in the process of the movement Objectives and tasks of the research 2.1 Objectives With the subject of autobiographical features in Vietnamese literature of the twentieth century, the thesis author aims to identify and explain the characteristics of autobiographical novels in Vietnamese literature throughout the length of the twentieth century 2.2 Tasks To systematize the research directions, access to autobiographical nature novels which are already, analyze, explain to clarify something which is left open and identify specific research; Clearly define the foudation premise for the development of autobiographical novels;Briefly summarizes the subjects of study in the overall relationship of Vietnamese literary life and applied theories in the research process; Analysis of the origins and development of autobiographical novels is based on the relationship between the reality of the author's life and the world of art in the work through different stages in order to find the motive law of this sub-genre Subjects and scopes of the research 3.1 Research subjects The subjects survey of the thesis are autobiographical novels in Vietnamese literature of the twentieth century 3.2 Research scopes The dissertation focuses on the study of autobiographical novels in Vietnamese literature of the twentieth century on the following aspects: basic premise formed; The movement of the novel is autobiographical in various ways; expressions of this sub-genre Research methodology Biography method; Statistical methods, classification; Interdisciplinary approach; Comparison method; New contribution of the dissertation We choose the research topic The characteristics of autobiographical novels in Vietnamese literature in 20th century as a latest and indispensable research direction This is a topic that has both theoretical and practical value, not duplicated with other researches When surveying autobiographical novels of Vietnamese literature for a century, we have tried to establish the basic characteristics of autobiographical novels based on the theoretical basis, formation premise as well as the movement of autobiographical novels within a century From the systematize theories of autobiographical novels, the dissertation offers practical research interpretations to outline some of the specific characteristic concepts of autobiographical novels As a specialized study, the dissertation also established an overview of the movement, development and appearance of autobiographical novels in Vietnamese literature in the twentieth century The dissertation also contributes to confirm the role and position of autobiographical novels in the process and development of modern Vietnamese novels Structures of the thesis Chapter 1: Overview of research situation; Chapter 2: Theoretical basis and autobiographical imagery in 20th century of Vietnamese literature; Chapter 3: Autobiographical novels in Vietnamese literature in the twentieth century - From the sensory perspective and the human; Chapter 4: Autobiographical novels in Vietnamese literature in the twentieth century- seen from the mode of expression CHAPTER 1: THE OVERVIEW OF THE RESEARCH 1.1.The research on autobiography in the world was introduced in Vietnam The first autobiographical works in the world began to appear in modern Western Europe However, this official noun had to wait until the end of the 18 th century, when the genre began to flourish in Europe and North America The first research documents about autobiographical genres appeared in the early twentieth century with the monographs of Anna Robson Burr (1909), Wayne Shumaker (1926) But it was not until 1960, when “Design and Truth in Autobiography” of Roy Pascal began to study autobiography as "a creative activity’’ By the 1970s, Jame Olney – an American literary critic, in his autobiography, wrote: " the transition to "ego" when you have the aware of its existence will shape and determine the nature of the autobiography and in this process we will both discover and recreate ourselves - has begun the autobiographical topic in the debates " [155] In the last three decades of the twentieth century, along with the proliferation of autobiographical genres, literary researchers and critics no longer see autobiographical as "periphery", they see it in many different dimensions in the role of a literary genre Hence, whole system of theory is well defined One of them is Le Pacte Autobiographique of Philippe Lejeune's (1975) But in the last two decades of the twentieth century, when autobiography became more abundant, the problems of researching the autobiography came back , seem to be the previously autobiographical theories and Le Pacte Autobiographique of Philippe Lejeune's is almost impossible to keep up with the diversified development of autobiography Many researchers focus on exploring the world of autobiography from the field of creative psychology and ethnology, from culture and art psychology 1.2 The research on autobiographical and autobiographical novels in Vietnam In Vietnam, from the early days, when the autobiographical novel appeared with a strange face, Vietnamese academics in the early twentieth century began to focus on its development Among the works, “Nha van hien dai” of Vu Ngoc Phan is perhaps the first study of autobiographical aspects Gradually, especially in the process after 1986, the standpoint and the thinking art changed, facilitated the appearance of autobiographical tendency which attracted the attraction of literary researchers and critics Hence, the researches on this tendency are also more and more flourish These include some following researches, such as: From the renewal to look back the history of exchanges interacting with Western literature (Phong Le); The renewal of Vietnamese literature since 1975 (Nguyen Van Long); Stories and autobiography of Phan Boi Chau (Hoang Duc Khoa); Approaching Vietnamese novels in the renovation period (Bich Thu); Prose of Vietnam 1975 - 1995 (Nguyen Thi Binh); Vietnamese literature in the transition (La Nguyen); Literature and market economy in the last ten years (Nguyen Phuong); The art of point of view in Vietnamese novels in the period of renovation (Mai Hai Oanh); Novel, an irreplaceable value (Ma Van Khang); The movement of prose genres in the period of renovation (Ly Hoai Thu); Century novel (Nguyen Vy Khanh); Autobiographical tendency in Vietnamese novels (Do Hai Ninh); The relationship between autobiography- novels and some other forms of autobiography in contemporary Vietnamese literature (Do Hai Ninh); Some explanations about the phenomenon of autobiography in the prose of Vietnamese women authors from 1900 to present (Ho Khanh Van); The autobiographical character in contemporary Vietnamese women novels (Tran Huyen Sam) Autobiography and autobiographical novels in our country have had a long series of formation and development However, so far, compared to other genres, it seems that it has not received the favor from literary researchers and critics According to our survey, there are many authors who are focus on investigating autobiography and autobiographical novels, but it is generally only a combination of perceptions and evaluations Or, if so, just a brief survey (Autobiographical novels in contemporary Vietnamese literature by Do Hai Ninh), there has not been an intensive study of the autobiographical and autobiographical features of 20th century Vietnamese novels 1.3 The evaluation and comment on specific works 1.3.1 The period before 1945 A century-long survey, from the early traces of autobiographical novels to the novel's mainstream of Vietnamese fiction, we find that the existence of autobiographical novels is due to the "reading" of the readers through all ages, including the presence of super-readers, who provide a link between this subgenre and the readers Here, we summarize the articles, the research on the autobiographical novels in Vietnamese literature in the period before 1945: “Nha van hien dai” (Vu Ngoc Phan); “Nhung tho au” - a special memorable autobiography (Nguyen Ngoc Thien); “Song nho of Manh Phu Tu” (Bui Huy Phon); “Two spaces in Song mon” (Do Duc Hieu); Read back and look back on "Song mon" (Phong Le); “Featured autobiography style in Song mon” (Nguyen Ngoc Thien), etc It is possible that studies of autobiographical novels that took place before 1945 were written at different time These studies often generalize, or they only exploit the singularity of the works both in terms of content and art 1.3.2 The period from 1945 to 1975 For a long time, in the period from 1945 to 1954, autobiographical novels almost did not appear on Vietnamese literature In the years after 1954, this novel began to reappear in the heart of the South and in the resistance, with some works such as: “Vong tay hoc tro” of Nguyen Thi Hoang, “Bep lua” of Thanh Tam Tuyen, “Toi nhin toi tren vach” of Tuy Hong, “Nguoi ve dau non” and “Hoa buom buom” of Vo Hong, etc The appearance of these works can be seen as remarkable achievements of autobiographical novels in Vietnamese literature from 1954 to 1975 However, the majority of these novels have been widely acknowledged and evaluated by researchers in the study of contemporary fiction: The novel of 1961 published by Phuong Thao on Encyclopedia (121) January 15 th, 1962; Comment on the modern novel by Nguyen Ngu I, published in Encyclopedia No 136, September 1st , 1962; The modern novel (1963) (New Life Publisher); The novel in 1964 of Thu Thuy (News in February, 1965); One year of novels by Nhat Tien published on Bach Khoa No.266 - 266 (January 15 th , 1968), etc 1.3.3 The period from 1975 to the end of the twentieth century Since 1975, when the country began to revive gradually, it is also the time when autobiographical novels have flourished, among them are novels: “Thoi xa vang” of Le Luu, “Noi buon chien tranh” of Bao Ninh, “Tuoi tho du doi” of Phung Quan, “Chuyen ke nam 2000” by Bui Ngoc Tan, “Mien tho au” of Vu Thu Hien and other works of Ma Van Khang,etc We would like to point out the writings and comments on the specific works that came out in this way, including: The development of Vietnamese prose after 1975 (Le Tien Dung); Prose of Vietnam 1975 - 1995 (Thai Thi My Binh); Le Luu and narrative narration in “Thoi xa vang” (Nguyen Thi Nhu Trang Ngo Thu Thuy); “Noi buon chien tranh” from America (Pham Xuan Nguyen); "Noi buon chien tranh" written about postwar period from heroism to the need to innovate writing (Pham Xuan Thach); Self-aware narrator in "Noi buon chien tranh" (Cao Kim Lan); Special features of Phung Quan’s art (Vinh Man); “Chuyen ke nam 2000” – un published indictment (Le Minh Ha); Reading “Chuyen ke nam 2000” by Bui Ngoc Tan (Nguyen Thi Hai Ha); “Song tu truong II” (Thuy Khue); Reading " Chuyen ke nam 2000" by Bui Ngoc Tan (Tran Binh Nam) In our survey scale , we found that researchers through a variety of approaches have evaluations and comments on CHAPTER AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL NOVEL IN VIETNAM’S LITERARY IN THE 20TH CENTURY- LOOKING FROM THE SENSE OF REALITY AND HUMAN 3.1.The reality of meaningful life through expreienced of insiders 3.1.1 Reality is reflected in the nostalgic The majority of autobiographical novels were written in the early period of time, reflecting the author's childhood which is not very far away from their age Vietnam’s autobiographical novels during the first half of the twentieth century, when the authors were written about childhood, often go into the dark colour in life The sense of wellbeing, the pain of the misfortunes of life which the author must always face became prominent feature in these works Through “Nhung tho au”, “Song nho”, “Song mon”, or “Muc mai nuoc mat”, the readers feel the pain of the orphan or the widow If the misfortune and the lack of humanity misuse the children, the poor writers or teachers in the miserable life, the backward unsound customs torment young women who soon suffer the three subjections-four virtues catastrophe that they just need only one step to the free desire, private happiness then immediately they will be abused by the public opinion and a servere feudal ethical behavior 3.1.2 Reality through retrospection and contemplation The character of the autobiographical novel is to tell the author's life in the past by fictional art Thus, this sub-genre often tends to rebuild human through a view of destiny retrospect Characters in autobiographical novels are often ordinary, small people who always have a pain in their life However, the problem of the human condition is quite bold in autobiographical novels in the southern city From “Bep lua” (Thanh Tam Tuyen), “Hoa buom buom”,“Nhu canh chim bay” (Vo Hong), to “Toi nhin toi tren vach” (Tuy Hong), The “Vong tay hoc tro” (Nguyen Thi Hoang), etc are deep sense about the human condition in the war In these writings, the authors deepened the ego of the people who reached up their hands repeatedly, struggled to escape from their meaningless lives, but they are helpless before the reality of life as "tragedy" and 13 nothingness Some characters like: Luan (“Hoa buom buom”, “Nhu canh chim bay” - Vo Hong), Tam (“Bep lua” - Thanh Tam Tuyen), to teacher Ton Nu Quynh Tram (“Vong tay hoc tro” - Nguyen Thi Hoang), Khanh (“Toi nhin toi tren vach”-Tuy Hong), etc are full of anxiety, sceptical before the dark life of the country in the fire of war In the turn of the autobiographical novel from 1945 to 1975, one of the most notable things is the appearance of female writers The appearance of “Vong tay hoc tro” (1966), “Toi nhin toi tren vach” (1970) marked the breakthrough of autobiographical novels In the past, it seemed as though the "confession" by novels was a male-only domain, since 1966, the situation was different The presence of the sincere "confessions" that female writers revealed through “Vong tay hoc tro” and “Toi nhin toi tren vach” gave the modern literary full of boldness and female divinity This also had shown that women in the modern society are no longer bound by feudal conceptions The woman in modern society was completely liberated in thought and sentiment They insist their ego by the equality with men Expressing their opinions and individual views is no longer just a "privilege" for men With a sensitive heart, female writers have deeply felt the pain of human identity, the fragility of humanity in the world overwhelming the absurdities of modern society With a sensitive heart, female writers feel deeply the pain of the human condition, the fragility of humanity in the world overwhelming the absurdities of modern society 3.1.3 Reality through reflection Together in the flow of the autobiographical novel, but the works which were written after 1975, such as “Tuoi tho du doi” (Phung Quan), “Thoi xa vang” (Le Luu), “Chuyen ke nam 2000” (Bui Ngoc Tan ) “Noi buon chien tranh” (Bao Ninh), etc bring a different color The problem posed in these works is not only to exploit human destiny from the perspective of existentialism or dim Buddhist-color but it also shows the view of human, back to the past to discover themselves and answer the question "Who am I?" Thus, the author's writing process is no longer a reimagining of the past, or revitalization the past from retrospective, contemplative viewpoints; it is also a reflection and enlightenment in their life The authors not understand and can not understand all of themselves in the past which just 14 happened but to understand all about it is not easy Therefore, the writer does not say, re-present "the past time" It mainly analysis, explains and interprets to find the truth about oneself, a truth that the author wants to understand all about it, not the truth the author has ever known 3.2 From the archetype writers to the characters 3.2.1 From real people to self-presented characters When building the character from the prototype of the life, the character often found in autobiographical novels from the early twentieth century to the year 1945 is the type of selfpresented character, a type of person recalling their life in the past and reconstructed in chronological order, with almost no disturbance of time These works tend to be self-presented in order to reproduce the author’s life in the past through the viewpoint of the current ego in "insight and consistency." However, each person has their own life, own personality and own fate, no one is the same, so each author has a different way of "presenting themselves" However, in this journey, some authors have exploited the background of themselves from the perspective of a writer such as the “Song mon” of Nam Cao and “Muc mai nuoc mat” of Lan Khai But this is still the predictor for the original movement of autobiographical novel in the modern tendency 3.2.2 From real people to retrospective and contemplative characters Having the features of the sub-genres of novels written about the author's personal life, the autobiographical novels of the period 1945 - 1975 when building character also derived from the real material in the life of the writer But the difference of autobiographical novels in this period compared to the earlier period is that the single-linear structure is gradually replaced by many forms of multi-linear structure, the events in the past are "reconstructed", interleaved with current events in the contemplation Sometimes, existing in the story is a whole series of dialogues between the present and the past (“Hoa buom buom”, “Nhu canh chim bay”, “Vong tay hoc tro”, “Toi nhin toi tren vach”) Thus, the characters in the works of this period often back to the past to find out themselves in the memory 15 Exploring personal fate through a retrospective view, there have been times when autobiographical novels have touched the ego that is full of loneliness Even so, many works in which the colors of existence appear quite bold: the fragility of human life against the aftershocks of history, the feeling of being lost, the loss of faith, what human get and what human lost in a world of mess, chaos and absurdity, etc Almost we can not find in the autobiographical novel that was written in the years 1945-1975, a model of a warm and happy person They are mostly people who live in insecure, sceptical mood, both "homeless" and "no hometown" The character Tam in “Bep lua”, Tram in “Vong tay hoc tro”, or Luan in The “Hoa buom buom”, Khanh in “Toi nhin toi tren vach”, etc all of them are in a state of exhaustion, "nausea", are skeptical of their own existence, living in the their life as if "a dusty planet dangling in space, starting to fail and ending there Living like a stonyhearted move” [40] In addition, in autobiographical novels in the southern metropolis, especially in the writings of women writers, the mutinous people in the soul, in action to oppose, resist the reality has been successfully built by the writers in “Vong tay hoc tro” and “Toi nhin toi tren vach” 3.2.3 From the real life to reflective character In autobiographical novels after 1975, readers will find it difficult to find a character who presents his or her background in chronological order, with a series of narratives beginning with I was born; I am; I did; I remember a lot; I still have a lot of, etc as was previously present in the narrative of autobiographical novels in the first half of the twentieth century This stage emerged very clearly reflective character model, "self-analysis," questioned to find himself in post-war life, interwoven well - bad, happy - sad, happy - bitter and full of complexity It is still a narrative story, but in autobiographical novels after 1975, a new way of dealing with real material has emerged From self-confession, going into the hidden reality to breaking all the "rules" to go into exploiting the fuzzy, unconscious and dream and even parody reality, "causing confusion" makes the receiver quite depressed minds in reading - understanding the work of "cocreation" CHAPTER AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL NOVEL IN VIETNAM’S LITERATURE IN 16 THE 20TH CENTURY- LOOKING FROM THE MODE OF EXPRESSION 4.1 Narrator and their point of view 4.1.1 The first person narrator with inner point of view and the change of view In autobiographical novel, there are many works which are in the first person narrators, from “Nhung tho au”, “Song nho”, to “Nguoi ve dau non”, “Truong cu”, “Mien tho au”, etc Using the first person narrator, the narrator calls "I" as the main character, the character call “me” to tell his or her story in chronological order of linear time Choosing the first person narrator, the narrator act as a witness - who behold all the happenings in his life and narrate by remembrance like "I can not say how much"," I can not remember clearly", etc In this narrative form, the point of view of the narrators often point to the psychological development within the ego as the narrator The border of this mode of narration is close to other type of narration in which the narrator tell about themselves In the first person narration, the ego of narrators show on the page performance All the events, actions, emotional states, love, hate, anger, etc Those are may be of the character but those are also the events, actions, emotional states which the author experienced And when we recall what has gone through in the past, of course it has a certain distance of time Moreover, the past is in the memory, so sometimes the degree of authenticity is not necessarily complete However, the readers still have the opportunity to live in a realm that has been hidden in the author's soul in a long time When choosing the first person, the authors stand on the position of their "ego" so they have called all the anxiety, the pain, to the peaceful memory in their life, etc The superiority of the narrative in the first person is directly express the individual ego With this narrator, the writer easily establishes the inner narrative view, so that the writer is able to exploit the complex psychological development in order to satisfy the thought and the mind of the character - the author - the narrator However, the story told in the first person is also limited by individuality, subjectivity and visual limitation The limits of the narration in 17 the first person have been significantly overcome when the single point of view has been replaced by the narration in the first person with the polyline view In “Toi nhin toi tren vach” of the female writer Tuy Hong is mainly told in the first person The ego - I - Mrs.Khanh is both a storyteller and the main character In this work, Tuy Hong avoids using of storytelling with a single point of view, limit the point of view Although the character "I"- Mrs.Khanh- the narrator still plays a central role, the whole story is not only "I" tells the story with the view of “I” - storyteller The work has been handed over the storyteller to many different people with different views In “Bep lua”, the writer Thanh Tam Tuyen also uses the first person storyteller throughout the beginning to the end of the work Although the story is told by the "I" character - Tam with a nearly linear narrative in a flowing vein that did not change in the work, in the work the author applied quite ingenious multi-lingual view This element creates a new, modern work 4.1.2 The third person narrator with an inner view As a product of the hybrid process, the combination of autobiographical and fiction, on the one hand the autobiographical novel retains its autobiographical features On the other hand, it is also influenced by the fictitious nature of the novel so it is completely free in the way of writing, as well as the narration There are many narrative novels that "reject" the narrative in the first person - "I" by choosing the narrative in the third person in order to create the objectivity for the narrative In the literary all over the world both in the 20th and 21st centuries, there are many autobiographical novels that have come to the third person as the central element of narrative (as “Nguoi tinh” of M Duras, “Mot mua dong o Stockholm” by Agneta Pleife) In Vietnam, in the early of the 40s (20 th century), the third story narrative was quite successful by Nam Cao and Lan Khai in “Song mon” and “Muc mai nuoc mat” After 1945, most writers used the third person narrative to fictionalize their story In the autobiographical novels after 1945 we surveyed, two thirds of these works used the third person narrative However, each of the different paths, along with changes in conception and artistic thinking, has constantly renewed the narrative mode of the third person The narrative 18 mode of the third person, with the inner viewpoint of the autobiographical novel entering the new orbit in the years after 1945, maximizes its effect when it is combined in multi-view by the writer's point of view This combination has increased the ventilation and openness for autobiographical novels 4.2 The language of the autobiographical novel 4.2.1 The spoken language and the combination between narrative and commentary Generally, the narrator's language exists in two forms: the third person narrator's hidden language, objective and the first person narrator language, the witness, the subjective insider Studying Vietnam’s autobiographical novel in a century, we find that, arising from sub-genres, autobiographical novels often choose narrative form in the first person and have the subjectivity: “Chiec cang xanh” (Luu Trong Lu), “Song nho” (Manh Phu Tu), “Toi nhin toi tren vach” (Tuy Hong), “Nguoi ve dau non” (Vo Hong), “Mien tho au” (Vu Thu Hien) Besides, there are still works which are selected the narrative form by the authors from the third person bring a lot of interesting as: “Song mon” (Nam Cao), “Muc mai nuoc mat” (Lan Khai), “Hoa buom buom” (Vo Hong), “Vong tay hoc tro” (Nguyen Thi Hoang), “Bep lua” (Thanh Tam Tuyen), “Thoi xa vang” (Le Luu), “Chuyen ke nam 2000” (Bui Ngoc Tan), etc This can be explained easily by the superiority of the third-person narrator's activeness and broadness, which novels and autobiographical novels need more than any others In the first person's narrative, the beginning of the story, the authors use the narrative language to reproduce, restore the timeline which associated with childhood memories such as: "That year, I was eight years old" (“Chiec cang xanh”); "Every time I turn my eyes back to the past, the figure of my Uncle Ho show up, cover a whole period of my childhood" (“Nguoi ve dau non”); "When I remember the memory, I always remember my old school" (“Truong cu”), etc The use of temporal language in the past is not unique in autobiographical novels This language also appears in the literary world of historical novels In the autobiographical novel, with the desire to "restore" the history of his life, especially "the history of personality formation" Thus, the temporal language is often unpredictable, as if the transitions of the author's life has been fuzzy due to the time-frame of mind19 building However, in autobiographical novels, writers use in a flexible way between the narrative and the description This makes the narrative which reborn from the past of the author's life more lively Even autobiographical novels which were born in the heart of South Vietnam before 1975, although the authors attempt to increase direct dialogue with the convention markers, besides the narrative, the occurrence of the descriptive language in the story has also maximized the ability of describing thing, phenomenon, etc in detail In some cases, in order to increase the effectiveness of the narrative, the writer has a link between the narrative- the description and the intrusion of the comment in the narrative This combination occurs a lot in the autobiographical novels since 1945 The combination of languages in the same narrative not only brings the story's attraction, but also helps the autobiographical novel escape the traditional narrative model Nowadays, this sub-genre has the right characteristics of polyphonic, inherent unique features The writers have been constantly striving to create new principles of approaching, expressing and deepening their "history" From the personal story becomes the story of life, of the problems today and the future in connection with the past Thanks to this, autobiographical novels have a new shape, a new vitality, new voice, strange but familiar 4.2.2 Free-indirect language (half-direct word) Not as direct or indirect, free-indirect words often open many receptions, becoming the typical type of speech in the narrative language of the novel This is the speech type of the combination between the language of narrator and the language of character, the voice of the narrator and the voice of the character combine together In some works at the beginning of the twentieth century to 1945, semi-direct narrative style has also appeared in some works such as: “Song mon”, “Muc mai nuoc mat”, etc After 1945, free-indirect words have been used extensively in autobiographical novels It can be said that this is one of the ways of expressing modernity in opening the complex thinking of 20 human beings in front of multifaceted life This is one of the most basic features, marking the renewal of autobiographical novels The pervasion of discourse styles and, in particular, the presence of free-indirect language have led to the innovation in the use of language, contributing to the renovation of the narrative art in the autobiographical novel 4.3 Narration tone 4.3.1 Lyrical, nostalgic tone Often, an autobiographical novel has an introverted tendency, take emotional, personal feelings as the fulcrum of the artistic expression Therefore, the tone in the work is a soulful, extremely sensitive voice, but also have the innocence in the soul of young poetry In “Song nho” (Manh Phu Tu) “the extreme vibration of a young soul” is the deposition in the nostalgic remembrance, creates the main tone covering the whole work Whenever childhood memories suffuse, the emotion as the flow of the feeling In “Song nho”, the phrases about the time in the past such as: that winter afternoon, that winter, in that childhood, that year always appear with a lot of frequency This is also one of the factors that help lyrical, nostalgic tone maximize its effect in finding the farthest away of “Nhung tho au” Surveying of autobiographical novels during the second half of the twentieth century, from “Hoa buom buom”, “Nhu canh chim bay” (Vo Hong), “ Toi nhin toi tren vach” (Tuy Hong), until “Bep lua” (Thanh Tam Tuyen), “Vong tay hoc tro” (Nguyen Thi Hoang), “Thoi xa vang” (Le Luu), “Chuyen ke nam 2000” (Bui Ngoc Tan), and also in “Noi buon chien tranh” (Bao Ninh), etc we find that the indispensable element to make the artistic value for that work are the nostalgic, lyrical tone In these works, although the time delay is relatively close to what happened in the author's life, sometimes there are stories that maybe have just occurred, not far from the time when the writer writes a work (like “Hoa buom buom”, “Toi nhin toi tren vach”), but that time is still the time that happened in the past And when we reconstruct, of course, the nostalgic road becomes the fastest path to the direction of what happened Although the story is told in the present, thanks to the nostalgic tone, it always has a relationship with the past thanks to the nostalgic tone 4.3.2 Philosophical and contemplative tone 21 Besides the lyrical, nostalgic tone, the philosophical, contemplative tone is also one of the tone used by writers in autobiographical novels When writers write autobiographical novel, it is also the time they begin to embark on a journey to discovering themselves in the past by the look of insiders From 1945 until the end of the twentieth century, this was the period of considerable recognition of the philosophical, contemplative tone in autobiographical novels It can be said that, as we go along with the modern life, the life in which human are facing the reality, random things, irrational and full of things These things which we "known already, known clearly, now see a turbidity and have to redefine from the beginning" [15, p.93] Living in the reality is always faced with insecurities, which almost if based on rational thinking to perceive and explain reality, human can not explain it, so human have to race with reality by the way of living with their essence, sometimes they are contractive into the deep in response to life Thus, the philosophical, contemplative voice of the autobiographical novel also has its own shade This shade is formed from the ego of human that is always trying to find and explain its existence before the irrational reality completely different from the philosophical tone in autobiographical novels before 1945 From “Hoa buom buom” to “Toi nhin toi tren vach”, “Vong tay hoc tro” are all experiences in life, love, happiness, human in the ordinary world as it is 4.3.3 The spontaneous, mockery voice The satirical inspiration in autobiographical novel originates from the comedy, but the comedy here is the comedy itself The spontaneous, mockery voice of autobiographical novels comes from the self-consciousness of the time, the awareness of the good and the bad things that exists in themselves, the spirit of selfreflection, struggling to gradually improve personality And through the covering of the character at the same person in the story, the writer gradually unmask himself, brought himselves out to be the object to ridicule The story of life, the career of Nam Cao was narrated in the fictional shell of the novel “Song mon” with a bitter smile often appears through the character Thu The humor in “Song mon” arises from the pain of humanity in the humanity situation is being eroded by the pieces of rice shirt of society that is "meaningless" With Lan Khai, the spontaneous, mockery smile 22 in “Muc mai nuoc mat” is sometimes a disappointed sigh for the real life of “an earning money writer” After 1975, when the epic tendency and the literary age write to raise the spirit of struggle began to fade in literary, the novel began to "squeeze" and contact "brutal reality" The negative aspects of life are unmasked, the tragedy that are condemned and avoided is mentioned quite well in the novel, the comic also increased, bringing the Vietnam’s novel a new life Autobiographical novels at this stage also have some works used successfully humorous tone through the spontaneous, mockery smile to portray the spirit of the author In “Chuyen ke nam 2000”, although the spontaneous, mockery voice only appears in a few sporadic details, but its presence also reflects the pain of the author's body: "In prison he learned two things: stealing and lying No stealing is still alive But miserable And sad If you not have the anxiety of stealing and stealing from the prison, you will be sad, unbearable How delighted I was to steal and bring it all back to prison, passing the strict control of the tutors Stealing with him also means resistance, although that resistance is a bit dangerous It leads to discipline, shackles, and porridge "[119, p 9] The writer Le Luu, when looking back at the past of “Thoi xa vang”, also used spontaneous, mockery smile as a means of ridiculing both the past and present is considered ideal for all human in the community The unique feature in the satirical tone in “Thoi xa vang” of Le Luu is that the writer does not need to use any exaggeration, just tell real stories such as jokes, when laughing, when pity, anxiety, so it has the combination between satirical tone and tragedy tone 23 CONCLUSION Formed and developed in the historical context of Vietnam in the twentieth-century with fluctuation, autobiographical novels have actually brought a new breath to Vietnamese literature From the beginning of the appearance with the self-narrative besides the rules of the early modern time created the momentum to give autobiographical novels have opportunity to “expand” the art space in the novel genre life The combination of the truth and fictional facts in the art world of the novel has opened the novel genre of new expression forms, moderately familiar, moderately close, just distant to arouse readers’ the curiosity and interest Is the autobiography a subclass of fiction? Or that's just an “unsuccessful” autobiography that goes “narcissistic” style of the author's creative process? It is possible to say that autobiographical novels are sub-genre of fiction, a kind of narrative that the author has used his own life-realistic material to be fictional into the artistic world of the novel As a kind of leaning on life view from the private perspective, so, the novel's boundary is quite close with a number of similar categories: autobiography, memoir, diary So, in order to identify what is an autobiographical novel, it is necessary to be based on three criteria: the relationship between the truth and the fiction; the narrator; the relationship between the author-the protagonistnarrator in the work Compared to other genres, the novel has a self-autobiography in Vietnam that is still a young age The birth of this sub-genre is associated with the modernization of Vietnamese literature It is the product of symbiosis between the internal forces of traditional culture and the selective adaption of Western culture In particular, the emergency of autobiographical novels is also a result of the movement and development of novels and autobiographies This makes autobiographical novels contain some characteristics of two original genres, novels and autobiographies As a sub-type, it also has its own traits, which are difficult to blend in the life of literary genre When conducting surveys and researching autobiographical novels of Vietnam in the period of a century, we strive to establish the basic features of autobiographical novels based on the basis of reasoning, the premise of formation as well as the motion of autobiographical novels within a century Compared to other sub-categories, although the achievement of 24 this sub-type has not yet many, the bold innovations of the writer reflected through each work is worth noting Innovative consciousness, the desire for the art of innovation is common in literature, but when the life of the writers’ creation is questioned, it is very respectful It expresses the desire to release itself from existing values to rise to the artistic mastery That has clearly affirmed the role as well as the position of the human being in the literary life Moreover, the development of autobiographical novels more than a century has also been a witness to the dramatic change in the novel art thinking However, through different stages, depending on the creative idea that each writer chooses different methods in "rewriting the story" of his life At the first half of the twentieth century, along with a change in modern-direction thinking, autobiographical novels have also set up their sub-genre through self-telling stories under the novel form Most of works born on this stage are often reminiscent what ever happened in the life of the author, in the form of a nostalgic person, remembering and telling his or her life in chronological order, previous story, after the following All that belongs to his or her in the past has been understood by the author in a particular manner What the author needs to is to just string, reconnect to make the coherence for the story And the consequence of almost autobiographical novel in the early stages are merely about the past without a connection to the present Although there are certain limitations, the works in the early stage also had the first experiments in the calculation of how people are in context rather than natural products In 19451975 stage, along with the influence of various thought in the world: both Eastern and Western, the individual consciousness emerged strongly Each writer always tries to find things, open the different approaches to return to discovering himself in retrospect Thus, the author’s ego is expressed the desire to be honest about the pain of the painful reality of the war years After 1975, especially after 1986, on the spirit of “looking straight” and “stating the truth”, the writers went on to exploit the life-to-aside perspective The past events, currently are sorted in the line of self-awareness of the author Therefore, it is very difficult for the readers to find a character presenting his or her life in the chronological order This stage emerges a well-known model of reflection character, "self-analysis", questioned to find true himself by the full-control look to answer to the question "Who 25 am I?" Seen from the mode of expression of autobiographical novels, we have noticed that innovation is evident in the usage of narratives, the point of view of narrative as well as the language and tone in the novel The private story of each writer expressed on works has been "refreshed" thanks to the fictional technique The writers have thoroughly exploited the subjectivity of using narratives and narrative points as well as in language and tone Narratives and narrative points in autobiographical novels are used flexibly and have a shift in the implementation of different perspectives In addition to use the first narrative with the familiar introverted point of view, there are many works using the third person with an inner view combined with a multi-line perspective giving narrative for various characters to increase the objectivity of telling stories The success of autobiographical novels is also presented through the narrator’s language This novel has taken advantage of language through the combination of narrative and commentary Especially the free indirect language is used with high frequency in each story tells This is also one of the most fundamental factors in the art of novel innovation Artistic innovation is also represented through narrative The vocal narrative tones in this sub-genre is commonly used by the author, which is a nostalgic voice, a philosophical tone, a contemplative tone, and vocal voice These factors not only create the value of the work, but also make the attraction, fascinate readers in the world of private life with many hidden space to co-create with the author In the category list of Vietnamese literature, the autobiographical character is no longer an “inferior” character, or just a subgenre in the novel life The autobiographical novel's presence is as a proof of the rhythm of the novel genre on the way to occupy the public acceptance 26 PUBLICATIONS OF SCIENTIFIC WORKS Nguyen Van Tong (2017), "The nature of autobiography through a number of Vietnamese novels after 1986", Proceedings of the National Scientific Conference, Hue University of Education, March, 1974, p 328-333 Nguyen Van Tong (2017), "The nature of autobiography through some Vietnamese novels in the first half of the 20th century", Journal of Science and Technology, Hue University of Science and Technology, (2) (06/2017), p 43- 50 Nguyen Van Tong (2017), "The autobiographical character of Vietnamese novels after 1986", Journal of Sciences, Hue University, 6A, 2017, p 103 -111 Nguyen Van Tong - Nguyen Quang Minh (2017), "The story of Bui Ngoc Tan in 2000 from the perspective of autobiography", Journal of Science, Dong Nai University, 7/2017, p 106 -111 Nguyen Van Tong (2017), "The movement of autobiographical novels in Vietnamese literature in the first half of the 20th century", Journal of Sciences, Saigon University, No 31 (56) / 2017, tr 111 - 115 Nguyen Van Tong (2017), "The autobiographical element of Vo Hong's novel" Butterflies "and" Young Heads ", Journal of Science, College of Education, Da Nang University 25 (04) / 2017, p 20-24 Nguyen Van Tong (2018), "Narrator in some autobiographical novels in southern Vietnam," Journal of Sciences, Hue University, 6A / 2018 ... CHARACTERISTICS OF AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL NOVELS IN VIETNAMESE LITERATURE IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY MAJOR: VIETNAMESE LITERATURE Cod: 62.22.01.21 PhD THESIS OF VIETNAMESE LITERATURE Science instructure: Dr... twentieth century such as Tan Da, Nguyen Hong, Manh Phu Tu, Lan Khai, etc to the writers in the southern city: Thanh Tam Tuyen , Mai Thao, Duyen Anh, Vo Hong, Tuy Hong, etc Especially, after the... autobiographical and autobiographical novels in Vietnam In Vietnam, from the early days, when the autobiographical novel appeared with a strange face, Vietnamese academics in the early twentieth century