PHẠM CÔNG THIỆN: KẺ PHẢN VĂN CHƯƠNG (QUA TẬP TRUYỆN BAY ĐI NHỮNG CƠN MƯA PHÙN)

Abstract

From agitations about the imprints of The New Novel in the Southern Vietnamese urban literature (1954-1975), we return to the book named “Mizzle kept flying away” (Bay di nhung con mua phun) of Pham Cong Thien. In the prose realm, he showed an ability to manifest through a new thinking manner and specific creative style. Starting from the awareness of The New Novel’s style after World War II in French, we do not intend to attach this literary movement to Pham Cong Thien. This frame of reference only has theoretical and methodological meaning for us to identify his prose specificity. With such orientation, the article begins with locating Pham Cong Thien as a short story writer through “Mizzle kept flying away”; and with establishing interaction relationships when comparing Pham Cong Thien with the pioneers of The New Novel (Anti-Prose). This contributes to clarifying why Pham Cong Thien became an “anti-literary” writer. The paper also analyzes specific aspects of such a creative method embodied in a narrative structure. Considering Pham Cong Thien under this perspective gives an opportunity to illuminate more or less different directions in the circumstance of the Southern Vietnamese urban prose under the influence of French literature which is relatively reflected in The New Novel as a fairly
typical case.

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[1] Theo từ dùng của Doãn Quốc Sỹ (Doan, 1973, p.247).