The Image of Talented Scholar, Beauty and Love in Vietnamese Nom Narrative Poetry

Abstract

The emergence and prevalence of Nom narrative poetry associated with the decline of feudalism in Vietnam. The feudal system began to weaken since the 16th century and the 18th century became severe, and mid-19th century entered the crisis period. Social contradictions, class contradictions brought huge differentiation inside the ruling class which had brought a large part of writers, poets closer to people. Overcoming class ideology, those intellectuals had represented the aspirations of the times, the voice of the people with all their hearts. Humanism literature is the result of that social struggle and ideological struggle process. Along with the development of Nom letter and the sin-eight-word, the Nom first poems were formed and developed that way. Nom narrative poetry about “talented scholar and beauty” told the story of love between a man and a woman. They were not only outstanding in their appearance but also faithful in love. To protect their love, they had to overcome the resistance of feudal rites, the harm of those mean people, and they even had to look for the death to keep a vow with their lovers. All those things had made up the beauty of Nom narrative poetry. That also explains why Nom narrative poetry was soon welcomed socially and had such huge influence on Vietnamese’s life. However, in field of literature research, there has not been a unified notion of Nom narrative poetry about talented scholar and beauty. Therefore a viewpoint about the notion of Nom narrative poetry will be discussed. Moreover the writer also analyzes the talented scholars, the beauties and their love. As a result, the value of this type of poetry in Vietnam national literature will be affirmed.