Hoang Ngoc Hien, cultural and literary researcher
Born in 1930; hometown in Duc Phong, Duc Tho, Ha TinhMain works:
Born in 1930; hometown in Duc Phong, Duc Tho, Ha Tinh
Main works:
- RESEARCH, ESSAY:Mayakovsky, the man, his life and his poetry (Research, 1976); Contemporary Soviet literature (1987); Literature - literary studies (1990); Literature near and far (2003); Philosophy of literature and philosophy of literature (2006); Culture & Civilization, Culture of "truth" & Culture of "Idea" (2007)...
- TRANSLATION:Ancient cultural categories (translated by Gurevich, 1997); Eastern wisdom and Western philosophy (translated by Francois Jullien, 2000); Vietnam Writers Association Award in 1985 (translated Maiakovsky, comedy)...
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In teaching, he is famous for being a person who often breaks old things, always guiding students and colleagues to new topics with multi-dimensional approaches. In scientific research, he is famous for being able to grasp reality, generalizing reality with highly identifying phrases. People respect him for that, and sometimes, want to argue with him to "clear up the matter" for that too?!
For example, in the late 1970s, right when the spirit of victory over the great imperialist America was rising, contemporary literature began to enter a new path, to both truly, fully and heroically reflect the anti-American war to save the country, and to reflect well the reality of the country in the days of peace and unification - with pride and joy, but also with sadness and many worries... then Hoang Ngoc Hien made a comment that our literature has long been a "moral" literature, we have created according to "moral realism". That article titled "On a characteristic of our literature in the recent period" (Van Nghe Newspaper No. 23, 1979) stirred up public opinion on writing and research. People - at that time could not bear such blunt generalizations that intended to "lower" the value of literature of the time, and people could not agree with his argument. Of course! But as time has passed, more and more composers and researchers have come to agree with him.
Being a pioneer is a necessary quality of theoretical thinking, and to some extent, Hoang Ngoc Hien is one of the few people in our country who has this quality. In the direction of "going ahead", Hoang Ngoc Hien has wholeheartedly encouraged the bold innovation in artistic thinking and in the use of very different and powerful prose artistic techniques of Nguyen Huy Thiep and Ta Duy Anh. In these cases, he is both a dedicated "midwife" and a serious teacher and guide.
He did not wish Nguyen Huy Thiep smooth sailing on his creative path, but reminded him of the obstacles he had to overcome. He pointed out Thiep's potential and uniqueness: "Talking about the baseness and meanness of people, Nguyen Huy Thiep's writings often have a feeling of numbness. Behind this feeling is the pain of humanity. A silent, quiet but profound pain. Pain is the greatest right of a writer to write about negative events"... elsewhere he reminded Thiep: "To reform society, we must reform human psychology... Just affection is not enough, people today demand fairness and clear calculation".
Some people commented that Hoang Ngoc Hien is a speculative theorist. That may be based on his own writings and books with his system of arguments.
However, it must be admitted that if one does not bother to read and ponder, if one does not know how to synthesize and generalize... then where will one get the knowledge to speculate?. Eager to explore and boldly experiment, at the age of over seventy, Hoang Ngoc Hien still resolutely delved into researching Eastern culture, the treasures and uniqueness of Western philosophy.
This new process in him has produced some new results, which are the translation of Ancient Cultural Categories (by Gurevic, 1997), Eastern Wisdom and Western Philosophy / Establishing the Foundation for Ethics (translated by F.Jullien, 2000). From these two fundamental works, along with upgrading the existing sketches, Hoang Ngoc Hien continued to write the work Culture & Civilization / Culture of Truth & Culture of I Ching. Once again, in this thesis work, Hoang Ngoc Hien has become an enthusiastic and experienced initiator.
Hoang Ngoc Hien is not a mere theorist. He is a true theorist - critic who is always present at the right time. He once confided: "Good criticism makes readers love literature. Loving literature is loving spiritual values, the dryness of this love is one of the miseries of the present world. Like other literary genres, writing criticism cannot lack inspiration. Critics are people with strong opinions...". Those are valuable confessions summarizing his own experiences and observing the successes/failures of his colleagues.
Having an opinion, recently, Hoang Ngoc Hien has again put forward a very bold opinion, worth further study. He wrote: "Van Cao's Thien Thai is the only work (in world literature) that fully and deeply expresses the coming and going of eternal human nostalgia, in the fairyland remembering the mortal world, in the mortal world remembering the fairyland".
At the age of eighty, Hoang Ngoc Hien still diligently reads and writes (on the computer), somewhat reluctant to go to crowded places for fear of wasting time. It seems that for the past several decades, Hoang Ngoc Hien has been a trusted author to the point that his articles are read and published immediately after he sends them.
He was originally a teacher, a translator, now people call him a researcher, a theorist, a critic... and a professor even though he did not complete the procedures to be promoted to this academic title. Hoang Ngoc Hien has worked hard, accepted debates and made contributions, is he a teacher - a people's professor?
Nguyen An
