Đặng Thân Explained

Đặng Thân
Pseudonym:Đặng Thân
Birth Date:1964
Occupation:Writer, poet
Period:2004–present
Notableworks:MaNet (CyberGhost), short stories collection, Hanoi 2008; Tiền vệ phụ âm thư, avant-garde calligraphic alliteration, Hanoi 2009; 3.3.3.9 [những mảnh hồn trần] (3.3.3.9 [Fragments of Earthy/Naked Souls]), a novel, Hanoi 2011; Dị-nghị-luận đồng-chân-dung (Hetero-reasonings & Homo-portraits), essays selection, Hanoi 2013; Không Hay (No Sense), poetry, Hanoi 2014; OM [Other Moments], poetry - USA 2019, Brazil 2021, Italy 2023; Phạc Nhiên Đy, philosophical essays, 2020

Đặng Thân is a bilingual poet, fiction writer, essayist and critic, based in Vietnam. There he is regarded "the typical figure of Post-Doi Moi Literature",[1] and considered "the best humourist ever" and even an "awesomely brilliant genius". Unfortunately, it was repeatedly said that leading governmental departments in Vietnam instructed the "state-controlled" literary circle that his works were "harmful". From 2008 up to 2011 and from 2014 up to present, all publishing houses there had not been allowed to print any book of his for no righteous reasons, and official state-run newspapers had been ordered to leave him in the dark.

In the feature article, "Demilitarized Zone: Report From Literary Vietnam", the New York-based Poets & Writers wrote of Thân: "In the literary circles he runs in, Dang is praised for his idiosyncratic prose and rebellious style."[2]

Đặng Thân's officially-published works in various genres, especially novels, have been widely recognised and created the utmost important turning-point in writing style of Vietnamese literature. He is the representative of a completely-new way of discourse with alternative lexical resources in preference of connotation rather than the commonly-old usage of denotation. He pioneers Vietnamese alliteration poetry and a new style named phac-nhien.

Đặng Thân's poetry has been translated into many other foreign languages such as Chinese, French, Italian, Portuguese, German, Spanish, Bengali, Serbian, Catalan and Greek. So far his poetry has garnered prestigious international prizes: 2020 Naji Naaman Literary Prize, Premio Il Meleto di Guido Gozzano 2020, Panorama Global Award, Cape Comorin Best Poetry Award and Premio I Colori del’Anima 2021. Also, he has become the first Vietnamese author having poems exhibited and housed at the World Museum of Poetry in Piacenza, Italy.

Biography

Born in 1964 in the city of Hạ Long[3] in North Vietnam, Thân has taught American and English literature at several universities in Hanoi since 1990, and has also worked as a translator and interpreter. As of 2009, he is the Training Director at the IVN Institute for Research and Support of Education Development, as well as being in charge of Futurology Studies at the I-Ching Research & Development Center in Hanoi.

Writing career

Thân is truly idiosyncratic and original in many genres, and he also writes and publishes in English. In 2005, he won an award for short story in the Poetry & Short Stories Contest on the Deep Love for 1000-year-old Thang Long.

In December 2008, he published his first short stories collection named Ma Net (Cyber Ghost), and it was immediately greeted by ardent reviewers and readers both at home and abroad with raptuous applause and controversy as well.[4] Hundreds of literature bibliophiles attended his book launch, an incredible event of that kind in Vietnam those days.

In January 2009, a 23-metre-long scroll of calligraphy named Avant-garde Alliteration (by Trinh Tuan & Pham Long Ha) depicting his seven unique poetic works of alliteration came to the public and shocked the media.[5]

In November 2011, after a long period of being secretly deterred by Vietnamese governmental publishing offices, his controversial "hetero-novel" 3.3.3.9 [những mảnh hồn trần] (3.3.3.9 [Fragments of Earthy/Naked Souls]) came to the public. On 7 January 2012, the French Institute of Hanoi (Institut Français de Hanoï – L'Espace – Centre Culturel Français) held a significant seminar on this book, and many Vietnamese critics and writers had gathered there to heatedly discuss its exceptional originality.[6] Later on 18 October 2012, Goethe-Institut Hanoi organised a special event for this novel where many noted scholars and intellectuals praised and labelled it "the utmost important turning-point in writing style of Vietnamese literature,"[7] and suggested "it's worth to be Nobel-Prize nominated."

In January 2013, his collection of essays named Dị-nghị-luận Đồng-chân-dung (Hetero-reasonings & Homo-portraits) was published. It then considered “a very great event in the learning life of Vietnamese nation in the early twenty-first century” for its “idiosyncrasy in contents and writing styles.”[8] It is the first time in the history of Vietnamese literature that a book conveys “the aesthetics of vulgarity” and “parody in literary criticism,”[9] especially it brings about “the panoramic way of reading literature,” opening profound dimensions and multi-layers of all literary works and authors. Prof. Phong Lê wrote, "The recent introduction of Hetero-reasonings & homo-portraits by Đặng Thân, a newly-recognised literary critic, is a great, I must say, a notably remarkable event in the life of arts and studies of Vietnamese nation at the beginning of the 21st century. This book is, clearly, so original and distinctive in its contents and writing styles that we can harly see any single trait of them in those representative critics that formed the 20th century literary criticism. Personally, I do hope it will have a durable life in the high public acceptance, as strongly stated by the colleagues of mine."[8]

In October 2014, one among many of his poetry anthologies was published in Vietnam, entitled Không Hay (No Sense). His poems appear very modern and philosophic; they have many semantic and stylistic layers which first reading tends not to reveal many. As a bilingual poet, his English poems are more evident and convincing while his Vietnamese verses are more for the linguists. He is a grand master of poetic language, and he pioneers Vietnamese alliteration poetry and a new style named phac-nhien that might partly mean rawly-natural. In September 2017, he was invited as an unheard-of international poet to Taipei Poetry Festival where he drew a large audience and evoked the media. The Taiwanese giant of contemporary literature, poet Xiang Yang wrote of Thân, "Đặng Thân is successful in using black humour language to deal with real problems. He's created his own poetic styles and captured the musicality in a natural language that proves himself to be an unsurpassable talent."[10]

Works

Short stories

Novels

Poetry

Non-fiction

Criticism

References

Further reading

Notes and References

  1. Web site: văn học & nghệ thuật. Vietnamese. 26 September 2017.
  2. http://www.stephenmorison.com/Site/Demilitarized.html Stephen Morison Jr.
  3. Stephen Morison Jr. wrote in "Demilitarized Zone: Report from Literary Vietnam" that "Dang spent his childhood in the small coastal city of Ha Long, only settling down in Hanoi after he became an adult."
  4. http://www.vietnamlit.org/wiki/index.php?title=Dang_Than#Publication_of_Ma_Net_.28Cyber_Ghost.29_.28Dec_.2708.29 Publication of Ma Net (Cyber Ghost)
  5. http://www.vietnamlit.org/wiki/index.php?title=Dang_Than#Ti.E1.BB.81n_v.E1.BB.87_Ph.E1.BB.A5_.C3.A2m_Th.C6.B0_Calligraphy_.28Jan_.2709.29 Tiền vệ Phụ âm Thư Calligraphy
  6. http://www.vietnamlit.org/wiki/index.php?title=Dang_Than#Publication_of_3.3.3.9_.5BNh.E1.BB.AFng_M.E1.BA.A3nh_H.E1.BB.93n_Tr.E1.BA.A7n.5D_.28Nov_.2711.29 Publication of 3.3.3.9
  7. Lã Nguyên (2012). "Sàn diễn 'đa thoại' của Đặng Thân".
  8. Phong Lê (2013). “Nghĩ về tương lai của phê bình”.
  9. Nguyễn Đăng Điệp (2013). “Mỹ học của cái thanh & mỹ học của cái tục”.
  10. Xiang Yang (2017). “Đặng Thân - Kiệt tài thơ Việt | 鄧紳 - 也屬一絕”.
  11. James W. Borton (American senior writer and editor of Asia Times and The Washington Times).
  12. Stavros Carapetis (Australian scholar/sculptor).
  13. http://newvietart.com/index4.266.html Hoàng
  14. http://phamluuvu.wordpress.com/ Phạm Lưu Vũ
  15. Đỗ Lai Thúy (2010). "Dang Than: the Typical Figure of Post-Doi Moi Literature".
  16. Nguyễn Hồng Nhung (2010). "Notes on Dang Than's".
  17. Xiang Yang (2017). "Đặng Thân - Kiệt tài thơ Việt".

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