Vs6 Literature of Vietnam

Faculty of Arts
Spring 2025
Extent and Intensity
1/0/0. 3 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
Teacher(s)
prof. PhDr. Bohumil Fořt, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Mgr. Ondřej Srba, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Mgr. Julie Lien Vrbková (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
prof. PhDr. Bohumil Fořt, Ph.D.
Department of Mongolian, Korean and Vietnamese Studies – Asia Studies Centre – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: Mgr. Ondřej Srba, Ph.D.
Supplier department: Department of Mongolian, Korean and Vietnamese Studies – Asia Studies Centre – Faculty of Arts
Prerequisites
no prerequisites
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
At the end of the course students should get a basic knowledge about the literature of Vietnam. Besides main literary sources of Ancient Champa, Chams and the earlier literature of Vietnam written in Classical Chinese, the core part of the course is dedicated to Vietnamese literature written in nôm script, to modern Vietnamese literature of the 20th century and to translations of famous Vietnamese authors to Czech and Slovak languages. The course Literature of Vietnam is a fundamental theoretical profile core course of the study programme Vietnamese Studies. Content of this course and acquired knowledge will be also a part of the Final State Examination. The course is open for students of other study programmes – in such a case only final written examination with requirements of more moderate results is needed to pass the course.
Learning outcomes
After completion of the series of lectures, student will know about:
- written monuments of the civilization Champa;
- written heritage of the Cham nationality;
- early written monuments from the Vietnamese cultural sphere;
- early records about penetrating and acculturation of Buddhism in Vietnam;
- main Vietnamese chronicles (including early Buddhist chronicles);
- the most famous literary monuments in Chữ Nôm script;
- modern Vietnamese literatures in the 20th century and their main movements;
translations of Vietnamese authors into Czech and Slovak languages
Syllabus
  • 0. Introduction: literature, literary science, narratology.
  • 1. Short introduction to the history and culture of Champa civilisation. Cham language, script and their development. Champa epigraphy in Sanskrit and Old Cham.
  • 2. Later Cham literature, influence of the Malay cultural area, influence of Islam. Cham literature of ritual character.
  • 3. The oldest written monuments from the Northern Vietnam - epigraphy.
  • 4. The oldest Buddhist literature of Vietnam, chronicle Thiền uyển tập anh
  • 5. Fragments of the Vietnamese literature from the period until the Ming conquest of Vietnam (1407)
  • 6. The earliest Vietnamese historiography in Classical Chinese - introduction to the Chinese historiographic tradition, Vietnamese tradition of historiography and the chronicle Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư
  • 7. Development of literature in the first period of Lê Dynasty, Nguyễn Trai
  • 8. Development of narrative prose in the 15th and 16th centuries
  • 9. Poetry written in the Classical Chinese
  • 10. Scholars and literati of the 18th and 19th century (Lê Quý Đôn)
  • 11. The most famous literary monuments in Chữ Nôm script
  • 12. Vietnamese literatures of the 20th century
  • 13. Translations of Vietnamese authors into Czech and Slovak languages
Literature
    required literature
  • HLAVATÁ, Lucie and Ján IČO. Slovník vietnamské literatury. Edited by Mária Strašáková. 1. vyd. Praha: Libri, 2011, 350 s. ISBN 9788072774951. info
    recommended literature
  • Sources of the Vietnamese tradition. 2012. Edited by George E. Dutton, Jayne S. Werner and John K. Whitmore. New York: Columbia University Press.
  • Cuong Tu Nguyen. 1998. Zen in Medieval Vietnam: A Study and Translation of Thien Uyen Tap Anh. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press.
  • Lê Thành Khôi. 2008. Histoire et anthologie de la Littérature viêtnamienne des origines à nos jours. Paris: Les Indes Savantes.
    not specified
  • Polák, Josef. 1989. Literární věda: základy a přehled vývoje. Praha: SPN.
  • DURAND, Maurice M. – NGUYEN Tran-Huan. Introduction à la littérature vietnamienne. Paris: G. P. Maisonneuve et Larose, 1969.
  • Lê Hồng-Lý + Trần Hải-Yến (eds.). 2009. Nghiên cứu văn học Việt Nam: Những khả năng và thách thức. Literary Study in Vietnam. Possibilities and Challenges. Hà Nội: Nhà xuất bản Thế giới.
  • LÊ, Thành Khôi. Histoire et anthologie de la littérature viêtnamienne des origines à nos jours. Paris: Les Indes savantes, 2008, 603 stran. ISBN 9782846541497. info
Teaching methods
Lectures (according to the number and background of participants accompanied by authentic sources)
Assessment methods
Students of the study programme Vietnamese Studies: 1) three written tests during the course - at least 50 % of correct answers is needed to pass for final written examination; + 2) final written examination: at least 75 % of correct answers is required to pass the course. Students of other study programmes: only final written examination is compulsory: at least 50 % of correct answers is needed to pass the course.
Language of instruction
Czech
Follow-Up Courses
Further Comments
The course is taught annually.
The course is taught: every week.
The course is also listed under the following terms Spring 2022, Spring 2023, Spring 2024.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Spring 2025, recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/phil/spring2025/Vs6