The Absent Father: a Vietnamese folktale and its French shadows

This paper discusses some variants of a Vietnamese folktale that we shall generically call “The Shadow of the Absent Father”. The Emperor Le Thanh Tong first refers to the story in a poem written during the fifteenth century. The earliest detailed record of the tale, “The Story of the Woman from...

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Main Author:	Aveling, Harry
Format:	Article
Language:	English
Published:	Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2017
Online Access:	http://journalarticle.ukm.my/11624/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/11624/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/11624/1/18694-52965-1-PB.pdf

id	ukm-11624
recordtype	eprints
spelling	ukm-116242018-05-03T01:30:23Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/11624/ The Absent Father: a Vietnamese folktale and its French shadows Aveling, Harry This paper discusses some variants of a Vietnamese folktale that we shall generically call “The Shadow of the Absent Father”. The Emperor Le Thanh Tong first refers to the story in a poem written during the fifteenth century. The earliest detailed record of the tale, “The Story of the Woman from Nam Xuong”i by Nguyen Du (1496-1527)ii, is to be found in the sixteenth century volume Truyen Ky Man Luc (A Casually Recorded Collection of Popular Tales,)iii. There are many French language versions of the tale in collections of Vietnamese legends made throughout the twentieth century.iv. We will focus here on two by the scholar and diplomat Pham Duy Khiem (1908- 1974), which are included in his books Légendes des terres sereines (Legends from Serene Lands, 1942)v and La jeune femme de Nam Xuong (The Young Woman from Nam Xuong, 1944)vi respectively. They are told in very different ways. I will argue that “The Shadow and the Absent Man”, from the earlier volume, is more consistent in style and content with Khiem’s other writing. The latter, very traditional version, “The Young Woman from Nam Xuong”, represents a way of telling the tale that is alien to his style and outlook, thus leading it to be eventually excluded from the canon of Khiem’s work. I will also suggest that the story bears some of the dynamics of his own family experience. Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2017-05 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://journalarticle.ukm.my/11624/1/18694-52965-1-PB.pdf Aveling, Harry (2017) The Absent Father: a Vietnamese folktale and its French shadows. GEMA: Online Journal of Language Studies, 17 (2). pp. 1-14. ISSN 1675-8021 http://ejournal.ukm.my/gema/issue/view/967
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Local University
institution	Universiti Kebangasaan Malaysia
building	UKM Institutional Repository
collection	Online Access
language	English
description	This paper discusses some variants of a Vietnamese folktale that we shall generically call “The Shadow of the Absent Father”. The Emperor Le Thanh Tong first refers to the story in a poem written during the fifteenth century. The earliest detailed record of the tale, “The Story of the Woman from Nam Xuong”i by Nguyen Du (1496-1527)ii, is to be found in the sixteenth century volume Truyen Ky Man Luc (A Casually Recorded Collection of Popular Tales,)iii. There are many French language versions of the tale in collections of Vietnamese legends made throughout the twentieth century.iv. We will focus here on two by the scholar and diplomat Pham Duy Khiem (1908- 1974), which are included in his books Légendes des terres sereines (Legends from Serene Lands, 1942)v and La jeune femme de Nam Xuong (The Young Woman from Nam Xuong, 1944)vi respectively. They are told in very different ways. I will argue that “The Shadow and the Absent Man”, from the earlier volume, is more consistent in style and content with Khiem’s other writing. The latter, very traditional version, “The Young Woman from Nam Xuong”, represents a way of telling the tale that is alien to his style and outlook, thus leading it to be eventually excluded from the canon of Khiem’s work. I will also suggest that the story bears some of the dynamics of his own family experience.
format	Article
author	Aveling, Harry
spellingShingle	Aveling, Harry The Absent Father: a Vietnamese folktale and its French shadows
author_facet	Aveling, Harry
author_sort	Aveling, Harry
title	The Absent Father: a Vietnamese folktale and its French shadows
title_short	The Absent Father: a Vietnamese folktale and its French shadows
title_full	The Absent Father: a Vietnamese folktale and its French shadows
title_fullStr	The Absent Father: a Vietnamese folktale and its French shadows
title_full_unstemmed	The Absent Father: a Vietnamese folktale and its French shadows
title_sort	absent father: a vietnamese folktale and its french shadows
publisher	Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
publishDate	2017
url	http://journalarticle.ukm.my/11624/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/11624/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/11624/1/18694-52965-1-PB.pdf
first_indexed	2023-09-18T20:00:46Z
last_indexed	2023-09-18T20:00:46Z
_version_	1777406832962174976

The Absent Father: a Vietnamese folktale and its French shadows

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