Đặng Thân

Đặng Thân
Pen name Đặng Thân
Occupation Writer, poet
Period 2004–present
Notable works Cyber Ghost, short stories collection, 2008; Tiền vệ phụ âm thư (avant-garde alliteration calligraphy, 2009); 3.3.3.9 [Fragments of Earthy/Naked Souls], a novel, 2011; Hetero-reasonings & Homo-portraits, 2013; No Sense, poetry, 2014

Đặng Thân is a notable bilingual poet, fiction writer and essayist, based in Vietnam.

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."[1]

He is, of course, highly appreciated by the Vietnamese elite. There he is regarded "the typical figure of Post-Doi Moi Literature".[2] He is considered "the best humourist ever" and even an "awesomely brilliant genius".[3] Unfortunately, it has been repeatedly said that leading governmental departments in Vietnam instructed the "state-controlled" literary circle that his works were "harmful". From 2008 up to 2011, all publishing houses there had not been allowed to print any book of his for no righteous reason, and official state-run newspapers had been ordered to leave him in the dark.

Đặng Thân’s officially-printed works have been widely recognised and created the utmost important turning-point in writing style of Vietnamese literature.


Biography

Born in Hạ Long City[4] 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.[5] 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.[6]

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.[7] 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,"[8] 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 “idiosyncracy in contents and writing styles.”[9] It is the first time in the history of Vietnamese literature that a book conveys “the aesthetics of vulgarity” and “parody in literary criticism,”[10] especially it brings about “the panoramic way of reading literature,” opening profound dimensions and multi-layers of all literary works and authors.

Works

Short Stories

Novels

Essays

Poetry

Criticism

Notes

  1. ↑ Stephen Morison Jr. (2009). "Demilitarized Zone: Report From Literary Vietnam". Poets & Writers Magazine, Sep/Oct 2009 (New York, USA)
  2. ↑ Đỗ Lai Thúy (2010). "Đặng Thân: the Typical Figure of Post-Doi Moi Literature". Văn Chương Việt.
  3. ↑ Nguyễn Hồng Nhung (2010). "Notes on Đặng Thân".
  4. ↑ 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."
  5. ↑ Publication of Ma Net (Cyber Ghost), Vietnam Literature Project.
  6. ↑ Tiền vệ Phụ âm Thư Calligraphy, Vietnam Literature Project.
  7. ↑ Publication of 3.3.3.9[Những Mảnh Hồn Trần], Vietnam Literature Project.
  8. ↑ Lã Nguyên (2012). "Sàn diễn 'đa thoại' của Đặng Thân".
  9. ↑ Phong Lê (2013). “Nghĩ về tương lai của phê bình”.
  10. ↑ Nguyễn Đăng Điệp (2013). “Mỹ học của cái thanh & mỹ học của cái tục”.
  11. ↑ James W. Borton (American senior writer and editor of Asia Times and The Washington Times).
  12. ↑ Stavros Carapetis (Australian scholar/sculptor).
  13. ↑ Hoàng Ngọc Hiến (2008). "Reading Ma Net". Văn Chương Việt.
  14. ↑ Phạm Lưu Vũ (2008). "The Best Humourist Ever". Văn Việt.
  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".

References

Further reading

External links

Vietnamese

English, French, Portuguese

Video Clips

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