Nguyễn Huy Thiệp

Nguyễn Huy Thiệp (Hanoi, 29 April 1950 – 20 March 2021) was a Vietnamese writer.^[1] He has been described as Vietnam's most influential writer.^[2] In 1992, before Bảo Ninh (1993) and Dương Thu Hương (1996), he was the first to write a major novel taking the gloss off the "American War" experience.^[3]

Works

“Muối của rừng” (The Salt of the Jungle)^[4]

In 1987 “The Winds of Hua Tat” appeared in Van nghe, a weekly edition of the Vietnamese Writers Association. “The Winds of Hua Tat” was a book of 10 short stories, all of them displaying the real-life society of socialism in Vietnam. Then, in 1988 Van nghe, published three historical short stories, “Sharp Sword”, “Fired Gold” and “Pham tiet” and “Chastity.” All three of these stories used prominent figures in Vietnam’s history to question the previous Marxist leaders. “Fired Gold” is based on the Vietnamese emperor from 1802-1820 Gia Long, who Huy Thiep blames in the story of losing Vietnam to the French.^[5]

References

^ Thu-Huong Nguyen-Vo The Ironies of Freedom: Sex, Culture, and Neoliberal Governance in Vietnam 2008 Page 207 "Thiệp's social criticism often took aim against the feminine embodiment of market greed as social realities, the revelation of which called into question the party's epistemological monopoly since the demise of Nhân Văn-Giai Phẩm."
^ Linh Dinh Night, Again: Contemporary Fiction from Vietnam - 2011 "Often overlooked in the buzz surrounding Nguyen Huy Thiep — Vietnam's most influential writer — is his exceptional ear for the language. Thiep's sophisticated yet earthy fiction is enlivened by many memorable phrases culled from ordinary ..."
^ Christina Schwenkel -The American War in Contemporary Vietnam: 2009 "In contemporary literature, popular novels by Dương Thu Hương (1996), Nguyễn Huy Thiệp (1992), and Bảo Ninh (1993) have contributed to an emerging ..."
^ Karen Thornber Ecoambiguity: Environmental Crises and East Asian Literatures 2012 Page 533 "The Vietnamese writer Nguyễn Huy Thiệp's (1950–) short story “Muối cúa rừng” (The Salt of the Jungle) provides an important corollary to Miyazawa's tale. In the Vietnamese narrative a hunter who kills a monkey is awakened by the monkey's ."
^ Healy, Dana, and David Smyth. “Nguyen Huy Thiep.” Southeast Asian Writers, vol. 1, 2009, pp. 225–225.

[1] Thu-Huong Nguyen-Vo The Ironies of Freedom: Sex, Culture, and Neoliberal Governance in Vietnam 2008 Page 207 "Thiệp's social criticism often took aim against the feminine embodiment of market greed as social realities, the revelation of which called into question the party's epistemological monopoly since the demise of Nhân Văn-Giai Phẩm."

[2] Linh Dinh Night, Again: Contemporary Fiction from Vietnam - 2011 "Often overlooked in the buzz surrounding Nguyen Huy Thiep — Vietnam's most influential writer — is his exceptional ear for the language. Thiep's sophisticated yet earthy fiction is enlivened by many memorable phrases culled from ordinary ..."

[3] Christina Schwenkel -The American War in Contemporary Vietnam: 2009 "In contemporary literature, popular novels by Dương Thu Hương (1996), Nguyễn Huy Thiệp (1992), and Bảo Ninh (1993) have contributed to an emerging ..."

[4] Karen Thornber Ecoambiguity: Environmental Crises and East Asian Literatures 2012 Page 533 "The Vietnamese writer Nguyễn Huy Thiệp's (1950–) short story “Muối cúa rừng” (The Salt of the Jungle) provides an important corollary to Miyazawa's tale. In the Vietnamese narrative a hunter who kills a monkey is awakened by the monkey's ."

[5] Healy, Dana, and David Smyth. “Nguyen Huy Thiep.” Southeast Asian Writers, vol. 1, 2009, pp. 225–225.

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