Chuyến đi Bắc Kỳ năm Ất Hợi (The Voyage to Tonking in the year At-hoi), and Thầy Lazarô Phiền (Mr. Lazaro Phien): Textual characteristics and contributions to the development of Quoc ngu literature in the late 19 th century

Abstract

Chuyến đi Bắc Kỳ năm Ất Hợi (The Voyage to Tonking in the year At-hoi) (1876), written by Trương Vĩnh Ký, and Thầy Lazarô Phiền (Mr. Lazaro Phien) (1887), written by Nguyễn Trọng Quản, are regarded as the pioneers of Vietnamese literary works composed in the Vietnamese national script. The present paper aims to closely examine these two works, to recognize and clarify their textual characteristics, and to identify their contributions to the Vietnamese national script, literature and culture. The characteristics and contributions are studied in two aspects: the writer (the individual) and the cultural environment (the circumstance and the community).