Philippine E-Journals

Folklore and Fantasy Short Stories in Medieval Literature of Vietnam: Otherworld Journeys

Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan

 

Abstract:

To a very large extent, like the evolutionary development of the organism, once a certain literary genre is lost, some of its new factors will be introduced into the new genre of literature. Truyền kỳ, the first form of fantasy short stories of Vietnamese written literature during the medieval period from 10th to 19th centuries, also had all these characteristics when its formation came from the influence of literature and culture—general and specific creed in Sino Culture and especially from the folk narrative of Vietnam. My purpose in this essay focuses on learning about the effect of written folk literature through literary acculturation on the theme of journeys to other worlds from folktales to the fantasy short stories.