Characteristics of satirical characters in Hoc Lac’s Nom poems

Abstract

Literary satire is an important part contributing to the appearance of Vietnamese medieval literature. In the late 19th century’s cultural decline at the transition beginning of the tumultuous Western - Chinese society, satirical poems in Nom script proved more and more useful in reflecting contemporary reality. Using stylistic research and structural analysis, the article approaches Hoc Lac satirical Nom poetry from the perspective of satirical characters. Research results show that satirical characters in Nom Hoc Lac poetry include two main groups of subjects, respectively, associated with the author’s spontaneous laughter and movement, specifically: (1) The satirical character is the author himself; (2) The satirical characters are the upper classes in society, including: ignorant civil servants and cliques of henchmen, cowardly selling mandarins; part of the people is infected with “Westernization” demand. Thereby, the article contributes to clarifying some outstanding features of the author’s satirical art style from the perspective of characters and helps poetry-loving readers realize the positive contributions of Hoc Lac in the competition national literature.