À la rencontre de deux cultures : l'influence de la littérature française au Viêt-nam

Résumé En

It is widely recognized that the fine arts occupy a privileged position in Vietnamese civilization. The influence of French literature thus plays a role of particular importance in Vietnam. It is fair to talk about a meeting of cultures which, although operating at different levels (missionary work, colonialism, public education), had a power and authenticity of which the final results are an object of intense and continuous study by culture experts. In this line of analysis, the article reveals the reasons for the efficiency of this acculturation and, indeed, the paradox of its "success". History has no doubt shown to what a great extent the writings and ideas of French moralists and novelists instigated unbelievable social developments in the fertile ground of Vietnam. The interaction of Vietnamese individuality with the French universalism was to bring about an unprecedented national development which was nurtured, for a long time, by changes in the realm of language itself : a revolution in writing and a linguistic revolution. Cartesian rationality manifesting itself in the area of literature inevitably led the Vietnamese people towards Marxist rationalism.