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| The three award-winners at the ceremony held in Hà Nội on Tuesday. — Photo courtesy of Japan Foundation |
Viet Nam News
HÀ NỘI — The 3rd Inoue Awards bestowed first prize on lecturer Phan Thu Vân from the HCMC Pedagogical University on Tuesday for her thesis about two novels by Japanese writers.
Vân was among three winners to be honoured at the ceremony, which was co-hosted by the Japan Foundation and the Inoue Yasushi Memorial Foundation in Hà Nội.
"I’m really happy and surprised because the contest attracts the best in the profession," Vân said. "I have researched Yasushi’s work for three years and the award will encourage me to continue my research on modern Japanese writers."
Vân’s thesis titled The Journey of Life and The Heritage of Memory in Inoue Yasushi’s Tonko and Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Buried Giant, addresses the messages in Yasushi and Ishiguro’s works, despite the fact they don’t relate with each other. Yasushi is one of Japan’s most prolific writers today, and started relatively late as a novelist, while Ishiguro is a Nobel Prize winner living in the UK.
Vân is one of the first Vietnamese researchers to study Yasush, and claimed fourth prize in 2016 and second place last year at the awards.
The second and the third prizes went to Nguyễn Thành Trung and Trần Thị Thục.
Trung’s thesis was titled The Variable Status of Magical Realism in Murakami Haruki’s Novels and Thục’s is Human Condition in Kobo Abe and Kenzaburo Oe’s Works From A Comparative Viewpoint.
The foundation was established in 1992 in memory of the Japanese novelist Yasushi to honour individuals who have made great achievements in historical, literary and artistic works. Yasushi is noted for his historical fiction novels, notably the two novelettes Ryoju and The Bullfight, which won him the top literary Akutagawa prize in Japan.
The contest was held to promote research into Japanese literature in Việt Nam, thereby contributing to strengthening co-operation between the two countries.
Previously, the foundation has granted awards to researchers from Japan, Australia and New Zealand. — VNS
