THE SONG OF THE RIVERS BY NGUYỄN THẾ QUANG FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF “TEXT WORLD THEORY”

Authors

  • Tran Thi Nhat
  • Ho Linh Trung
  • Le Nguyen Thuy Duong

Keywords

modality, narrative, text world theory, The Song of the Rivers

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.54607/hcmue.js.23.4.5357(2026)

Abstract

This article applies “text world theory” to examine The Song of the Rivers by Nguyễn Thế Quang, a novel highly regarded in contemporary Vietnamese literature for both its artistic and cultural significance. The theoretical framework views a literary text as a living world embedded within a complex and distinctive linguistic system, in which each linguistic unit functions as a sign representing the ways the world is “interpreted” and constructed by agents within the text. Applying this framework to the analysis of narrative works enables readers and literary critics to gain deeper insights into the aesthetic qualities of linguistic poetics while also uncovering the system of latent meanings that underlies the artistic world painstakingly crafted by the writer.

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References

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Gavins, J. (2001). Text World Theory: A Critical Exposition and Development in Relation to Absurd Prose Fiction (anpublished Ph. D thesis). Sheffield, Sheffield Hallam University Press.

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Nguyen, T. Q. (2020). Khúc hát những dòng sông [A Song of Rivers]. Youth Publishing House.

Werth, P. (1995a). How to Build a World (in a Lot Less Than Six Days and Using Only What’s in Your Head), In K. Green (ed.). New Essays on Deixis: Discourse, Narrative, Literature. Rodopi, 49-80.

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In P. Verdonk and J. J. Weber (eds), Twentieth Century Fiction: From Text to Context. Routledge.

Published

2026-04-29

Issue

Section

Articles