Book Review: Five Studies on Khun Chang Khun Phaen: The Many Faces of a Thai Literary Classic

Abstract

Among Thai traditional literatures, “Khun Chang Khun Phaen” is considered a star that has been widely mentioned and highly popular among readers. Such popularity means that it has engendered numerous adaptations in various forms, including screenplay, abridged prose, novel, movie, television series, comic, and animation. M.R. Kukrit Pramoj, a former prime minister who was also named a national artist in literature, has described in his collection of articles the value of “Khun Chang Khun Phaen” on studies of Thailand and the Thai people during a certain era that: “...“Khun Chang Khun Phaen” may as well be a record of the culture, the traditions, and the lifestyle of the Thai people - may I say, from the Ayuddhaya era to the reign of King Rama IV of the Rattanakosin era. This record is invaluable in the study of almost everything about the Thai people - from the form of government, the society, the culture, the traditions, and other details of life and lifestyle of the people in Thailand. “Khun Chang Khun Phaen” is, therefore, among the literatures that shall be preserved, and once preserved, studies should be conducted, and understandings sought, as much as possible from this literature... which can be compared to a great treasure.” “Five Studies on Khun Chang Khun Phaen: The Many Faces of a Thai Literary Classic.”, the latest book that collects articles about “Khun Chang Khun Phaen”, is edited by Chris Baker and Pasuk Phongpaichit, the latter of whom has translated “Khun Chang Khun Phaen” from Thai to English and won the A.L. Becker Southeast Asian Literature in 2010. The collection includes (1) “A Society Which Lacks Principle” by M.L. Boonlua Debyasuvarn, (2) “The Aggression of Characters in Khun Chang Khun Phaen” by Cholthira Satyawadhana, (3) “Khun Chang Khun Phaen and the Moral Landscape of the Three Worlds Cosmology” by Warunee Osatharom, (4) “Space, Identity, and Self-Definition: The Forest in Khun Chang Khun Phaen” by David Atherton, and (5) “The Revolt of Khun Phaen: Contesting Power in Early Modern Siam” the two editors themselves. Three out of five articles by Debyasuvarn, Satyawadhana, and Osatharom had been published before (in Thai and, in order to be included in the latest publication, translated into English by Baker and Phongpaichit), same as the piece by Baker and Phongaichit. Only the work by Atherton, which newly summarizes his master’s dissertation at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, has originally been written in English. The pieces by Debyasuvarn and Satyawadhana, written in the 1970s, were among the first attempts to critique Thai traditional literatures in a way that Western modern literatures had been critiqued. On the other hand, the pieces by Osatharom and Atherton, written after the year 2000, were intended to understand the texts of “Khun Chang Khun Phaen” and what these texts would like to represent, such as the government’s religious ideology early in the Chakri dynasty, the identity and the subjectivity in defining areas called “forests”, and a political reinterpretation with regards to the opposition of power. As I had earlier studied “Khun Chang Khun Phaen” in “Political Implication in “Sae Pha Khun Chang - Khun Phaen”, I feel that this book, a collection of articles pertaining to “Khun Chang Khun Phaen”, is a good start and a necessity to read for people who have just become interesting in examining this important Thai traditional literature. The readers would be drawn to see the development and some examples of the many perspectives that can be reflected upon this one literature over the past five decades, and eventually unwittingly invited to discuss and perpetually offer new perspectives.