Abstract

Disturbing Conventions draws the study of Thai literature out of the relative isolation that has to date impeded its participation in the wider field of comparative and world literature. Predominantly penned by Thai academics, the collection decentres Thai literary studies in order to move beyond the traditionalist, conservative concerns of the academy which have, until relatively recently, foreclosed the use of “Western” theory in the study of Thai literature. The book introduces new frames of analysis to the study of Thai literature to bring it into dialogue with debates in wider fields and the world beyond its national borders. As a result, Disturbing Conventions offers an essential contribution to the comparative study of world literature and Asian cultural studies.
[The book] offers a unique collection of contemporary Thai literature and Thai society as a whole. . . .We must salute the talented editing work led by Rachel Harrison: the general introduction and introductions of each part are solid and particularly well documented and thoughtful. . . .Let us hope that this collection will quickly become an essential reference for those who want to study literature and Thai society.
Rachel V. Harrison is a Reader in Thai Cultural Studies in the Department of South East Asia at SOAS, University of London. She has published widely on issues of gendered difference, sexuality, modern literature and cinema in Thailand as well as the comparative literature of South East Asia. She is the co-editor, in collaboration with Peter A. Jackson, of The Ambiguous Allure of the West: Traces of the Colonial in Thailand (Hong Kong University Press and Cornell University Press). She is also editor of the journal South East Asia Research.