Defan Doesn’t Recall An Interpretive Analysis
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
This review article examines Defan, an Oral Telling of the Lineage of Someone Whipping a Tiger, from Saiburi (เดฟั่น เรื่องเล่าของตระกูลคนเฆี่ยนเสือจากไทรบุรี), a 2021 SEA Write Award-winning novel by Siriworn Kaewkan. The novel’s 65 chapters explore themes of memory, lineage, and historical amnesia through the protagonist, Defan, who metaphorically tames a tiger. For simplicity, this article adopts the shortened title Defan Doesn’t Recall. It provides a biography of the author, a detailed summary with critical commentary, and an analysis of the novel’s complex structure and symbolic elements, complemented by diagrams illustrating the narrative’s spatial and kinship dimensions.
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
References
Baker, Chris & Pasuk Phongpaichit, ed. & trans. 2017. Five Studies on Khun Chang Khun Phaen: The Many Faces of a Thai Literary Classic. Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books.
―――. 2010. The Tale of Khun Chang Khun Phaen: Siam’s Folk Epic of Love, War, and Tragedy (Two Volumes). Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books.
Barmé, Scot. 1995. Kulap in Oz, A Thai View of Australian Life and Society in the Late 1940s. Clayton: Monash Asia Institute.
Chin, C.C. & Hack, Karl, eds. 2004. Dialogues with Chin Peng: New Light on the Malayan Communist Party. Singapore: Singapore University Press.
Chin Peng. 2003. Alias Chin Peng: My Side of History. Singapore: Media Masters.
Clark, John. 2020. A Thai Novel: From the Inside? On Veeraporn Nitiprapha, The Blind Earthworm in the Labyrinth, 2013, Translation 2018. Journal of the Siam Society 108(1): 25–38.
―――. 2022. Memories of the Memories of the Black Rose Cat by Veeraporn Nitiprapha, English Translation by Kong Rithdee, Bangkok: River Books, 2022. Journal of the Siam Society 110(2): 121–127.
Jory, Patrick. 2008. Luang Pho Thuat and the Integration of Patani. In Thai South and Malay North, Ethnic Interactions on a Plural Peninsula, ed. by Michael J. Montesano & Patrick Jory, 292–303. Singapore: NUS Press.
Kanokphong Songsomphan (กนกพงศ์ สงสมพันธ์). 2539 BE (1996 CE). แผ่นดินอื่น [Another Land]. Bangkok: Samnak Phim Nakhon.
Paget, Ralph & Devawongse Varoprakar. 1909. Treaty Between Great Britain and Siam: Signed at Bangkok, March 10, 1909. American Journal of International Law 3(4): 297–304.
Reynolds, Craig J. 2019. Power, Protection and Magic in Thailand: The Cosmos of a Southern Thai Policeman. Canberra: ANU Press.
Scott, James C. 2009. The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Suvanna Kriengkraipetch. 1995. Characters in Thai Literary Works: “Us” and “Others”. In Thai Literary Traditions, ed. by Manas Chitakasem, 130–147. Bangkok: Chulalongkorn University Press.
Van Roy, Edward. 2017. Siamese Melting Pot, Ethnic Minorities in the Making of Bangkok. Singapore: ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute.
Warunee Osatharom. 2017. Khun Chang Khun Phaen and the Moral Landscape. In Five Studies on Khun Chang Khun Phaen: The Many Faces of a Thai Literary Classic, ed. by Chris Baker & Pasuk Phongpaichit, 96–99. Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books.
Zamora, Lois Parkinson & Faris, Wendy B., eds. 1995. Magical Realism: Theory, History, Community. Durham: Duke University Press.
