Metaphor, Sexuality and the Teaching of Thai Literature
Khon Kaen University
ABSTRACT
Writing in a genre with as taboo a subject as sexuality in Thai literature could only be accepted by using metaphoric style because the issue of sex is viewed as an embarrassing subject and one not to be discussed publicly in Thai society. The erotic scene was one of the important elements in traditional Thai literature. Most of the great Thai classical literature had erotic scenes, all written by male writers and widely accepted as canonical literary works. As eroticism was an important element of Thai literature, it was reconstructed in texuality process through different periods of time and became a compilation of cultural textuality. This study examines the Thai erotic literature written in verse by male writers from the early Ayuddhaya period to the Rattanagosin period, chronologically. The result of the study revealed the re-production of metaphoric love making scene texts in Thai literature over different time spans related to other texts of the same kind in some way or another. However, the sexual metaphors were found to be challenging for the new generation students of Thai literary classes.
KEYWORDS
Metaphor, Thai, Literature, Sexuality