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Femininity and masculinity in three selected twentieth-century Thai romance fictions

Khuankaew, Sasinee 2015. Femininity and masculinity in three selected twentieth-century Thai romance fictions. PhD Thesis, Cardiff University.
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Abstract

The main purpose of this study is to examine a popular Thai genre of the novel, romance fiction, with a focus on the modes of subjectivity and discourses of femininity and masculinity to be found in Thai romance novels between the 1940s and 1990s. The thesis also seeks to locate the various socio-cultural contexts of Thai society, which influence the constitution of Thai gender relations and the transformation of gender norms. Additionally, it attempts to address the issue of the usefulness of Western theories of gender and romance, which are widely regarded in Thailand as tools of Westernization and new forms of colonialism. This study suggests that Thai gender relations are complicated, since there are several disparate aspects that influence the constitution of male and female subjectivity. Western influence is one of these aspects that help define femininity and masculinity, while domestic beliefs also play a salient role as palimpsests that are not easily erased. Thus, the representation of various modes of gendered subjectivity in romance fiction concurrently indicates both changes in and the reproduction of discourses that define an „essence‟ of gender identity that accords with traditional Thai cultural beliefs including the deep-rooted idea that the primary purpose of writing is didactic.

Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
Status: Unpublished
Schools: English, Communication and Philosophy
Subjects: P Language and Literature > PL Languages and literatures of Eastern Asia, Africa, Oceania
Funders: Thai Government Grant
Date of First Compliant Deposit: 30 March 2016
Last Modified: 08 Dec 2023 16:28
URI: https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/76730

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