Discourse on the Khmers in contemporary Thai fiction

Abstract

Motivated by the century-long up and down relations of Thailand and Cambodia, this study aims at analyzing the Thai ideology about the Khmers that underlie the images of the Khmers conveyed by various linguistic strategies in contemporary Thai fiction. The data were taken from randomly selected fiction from 1960 to 2011, the content of which is related to the Khmers. The result of the study reveals that there are ten types of linguistic strategies employed by the writers, e.g. lexical selection, epithet, metaphor/simile, allusion, presupposition, pronoun, negative sentence, adversative passive, citation and narrative techniques, to construct the images of and generate the ideologies about the Khmers. The images of the Khmer found in this study are divided into four groups: (1) Khom or the ancient Khmer: that Khom was powerful, that Khom is not the Khmers, and that Khom is mystical; (2) the Khmer leaders and soldiers: that the Khmer leaders and soldiers are corrupt, tyrannical and brutal, (3) the Khmers in general: that the Khmers in general are inferior to the Thais, that the Khmers in general tend to trigger problems and cause harm to the Thais, and that the Khmers in general are pitiful; and, (4) the Khmer royal family: that the members of Khmer royal family are graceful and respectable. The ideologies derived from these images are: (1) in- and out-group polarization as “we” and “others”, (2) Thai assumption about the greatness of Khom and the weakness of the ordinary Khmers in the present, except Khmer royal family, and (3) presumed Thai benevolence toward the pitiful Khmers.