Value and Wisdom from Southern Literature Published in the Publication Era B.E. 2470-2520

Abstract

This article aims at presenting result of studying value and wisdom resulted from 32 stories of the southern literature published in the Publication Era B.E. 2470-2520. The study is documentary research emphasizing text interpretation based on theories of literature, folklore and history. The interview of people in the community was also conducted to get more information by collecting information towards literature having the same pattern with Wat Koh literature, composed as poem, having complete content, clearly identifying author’s name, published in the Publication Era B.E. 2470-2520. Most literature was well-known in southeast region, especially Nakhon Si Thammarat, Phattalung, Songkhla and Suratthani. The research fi ndings presented that this type of literature has seven values: refl ection of southern culture and society, legend recital towards local historic places, an enrichment of civilian’s consciousness, managing people and the environment’ relationship, being local nature learning center, sexual identity identifi cation in society and wisdom of literature transformation. Moreover, they also expresses in four types of wisdom: wisdom of verse style selection conforming to local culture, wisdom of easily understandable word use, specifi cally southern Thai language, wisdom of literature’s component adjustment serving southern social and cultural contexts and wisdom of content presentation as a guide for social development reflecting power of wisdom of Thai southern writers who are able to create literature to serve the local folks.