Marginal imprints: Provincial print culture and the politics of Thai literary history during the Cold War

Abstract

This article considers the significance of provincial print culture in challenging and expanding Thai literary history. Focusing on Siritham Publishing House in Northeast Thailand or Isan as a case study, the article examines how provincial print culture shaped the contested landscape of literary production and reception during the Cold War, when the category of regional literature emerged under the pretext of national integration. Drawing on the framework of publishing studies as well as existing scholarship on print culture in Thailand, it is argued that the literary corpus of Siritham’s publisher, Preecha Phinthong, helps shift scholarly attention away from a conventional literary history that tends to focus on the Bangkok-centric notion of Thainess. Instead, it encourages a more nuanced exploration of the processes of literary standardization and canon formation. Together with a historical examination of Siritham’s establishment, a close analysis of paratextual components of Preecha Phinthong’s publications and unpublished manuscripts challenges the rigid understanding of Isan regional identity in academic discourse and state policy during the Cold War. Specifically, the articulation of regional literary identity in Preecha Phinthong’s archive often involves a transnational relationship between Thailand and Laos that extends beyond the confines of Thai nationalism. Moreover, these paratexts constitute a space through which provincial publishers create their own interpretive frameworks for assessing the historical, linguistic, and aesthetic significance of regional literature, complicating the academic discourse of literary standardization. In addition to this counter-hegemonic vision, provincial print culture offers a more dynamic understanding of regional literature. The emergence of Siritham Publishing House coincided with the rise of Lao nationalism, during which the popularization of Lao literature via print technology traversed the Mekong River. In this context, Isan literary history can be viewed as the result of the interplay between Thai and Lao nationalism, characterized by contestation, negotiation, and mutual construction.