Queering Win Lyovarin’s Democracy, Shaken, and Stirred: The Entanglement of Politics, Desire, and Transtextuality
Keywords:
Thai novel, queer, queer studies, paratextAbstract
Win Lyovarin’s Democracy, Shaken, and Stirred is a distinguished work, as it was graced by the S.E.A. Write Award in 1997 and continues to interest scholars and critics with its experimental literary devices. Nevertheless, the novel is categorized within the genres of historical novels and political novels. This research aims at alternatively analyzing the novel with special reference to the implicit queer desire between two male protagonists. The theoretical framework is based on Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick’s ideas of male homosocial desire and Gérard Genette’s concept of transtextuality. It is found that male homosexual desire is encoded in Democracy, Shaken, and Stirred through the symbolic system. The architextuality of the novel likewise suggests male exclusive space through the grammars of action-adventure novels, the western and wu xia genres. Furthermore, the novel’s paratexts, particularly the covers of different editions, are filled with phallic symbols in a misogynistic manner. All contribute to the materialization of male homosexual desire. This research is an example of an analytical queer reading of a Thai literary canon, which illustrates the potential of this approach to enrich the study of contemporary Thai literature.
References
Allen, G. (2022). Intertextuality (3rd ed.). Routledge.
Baldick, C. (2015). The Oxford dictionary of literary terms (4th ed.). Oxford University Press.
Boonkachorn, T. (2012). The stream of Trisilpa Boonkachorn’s writings. Sangsan Books.
Bunjanya, W. (2002). An analysis of presentation techniques in Win Lyovarin’s literary works. [Master’s thesis], Srinakharinwirot University.
Chotiudompant, S. (2016). Western literary theories of the 20th century. Chulalongkorn University Press.
Chunlawong, S. (2006). The history of Thai politics in Democracy, Shaken, and Stirred. P.E.N. International Thailand Journal, 37(1), 73-101.
Dantrakul, S. (1997). Decoding Win Lyovarin’s Democracy, Shaken, and Stirred. Wiwat.
Eawsriwong, N. (2004). Inferiority clinging on incapability. In R. Sujjapun (Ed.), The 25th anniversary of S.E.A. Write Awards: A collection of critical essays (pp. 565-569). P.E.N. International Thailand-Centre under the Royal Patronage of H.M. The King.
Eaksittipong, S. (2023). Feeling Chinese: A History of emotion of the Chinese in Thailand. Matichon.
Funnell, L., & Dodds, K. (2016). Geographies, genders and geopolitics of James Bond. Palgrave Macmillan.
Genette, G. (1997). Paratexts: Thresholds of interpretation. Cambridge University Press.
Kelly, S. M. (1995). Giggles and guns: The phallic myth in Unforgiven. Journal of film and video, 47(1/3), 98-105.
Kham Phaka. (2009). Democracy, Shaken, and Stirred: Please reduce facts. Read Journal, 2(1), 51-70.
Khaosod Online Hot Issues. (2024, April 27). Win Lyovarin proclaimed that the that the hot weather in Thailand is heavenly better than the cold weather in foreign countries. www.khaosod.co.th/special-stories/news_8198446
Lapsomboornanon, S. (2009). Reproduction and popularisation of Sua narratives in Thai society, 1917-1967. [Master’s thesis], Chulalongkorn University.
Lyowarin, W. (2002). The Black Book and the Red Leaves. 113
Lyovarin, W. (2005). Novels beside the screen. 113
Lyovarin, W. (2010). Democracy, Shaken, and Stirred (revised ed.). 113.
Lyovarin, W. (2016). 17th Parallel North. 113
Lyovarin, W. (2017). 16th Parallel North. 113
Lyovarin, W. (2018, January 4). Perhaps the author cannot write a love story. www.facebook.com/winlyovarin/photos/
a.1502062586736369/2016163938659562/?type=3&theater
Lyovarin, W. (2020). Forgotten histories 3. 113
Lyovarin, W. (2021). Forgotten histories 4. 113
Manakit, S. (2016). Boworadej rebellion in Thai historical novels. Damrong Journal, 15(1), 279-310.
Movieclips. (2015, April 22). Red River (4/11) Movie CLIP—Comparing Guns (1948). www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBe5T01yBUI
Murphy, B. M. (2017). Key concepts in popular fiction. Edinburgh University Press.
Patamaban, S. (2004). Democracy, Shaken, and Stirred: The third ideology on its political extreme. In R. Sujjapun (Ed.), The 25th anniversary of S.E.A. Write Awards: A collection of critical essays (pp. 556-564). P.E.N. International Thailand-Centre under the Royal Patronage of H.M. The King.
Prasannam, N. (2018). Luang Wichit Wathakan and the imperial romance. The Scholarly Communication Project, Faculty of Humanities, Kasetsart University.
Raksamani, K. (2004). Wannanai-winit. Mae Khamphang
Russo, V. (1987). The celluloid closet: Homosexuality in the movies (revised ed.). Harper & Row.
Sedgwick, E. K. (1993). Tendencies. Duke University Press.
Sedgwick, E. K. (2016). Between men: English literature and male homosocial desire (30th anniversary ed.). Columbia University Press.
Simpson, P. (2006). The Rough Guide to westerns. Rough Guides.
Sodsuk, N. (2004). Democracy, Shaken, and Stirred: A Thai political novel of the postmodern era. In R.
Sujjapun (Ed.), The 25th anniversary of S.E.A. Write Awards:
A collection of critical essays (pp. 556-564). P.E.N. International Thailand-Centre under the Royal Patronage of H.M. The King.
Somsith, O. (2009). The development of Win Lyovarin’s literary works. [Master’s thesis], Srinakharinwirot University.
Sujjapun, R. (2013). From Win to Prabda: The phenomenon of contemporary Thai literary criticism. Chommanard.
Supanvanich, I. (2015). The perspectives of Thai novels (3rd. ed.). Academic Publication Project, Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University.
Vespada, D. (2004). Democracy, Shaken, and Stirred: When a novel plays with politics, and the politics play with lives. In R. Sujjapun (Ed.), The 25th anniversary of S.E.A. Write Awards: A collection of critical essays (pp. 550-555). P.E.N. International Thailand-Centre under the Royal Patronage of H.M. The King.
Wiwatsorn, W. (1995). Wannawinit. Chulalongkorn University Press.
Yu, S. Q. (2012). Jet Li: Chinese masculinity and transnational film stardom. Edinburgh University Press.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
