Think in Thai, write in English: Thainess in Thai English literature

Abstract

Abstract: This study examines discourse strategies in literary texts written by two Thai English bilingual authors. The analysis shows that through similar processes, the authors create a writing style that may be termed as a Thai English variety. The literary texts are from two books that represent different periods of time: My Boyhood in Siam, an autobiography by Kumut Chandruang (1940), known to be the first published Thai English author, and Until the Karma Ends: A Plot to Destroy Burma by Pongpol Adireksarn (1996), a contemporary writer with many best-sellers. Based on the Kachruvian framework on contact literature, the following processes are involved in creating these two Thai English texts: transfer of religious, cultural and social elements; shift of old sayings, metaphors or fixed collocations; translation; lexical borrowing; reduplication; and hybridization. The two authors use strategies at the lexical and thematic levels (but not at the syntactic and stylistic levels), unlike bilingual authors from other cultures. Although the readership for literature in Thai English in Thailand remains small today, Thai English has potential to develop further since English continues to have a strong presence in the professional lives of many Thais.