Sang Chiwit (The Self-Made): Luang Wichit Wathakan’s Criticism against Literature for Life’s Sake

Abstract

ThisresearchstudiedLuangWichitWathakan’s Sang Chiwit (The Self-Made),aproduction of the political elite and development discourse. Although Sang Chiwit presents class issues and a divisive society, it proposes sustainable solutions through embracing the development discourse and improvement of human resources with a keen awareness of individual capacity. It is able to echo the State’s policy during the Cold War period and to pursue Luang Wichit Wathakan’s ideology of the middle class since his early literary career. In this way, Sang Chiwit is the political elite’s cultural production. It was created for challenging the art for life’s sake movement under the Marxist influence since the 1950s. The research findings thus encourage the revision of the history of modern Thai literature through contested terrains.

Keywords

• : literature for life’s sake
• thai novel
• luang wichit wathakan
• literature and politics