SURF'S UP: THE KOREAN WAVE AND THAI CINEMA
The effects of the ‘Korean Wave’ on contemporary Thai cinema are easily felt but seldom officially acknowledged. Indeed, while the Korean film-related media platforms eagerly report on the growing fascination of the Thais with Korean pop-culture, in Thailand, the phenomenon is more likely to be openly discussed by fans than by academics, or members of the film and entertainment industry. One reason for that may be the fact that the relatively recent international recognition of Thai cinema coincides with the renewed interest in the debate on the nature of plagiarism and media piracy in the region. As a result of that, any discussion of cross-cinematic influences is likely to be misconstrued as an accusation that one film simply copies another, and as such is often avoided. This paper will examine Korean influences on contemporary Thai cinema in terms of genre development, narrative structure and co-production. It will discuss the emergence of the strong ‘masculinised’ heroine in Thai comedies, re-configuration of the horror, comedy and action thriller genres, changes in the narrative strategies of 21st century Thai films, and the results of creative co-production between Thailand and Korea.
Published in The Korean Wave in Southeast Asia: Consumption and Cultural Production. Eds. Mary J. Ainslie and Joanne B.Y. Lim. Petaling Jaya: SIRD, 2015.
THAID UP IN KNOTS: MAKING SENSE OF THAI SOCIO-CULTURAL VALUES
With the coming of the industrial age, European model of knowledge began to favour the scientific method that relied on collecting empirical data and testing previously formulated hypotheses by various techniques that involved the principles of reasoning. European colonialism successfully “exported” the belief in the supremacy of reason and the objectivity of science to the colonies. Similarly, the encroaching globalisation relies to a great extent on the universal acceptance of Euro-centric rationality as the preferred method of making sense of the world. Still, there are also countries like Thailand, that have never been colonised, nor have risen to the position of a significant world power. Surely, we can argue that the notion of colonialism includes economic imperialism and there is no denying Thailand’s dependence on the foreign capital. At the same time, however, while obviously influenced by foreign fashions, Thai socio-cultural values cannot be treated purely in terms of post-colonial heritage, and their apparent irrationality and incompatibility with the Western system of sense-making should not be merely seen as a result of cultural hybridization. This article attempts to make sense of Thai culture by suggesting that Thai socio-cultural values evolved irrespectively of the Western principle of rationality. With this in mind, this paper discusses the representations of “Thainess” in Thai media, commercial and publicistic advertising, literature, film, and critical theory and the way these representations reflect the cultural values underpinning Thai society and the Thai making sense of the universe. These representations, confusing to a great majority of outsiders, are frequently criticised for their apparent lack of sense, logic, or any recognisable structural patterns; in short they are deemed as failing to deliver a coherent message. At the same time, however, when judged on their own terms, they present us with an independent value system, whose evaluations of sense, non-sense and common sense developed irrespectively of Western rationality.
Published in The Surplus of Culture: Sense, Common-sense, Non-sense. Eds. E. Borkowska and T. Burzynski. Newcastle Upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2011.
TRANSGRESJA I EKSTAZA: GOTYK JAKO FORMA TEORII
Choc niewatpliwie Gotyk wciaz funkcjonuje w naszej terminologii najczesciej w odniesieniu do sredniowiecznej formy architektury sakralnej (gotyckie katedry), poszukiwanie gotycyzmów w literaturze i kulturze, zwlaszcza w relacji do wywodzacej sie z okresu Romantyzmu tzw. „powiesci gotyckiej,” wpisalo sie juz na stale do 20-wiecznej teorii literatury. Gotyk jako nowa specjalizacja, badz nawet dyscyplina naukowa wyodrebnil sie na dobre w latach 80-tych 20 wieku i nie przestaje sie rozwijac. Poczatkowo publikacje promujace gotycka estetyke mogly wydawac sie przypadkowe – z teoretycznego punktu widzenia nie odbiegaly one niczym od popularnych metodologii utylizujac strukturalistyczne i post-strukturalistyczne teorie i ukierunkowujac je na konkretnych gatunkach literackich (18 i 19-wieczna powiesc gotycka, 19-wieczna literatura sensacji, wspólczesne opowiadania grozy itp.). Wkrótce jednak okazalo sie, ze jako kategoria Gotyk jest klopotliwym wynalazkiem gdyz z latwosci mozna go odniesc do wielu odrebnych gatunków literackich oddalonych od siebie zarówno w czasie jak i w przestrzeni. Pierwsza fala publikacji skupiajacych sie glównie na poszukiwaniu gotyckich tropów i nie do konca udanych próbach klasyfikacji Gotyku jako gatunku literackiego doprowadzila do sporej ilosci ciekawych wniosków natury teoretycznej i do wyodrebnienia sie stale rosnacej grupy „gotycystów” widzacych w Gotyku szanse na naukowa specjalizacje. To z kolei pozwolilo na przeniesienie uwagi z tekstów czysto literackich na szerzej rozumiane teksty kulturowe: wizualne (film, sztuka, teatr, spektakl) i popularne (muzyka, gry komputerowe, subkultury), dzieki czemu Gotyk objawil sie nam jako ponad-gatunkowa kategoria estetyczna, zas gotycka estetyka stala sie rozpoznawalna niezaleznie od gatunku, dyscypliny, formy i tresci. Kontynuujac wspomniana tradycje, niniejszy artykul proponuje rozpoznanie gotyku (dla zróznicowania od poprzednich kategorii pisanego mala litera) jako forme teorii uzbrajajaca czytelnika/odbiorce w narzedzia sluzace interpretacji tekstów niekoniecznie definiowanych uprzednio jako gotyckie. Gotyk, rozumiany jako metodologia teoretyczna, pozwala nam na przeniesienie punktu nacisku z tekstu na czytelnika/odbiorce i umozliwia nam na odniesienie wspomnianej terminologii do niezaleznych tekstów wytworzonych w kulturach oderwanych od Anglo-Amerykanskiej literackiej tradycji Gotyku.
Published in Polish in Pogranicza Teorii Literatury. Ed. E. Rychter. PWSZ AS: Walbrzych, 2010.
DISINTEGRATION OF IDENTITY - IDENTITY OF DISINTEGRATION: NEW EUROPEAN DECADENCE
The article addresses the notion of the so-called Gothic identity seen as a popular alternative identity resulting from the glorification of disease and suffering. It describes Gothic as a literary/cultural trend characteristic of the turn of the century (18th-19th-20th century) and incorporating post-revolutionary disillusionment (political/industrial/technological/cultural revolutions) and anxiety about the unknown felt at the times of change. The article focuses on the notion of the Gothic disease and decadence understood in terms of a peculiar aesthetic ideal of the European culture of the 1990s.
Article in Polish. Original title: "Rozpad tozsamosci - tozsamosc rozpadu. Nowa dekadencja europejska."
Published in Kultura Dialogu. Eds. E. Borkowska and A. Lyda. Katowice: WSZMiJO, 2004.
PAIN INTO PLEASURE, OR, ON THE HORROR OF CREATION. NOTES ON READING CLIVE BARKER’S THE GREAT AND SECRET SHOW
The article offers a reading of Clive Barker’s The Great and Secret Show novel in line with the Barthesian model of text interpretation. It focuses on the notions of the author-reader relationship and the pleasure of interpretation. The article compares a number of reader/artist types as found in the book with the view to presenting their mutual dependency and demonstrating that each of them can reach understanding of their identity only through admitting the existence of the other. Finally, once again returning to the theme of “the death of the author,” the article suggests the reworking of the theme in terms of the artist’s conscious self-sacrifice.
Published in (Aesth)etics of Interpretation: Essays in Cultural Practice. Eds. W. Kalaga and T. Rachwal. Katowice: Wydawnictwo US, 2000.