The Political and Social Concepts in the Short Stories : Phan Waen Fah Award 2016 - 2021

Abstract

The Phan Waen Fah Literature Prize is awarded to political literature in the category of short stories and poetry that express political opinions and support democracy as well as raise awareness about democracy in Thai society, is a widely recognized award in the field of short stories in the field of political literature initiated by the Thai Parliament. Thus, this research article aims to analyze the political and social concepts portrayed in the short stories from the Thai Parliament, Phan Waen Fah Award from 2016 to 2021. The study focused on the 17 short stories that won the first and second prizes which included the 6 stories that won the first prize, and the 11 stories for the second prize. This documentary analysis research employed the social critique technique using the lens of the notion of the relationship between humans, society, and the state to analyze the data.  The results found that the short stories winning the Phan Waen Fah Award were intense political literary works. They reflected the authors’ thoughts and concepts on political and social problems through the storylines that were strongly influenced by the political evolution, as they mirrored the ways of life and the political situations in Thailand. The events in the short stories portrayed various crucial social issues including social conflicts, education, Thai families, inequality, and beliefs. From the data, the political and social concepts could be classified into five aspects which were the concept of political and governing power, the concept of political participation, the concept of political practices and behaviors, the concept of civil rights and civics, and the concept of political conflicts.