The Liberating Function of Metafictionality and Storytelling in Uthis Haemamool’s Juti

Abstract

Drawing on key theoretical concepts and propositions regarding the social and political role of literature, this paper argues that Thai author Uthis Haemamool’s novel Juti (2015) can be seen as a metafictional text that advocates the liberating function of literature. The metafictional strategies employed crucially function to foreground the relationship between fiction and ‘reality’ and to underline the need for different literary modes that can better reflect contemporary concerns and crises. By directing the reader’s attention to the fictionality and authorial manipulation of literary narratives, the novel helps shed light on the possible fictionality of the everyday world and the fact that, in the world outside fiction, individuals also mediate their experiences and make use of narratives in a way that resembles the construction of imaginary worlds in fiction. Furthermore, the employment of oral storytelling devices for a counter-hegemonic purpose serves to destabilize and denaturalize dominant ideologies and grand narratives of contemporary Thailand, particularly the ones that sustain the hierarchical power structure. The reading framework is informed by studies in metafiction and counter-narratives as well as Ruth Levitas’s conceptualization of utopia.