Modern Thai Historiography Revisited: Empty Time and Its Formation
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Abstract
Thai Historians often define the qualities of being “modern historiography” with monolithic criteria, as though, under the carpet of those changes, there was no basis of any intellectual adjustment. In other words, the formation of modern Thai historiography has been simplified until it left no room for inquiry at any range. With such concern, this essay has yoked the concept of historical temporality – that is based on the concept of empty and embodied times – to contemplate Rama IV’s writings as it has been described as the beginning of modern history writing in Thai society on the eve of intellectual conjuncture between Siam and the West. The main arguments of this essay are that although Rama IV’s writings were not modern historical writings in the modern western tradition, they posited themselves in attempting to establish the universal time and the singularity of an object or event of the “the past.” This characteristic is considered the crucial basis of the formation of modern Thai historiography.
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