The Emergence of A Child of the Northeast in the Capitalist World-Economy: Reading Isan/Thai Literature as World Literature
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This research article offers a mode of reading that challenges a parochial view of Kampoon Boontawee’s A Child of the Northeast (1976) as a repository of authentic Isan culture. Combining the theory of world literature by the Warwick Research Collective with the concepts of the bildungsroman and chronotope by M. M. Bakhtin, it argues that the novel’s coming-of-age narrative registers the child protagonist’s transition from a predominantly subsistence economy to the modern capitalist world-system, where he aspires to become a member of the bourgeoisie. In the novel’s chronotopic design, the formation of the child of the Northeast is mapped onto the development of Siam/Thailand as a capitalist society. Such a mapping culminates in the protagonist’s heartfelt recitation of a famous Thai verse, “Knowledge as Commodity,” which marks not only the integration of Siam/Thailand into the capitalist world-economy but also the uneven development in Siam/Thailand.
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