Women, Sexuality and Politics in Modern Cambodian Literature
Klairung Amratisha
aklairung@hotmail.com
Chulalongkorn University, Thailand
Abstract

This essay aims to explore the political messages found in the work of Soth Polin, one of Cambodia’s influential writers in the 1970s. Soth’s short story, Sramol Ptī Oey..Khluon Ūn Rahaek [My Dear Husband…My Body Was Torn Apart] illustrates how Cambodia was in a state of physical and moral decay during the Vietnam War as a result of attacks from Vietnamese Communists and American influence over the Cambodian leaders during the Vietnam War. In Soth’s stories, pornographic, philosophical and political elements are artistically interwoven. The author uses women’s bodies and sexuality as both a site of patriarchal control and as a site of negotiation between the female subject and the patriarchal power. The feminised body of Cambodia symbolizes the political oppression of foreign powers and resistance to these powers. Soth’s text shows the continuity of traditional concepts and new creativity in modern Cambodian literature.

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