Title : WOMEN, SEXUALITY AND POLITICS IN MODERN CAMBODIAN LITERATURE:

Author(s) : Klairung Amratisha

Pages : 76-91

Abstract in English : 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.