A Study Of Marginal Cultural In "The Story Of DEFUN" From The Perspective Of New Historicism

The Story of DEFUN is the winner of the 2021 ASEAN Literary Award in Thailand.Through the third-person narrative perspective of the protagonist Defun,Siriworn Kaewkan,he intercepts fragments of Defun damaged memories to piece together the history of the migration of the southern thai community living around the Banthat Hills and Songkhla Lake,closely linking real historical events at national and international with the daily life of the southern thai community.The novel is a combination of fictional storytelling and real history,fully embodying the essence of New Historicism.From the relationship between New Historicism and marginal culture,this research analyses the characters of New Historicism,such as historicity and literature,the reification of a single history and the trivialisation of capitalised history,and the sense of marginality in history and literature,and thus deconstructs the marginal culture constituted by marginal space,marginal symbols and marginal characters in the novel.The marginal space under the deconstruction of the geographical environment is mainly embodied in the two mobile geographical spaces of Harness Tiger Village and Banthat Hills.The marginality of Harness Tiger Village focuses on the geographical migration of its construction,while the marginality of Banthat Hills mainly stems from the marginal identity of the Vagrant groups,revealing the New Historicism character of historicity and literariness.The symbols of marginality under the domination of mainstream discourse are mainly manifested in the three marginal symbols of "Javanese","witch doctor" and "Thai Communist",which represent language,belief and organisation respectively.The mainstream discourse uses its own authority and dominance to passively transform "Javanese","witch doctors" and "Thai Communist" into tools for maintaining the unity of the mainstream discourse by exaggerating their danger,marginal cultures under marginal symbols embodies the New Historicism character by the reification of a single history and the trivialisation of capitalised history.The marginal characters under the extension of psychological space are analysed mainly through the psychological activities of Uncle Java and Defun when they suffer injustice,analysis their exploration of self-identity and reflection on human behaviour.and their ’atonement theory’ and ’cave theory’ further explore the ultimate philosophical proposition of focusing on the self and human existence,marginal culture under marginalized characters demonstrates the New Historicism character of the marginal consciousness of history and literature.The Story of DEFUN is a rendition of the traumatic historical memory of the construction and disintegration of the southern Thai community,recreating the marginalised culture under the cover of mainstream Thai culture.At the same time,by writing about the historical plight of individuals forced to become marginalised,the novel gives marginalised groups a historical and literary stage to express their individual aspirations.The marginal culture,consisting of marginal spaces,marginal symbols and marginal characters,encompasses three aspects of New Historicism,fully demonstrating the historical care and humanistic concern of Thai novels for the narrative of lower case history in the context of New Historicism,extending the dimension of New Historicism’s interpretation of marginal culture in Thai literature,and at the same time testing and enriching the ideological connotation of New Historicism theory.