Mark Adrian R. Enciso Mrs.

Maming

11 - DEMOSTHENES

Historical criticism, also known as the historical-critical method or higher criticism, is a

branch of literary criticism that investigates the origins of ancient text in order to understand "the

world behind the text". The primary goal of historical criticism is to ascertain the text's primitive

or original meaning in its original historical context and its literal sense or sensus literalis

historicus. The secondary goal seeks to establish a reconstruction of the historical situation of the

author and recipients of the text. This may be accomplished by reconstructing the true nature of

the events which the text describes.

Pira Sudham (Pira Canning Sudham), is an author of Thai descent. He was born in a

village in Isan in northeastern Thailand. At age fourteen, he left Isan for Bangkok to become a

servant to Buddhist monks in a monastery where he attended secondary school. Later, he entered

Triam Udom High School, before gaining a place at Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University.

He won a New Zealand government scholarship to read English Literature at Auckland

University and then Victoria University of Wellington, where his first story was published by

New Zealand's leading literary quarterly Landfall. Since then, Pira Sudham has been writing

short stories, poems, and novels in English. He has not produced any literary works in the Thai

language.She lived over twenty years in New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong and in the UK,

writing short stories, poems, and his first novel, Monsoon Country. Now he lives in his home

village in Isan, Northeastern Thailand.

 The first half of the novel, covering the life and education of an Isan peasant boy, was

beautifully written in places and gave a deep sense of the lives of the poorest of the poor in

Thailand's border regions with Lao and Cambodia. The novel progresses through the formative

years of the boy's life and shows Prem (the boy) interacting in a naive way with the tumultuous

political upheavals of early- to mid-1970s Thailand. Such progression reminded me, in parts, of a

David Copperfield narrative with many memorable characters along the way.

Monsoon Country by Pira Sudham is a novel from late 20 th century. It describes the

clashes between new and old valued, rural and urban Thailand. It covers years of change in

Thailand and makes a better understanding of the political turmoil in Thailand in the 21 st century.

It gives insights into Thai life, especially that of the poor rural northeast of Thailand, Issan

insights that few Westerners get to see, not even Thai Bangkokians.