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Haunting Nation: Supernaturalism and Lao-ness in the Siri Paiboun Crime Series |
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| รหัสดีโอไอ | |
| Creator | Panida Boonthavevej |
| Title | Haunting Nation: Supernaturalism and Lao-ness in the Siri Paiboun Crime Series |
| Publisher | Center for Research on Plurality in the Mekong Region (CERP) |
| Publication Year | 2561 |
| Journal Title | Journal of Mekong Societies |
| Journal Vol. | 14 |
| Journal No. | 3 |
| Page no. | 42-63 |
| Keyword | postcolonial crime fiction, Laos, nationalism, supernaturalism |
| URL Website | https://mekongjournal.kku.ac.th/ |
| Website title | Journal of Mekong Societies |
| ISSN | 1686-6541 |
| Abstract | This article is a study of Colin Cotterill's postcolonial crime series (2004-2016), employing the concepts of time, historical narrative and spectrality. Comprising eleven novels, it features Siri Paiboun, the national coroner of the newly-established Lao People's Democratic Republic. In the novels, not only does supernaturalism constitute a sign of repressed guilt, it also plays a crucial role in offering clues to Siri's unsolicited investigative enterprise. Nevertheless, supernaturalism transcends the fulfilment of personal needs. It helps reconfigure a shared consciousness among the Lao people, or Lao-ness, via history and time. Its haunting property discloses a possible coexistence of multiple temporalities, and, therefore, poses a considerable challenge to official historical narratives by allowing voices of the oppressed to be heard in counter-narratives. |
