SOAS Research Online

Abstract

The subject of this study is the drama Sang Thong. Chapter I serves as a general introduction in which the aims of the study are presented and the large number of Sang Thong specimens are reduced to a corpus of seven representative texts. Chapter II compares and contrasts the narrative, poetic diction and conventional topics as they appear in each of these texts, and it is demonstrated that although there are narrative and poetic similarities, each specimen is in a different manuscript tradition. A method of analysis is then proposed by which the "mode of composition," or a characterization of the way in which a text is written, can be obtained. The method is evolved in Chapters III-V by comparing what is termed the "structure," "versification" and "reading" of the two members of the corpus whose modes of composition are most dissimilar. One of these texts is attributed to Rama II. It is then argued that certain quantitative and qualitative traits which are found to be possessed by the Rama II text reflect a "prepared" type of composition, while those possessed by the other text reflect an "improvised" type of composition. In Chapter VI, the modes of composition of the remaining Sang Thong specimens are identified and compared to those of the two example texts. Other dramatic works are also examined to determine if there are indications of a Rama II-type of dramatic composition and if there is any correlation between the age of a text and the traits which are said to reflect the ''improvised". In the final chapter of Volume I, it is argued that an association may exist between ''improvised" and ''prepared" texts and oral and literary types of composition respectively. General remarks are then made concerning Rama II's ''popular" drama. Volume I, Part 2 contains the material from which the modes of composition of the corpus texts are derived. In Volume II, a complete translation of the Sang Thong text ascribed to Rama II and his court poets is presented.