Studies of Prosody in Thai Literary Works from 1977-1987

Abstract

The study of theses on Thai literature from 1977–1987 that focused on metrical versification revealed that instead of dealing with the prosody per se, most of them were concerned with the investigation into this feature as literary components or writing styles. With an attempt to describe each type of the prosodic patterns in the works under study, those studies were more like a source of information. There is a scarcity of studies examining the congruency of the use of metrical versification for presentation of the subject matter. Questions that remain unanswered involve the role of prosody in Thai literary works. Only the description of the prosodic patterns from textbook, along with examples from the works under study, was presented in those theses. A thesis that aims at building new knowledge should concern itself with a thorough study of prosodic development in a particular work, a comparison of different types of prosody, or a study of uniqueness of the prosody prevalent in the works. The overall purposes of the studies of prosody in Thai literary works in this decade included three aspects : to analyze the literary uniqueness of a particular work or author, to determine the literary value of the works under study, and to provide information regarding common characteristics of the prosody used in contemporary literature, including time of writing and backgrounds of the authors.