Translation as foreclosure: Siam’s rediscovery of Asia through the West in the early twentieth century

Phrae Chittiphalangsri
Chulalongkorn University

Negation is an enigmatic function of translation that has rarely been investigated. Instead of delivering the original text to the new language, translation also negates the incompatible in order to assert the validity of a target text by preventing access to the original. This form of negation is scrutinised in this article as an act of ‘foreclosure’, a term originated by Jacques Lacan and later adopted by Gayatri Chakravarty Spivak to describe the disappearance of the ‘native informant’ figure in European grand narratives even before it enters the Symbolic Order. The renditions of two European, oriental-themed masterpieces — The Mikado and Der Pilger Kamanita — into Thai show how translation forecloses the original text by repudiating the source altogether to allow the totality of the Thai language as an emerging Symbolic Order befitting its time. The foreclosure of the West in these ‘translations’ points to the unconscious desire and the anxiety for the Thai cultural identity which was repeatedly undermined throughout its contacts with Europe. Translation, in this sense, serves as a defence mechanism against the encroaching West.

Publication history

Date received: 18 February 2023

Date accepted: 11 September 2025

Published online: 9 October 2025

Table of contents

[L]anguage guards the unspeakable by speaking it, that is, by grasping it in its negativity.

Full-text access is restricted to subscribers. Log in to obtain additional credentials. For subscription information see Subscription & Price. Direct PDF access to this article can be purchased through our e-platform.

References

Agamben, Giorgio
1991 Language and Death: The Place of Negativity [orig. Il linguaggio e la morte: Un seminario sul luogo della negatività ]. Translated by Karen Pinkus and Michael Hardt. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Al-Kassim, Dina
2002 “The Face of Foreclosure.” Interventions 4 (2): 168–175. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Batson, Benjamin
1984 The End of Absolute Monarchy in Siam. Singapore: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chaloemtiarana, Thak
2009 “Making New Space in the Thai Literary Canon.” Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 40 (1): 87–110. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2018 Read Till It Shatters: Nationalism and Identity in Modern Thai Literature. Acton: Australian National University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chittiphalangsri, Phrae
2014 “The Emerging Literariness: Translation, Dynamic Canonicity and the Problematic Verisimilitude in Early Thai Prose Fictions.” In Translation and Global Asia: Relocating Cultural Production Network, edited by Uganda Sze-Pui Kwan and Lawrence Wang-Chi Wong, 207–242. Hong Kong: The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2019 “From Plagiarism to Incense Stick: The Making of Self and the Other in Thai Translation History.” In A World Atlas of Translation, edited by Yves Gambier and Ubaldo Stecconi, 105–124. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chongstitvatana, Suchitra
2006 การเดินทางของปัญญาและจินตนาการในกามนิตของเสฐียรโกเศศ-นาคะประทีป [ The journey of wisdom and imagination in Sathiankoset-Nakapratheep’s Kamanita ]. Bangkok: Research Division of Faculty of Arts Chulalongkorn University.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chulachakrabongse, Prince
2023 เจ้าชีวิต [Lord of life]. 15th ed. Bangkok: River Books.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chulalongkorn, King Rama V.
1966 เทศนาเรื่องนิทานมิกาทุระ [ Sermon concerning the tale of Mikathura ]. Bangkok: Rongphim Sophonphiphattanakorn.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Claborn, John
2014 “W. E. B. Du Bois at the Grand Canyon: Nature, History, and Race in Darkwater.” In The Oxford Handbook of Ecocriticism, edited by Greg Garrard, 118–131. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Corelli, Marie
1975 ความพยาบาท [orig. Vendetta! Or the Story of One Forgotten ]. Translated by Mae Wan [pseud.]. 2nd ed. Bangkok: Ongkarnkha khong Khurusabha.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Davis, Kathleen
2001 Deconstruction and Translation: Translation Theories Explained. Manchester: St. Jerome.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Derrida, Jacques
1981 Dissemination. Translated by Barbara Johnson. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1988 “Structure, Sign and Play in the Discourse of Human Sciences.” In Modern Criticism and Theory: A Reader, edited by David Lodge, 108–123. London: Longman.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fischlin, Daniel
1994 “Introduction: Negation, Critical Theory, and Postmodern Textuality.” In Negation, Critical Theory, and Postmodern Textuality, edited by Daniel Fischlin, 1–37. Dordrecht: Springer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Freud, Sigmund
1962 “The Neuro-Psychoses of Defence [orig. “Die Abwehr-Neuropsychosen”].” In The Standard Edition of The Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, edited by James Strachey, vol. 3 (1893–1899), 41–61. London: Hogarth Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gilbert, William S., and Arthur Sullivan
1997 “The Mikado.” In The Complete Plays of Gilbert and Sullivan. Project Gutenberg. https://​www​.gutenberg​.org​/cache​/epub​/808​/pg808​-images​.html
Gjellerup, Karl Adolph
1906 Der Pilger Kamanita: Ein Legendenroman [The pilgrim Kamanita: A legendary romance]. Frankfurt-am-Main: Rütten und Loening.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1911 The Pilgrim Kamanita: A Legendary Romance [orig. Der Pilger Kamanita. Ein Legendenroman 1906] Translated by John Logie. London: William Heinemann.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1960 กามนิต วาสิฏฐี [orig. The Pilgrim Kamanita: A Legendary Romance ]. Translated by Sathiankoset and Nagapradeep. Bangkok: Samnakphim Thaikhasem.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2025 “Gjellerup, Karl Adolph.” Encyclopedia of World Biography. Encyclopedia​.com. https://​www​.encyclopedia​.com
Gombrich, Richard
2006 Theravāda Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benares to Modern Colombo. 2nd ed. London: Routledge, pp. 37–42.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hutcheon, Linda
1995 Irony’s Edge: The Theory and Politics of Irony. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jaroenjitrkam, Prakong
2002 “กามนิต เพชรน้ำเอกแห่งวรรณกรรมแปลและวรรณกรรมศาสนา [Kamanita: The supreme diamond of translated literature and religious literature].” Vannavidas 2: 22–30.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lacan, Jacques
1977 Écrits: A Selection. Translated by Alan Sheridan. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1988 The Seminar of Jacques Lacan. Book 1: Freud’s Papers on Technique, 1953–1954 [orig. Les écrits techniques de Freud ]. Edited by Jacques-Alain Miller. Translated by John Forrester. New York: W.W. Norton.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1994 The Seminar of Jacques Lacan, Book XI: The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis (1964) [orig. Le séminaire. Livre XI. Les quatre concepts fondamentaux de la psychanalyse ]. Edited by Jacques-Alain Miller. Translated by Alan Sheridan. New York: W. W. Norton.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1998 Le Séminaire, Livre V: Les formations de l’inconscient (1957–1958) [The seminar, book V: The formations of the unconscious (1957–1958)]. Edited by Jacques-Alain Miller. Paris: Éditions du Seuil.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2005 Le Séminaire, Livre XXIII: Le Sinthome (1975–1976) [The seminar, book XXIII: The sinthome (1975–1976)]. Edited by Jacques-Alain Miller. Paris: Éditions du SeuilGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2006 Écrits: The First Complete Edition in English. Translated by Bruce Fink. New York: W. W. Norton.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Laplanche, Jean and Jean-Bertrand Pontalis
1988 The Language of Psychoanalysis. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lawankul, Suchada
1989 An Analysis of the Prose Diction in Kamanit. MA dissertation. Srinakarinwirot University.
Norman, K. R.
1991 Pali Literature. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Prachathai
2015 “อ่าน’ ทวิภพ’ จินตภาพแห่งการสูญเสียกับชาตินิยมแนวรักโรแมนติกของทมยันตี [Reading Tawiphop: Thommayantee’s imagination of loss and romantic nationalism].” https://​prachatai​.com​/journal​/2015​/04​/58770
Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty
1999 A Critique of Postcolonial Reason: Toward a History of the Vanishing Present. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2008 “The Politics of Translation.” In The Translation Studies Reader, edited by Lawrence Venuti, 2nd ed., 369–388. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stifel, Laurence D.
1976 “Technocrats and Modernisation in Thailand.” Asian Survey 16 (12): 1184–1196. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Taylor, Mark C.
1990 “Non-Negative Negative Atheology.” Diacritics 20 (4): 2–16. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Venuti, Lawrence
1995 The Translator’s Invisibility: A History of Translation. 3rd ed. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2012 “The Difference that Translation Makes: The Translator’s Unconscious.” In Translation Changes Everything, by Lawrence Venuti, 32–56. London: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Winthuphramanakul, Liam
1915 ความไม่พยาบาท [ The nonvendetta ]. Bangkok: Rong Phim Thai Na Saphan Yotse.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wyatt, David K.
1993 “The Kings’ Mikado.” The Journal of the Siam Society 81 (1): 131–137.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
 
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue