Papers by Kae Natawan
Manusya: Journal of Humanities, 2025
This article explores the significance of posthuman subjectivity and memory in Kazuo Ishiguro's N... more This article explores the significance of posthuman subjectivity and memory in Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go (2005). The narrative details the life of clones bred for medical donation, who are facing premature demise. Kathy H., the protagonist and narrator, has been criticized for her seeming passivity and submission to oppression. However, this inquiry contends that her narrative-propelled by her act of remembrance-is a mechanism formulated to reclaim the agency of the non-human other or posthuman subject. The study employs Deleuze and Guattari's concepts of 'desire' and 'becoming' to examine the clones' desires, which are constrained by their posthuman status. Walter Benjamin's idea of 'remembrance' is also used to analyze how memory facilitates the clones' tangential recovery of agency and alleviates their suffering. Through the analysis of Ishiguro's novel, the intricate dynamics of posthuman subjectivity and memory are uncovered.
Institute of Asian Studies Chulalongkorn University, 2021
The Ramayana is a well-known epic in India. It is also widely recognized in many other regions ar... more The Ramayana is a well-known epic in India. It is also widely recognized in many other regions around the world. The myriad forms of presentation of this epic allow for a collective audience's imagination to thrive and rise. Oppositional tellings of the original storyline make the epic even more intriguing as it caters to the 'other voices', who have alternative opinions of Rama and who happen to perceive the epic from differing ideological positions that are in contrast to the original version. Through the Ramayana's oppositional telling, this article is an attempt to represent the identity of Asura (the Deva's enemy) and also to demystify Rama's goodness by analyzing the portrayals of the two main characters, Ravana and Bhadra, in Anand Neelakantan's popular novel, Asura: Tale of the Vanquished (2012). Employing a subaltern studies approach and concepts of autonomy and lack of, the study reveals that Rama's goodness is in question as it merely reflects a Brahminical worldview that actually stands in contrast with those of the Asuras and other non-Brahmin-Hindu believers.
Manusya: Journal of Humanities, 2019
This paper contextualises a cultural construction of hegemonic masculinity and discusses ways in ... more This paper contextualises a cultural construction of hegemonic masculinity and discusses ways in which Thai action film heroes in historical and Muay Thai films are represented.
Action films are often criticized for being populist while having a weak political message. This ... more Action films are often criticized for being populist while having a weak political message. This paper contests this criticism by looking at a popular action film, The Protector, better known in Thai as Tom Yum Goong (2005, dir. Prachya Pinkaew), from a different angle. My analysis of the film, based on the Marxist concept of class, demonstrates that a political message needs not be framed exclusively through filmic dialogue, but also through the figuration of the main characters and the structural dichotomy of the narrative. Within this framework, Tom Yum Goong, while not a political film, can be read politically, thus conveying a political message critical to our (re)consideration of political representation in action films, which are often viewed as mechanisms of political conservatism.
Drafts by Kae Natawan
My very old paper on the atrocity against Dalits in Chundur, AP. India, prepared for class presen... more My very old paper on the atrocity against Dalits in Chundur, AP. India, prepared for class presentation. Hopefully, it would be useful for students interested in the plight of the Dalit in the South of India.
A paper submitted to one core course, "Contemporary India: Debates on Culture and Politics", duri... more A paper submitted to one core course, "Contemporary India: Debates on Culture and Politics", during my PhD years
Conference Presentations by Kae Natawan
E-Proceeding: Dwelling, Belonging&Becoming "อยู่ กลืน กลาย", 2020
In Hindu mythology, the Asura is popularly known as a demon or an enemy of the Deva, the deity of... more In Hindu mythology, the Asura is popularly known as a demon or an enemy of the Deva, the deity of the universe. However, in modern contexts of India, the Asura has been significantly associated with marginalized peoples in the south. This paper analyzes two forms of modern representation of the Asura including the “Asura Week”, a counter-cultural event organized by marginalized students at the English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU), Hyderabad, Telangana, India between 9-13 September 2013, and the Tamil film, “Raavanan” (2010, Dir. Mani Ratnam). This study seeks to understand how these representations function as both political and affective tools for the oppressed minorities, the Asura, to express themselves. It is found that within the context of Indian secularism, the Asura has resorted to their cultural history and experience of caste oppression to resist Brahmin hegemony and heal themselves from pain and humiliation.
Keywords: Asura, Hindu mythology, representation, affect
Books by Kae Natawan
Columbia University Press, 2023
While early Buddhists hailed their religion’s founder for opening a path to enlightenment, they a... more While early Buddhists hailed their religion’s founder for opening a path to enlightenment, they also exalted him as the paragon of masculinity. According to Buddhist scriptures, the Buddha’s body boasts thirty-two physical features, including lionlike jaws, thighs like a royal stag, broad shoulders, and a deep, resonant voice, that distinguish him from ordinary men. As Buddhism spread throughout Asia and around the world, the Buddha remained an exemplary man, but Buddhists in other times and places developed their own understandings of what it meant to be masculine. This transdisciplinary book brings together essays that explore the variety and diversity of Buddhist masculinities, from early India to the contemporary United States and from bodhisattva-kings to martial monks. Buddhist Masculinities adopts the methods of religious studies, anthropology, art history, textual-historical studies, and cultural studies to explore texts, images, films, media, and embodiments of masculinity across the Buddhist world, past and present. It turns scholarly attention to normative forms of masculinity that usually go unmarked and unstudied precisely because they are “normal,” illuminating the religious and cultural processes that construct Buddhist masculinities. Engaging with contemporary issues of gender identity, intersectionality, and sexual ethics, Buddhist Masculinities ushers in a new era for the study of Buddhism and gender. https://cup.columbia.edu/book/buddhist-masculinities/9780231210478 
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Papers by Kae Natawan
Drafts by Kae Natawan
Conference Presentations by Kae Natawan
Keywords: Asura, Hindu mythology, representation, affect
Books by Kae Natawan