This is an example of how literary tours can deepen the reading experience. I used the literary tour of a famous Thai historical crime novel, Kaholmahoratuek (กาหลมหรทึก) in 2018 as a case study.
This article is part of the International Master's Programme in Children's Literature, Media, and Culture, "The Promotion of Reading" Major (Barcelona Pathway). I particularly love this book so much and I recommend that anyone interested in SEA history and Dan Brown-ish crime stories give it a try. There is still no English translation for the book, but seriously, this one is lit. It's not only witty and well-researched, and also gives you amazing historical trials to follow the next time you visit Bangkok, the capital of Thailand.
Why Literary Tour?
As actual sites are the bridges between different periods (Turner-Bisset, 2005), walking along literary routes can geographically and historically visualize the book’s settings, making the story more engaging, comprehensible, and memorable. Visiting real places full of historical and cultural details also helps readers unwrap references that they may not have focused in the book, inspiring them to read and learn further. In this essay, I show how “Kaholmahoratuek” (กาหลมหรทึก) literary tour (2018) in Bangkok, Thailand promoted not only the active reading of the homonymous novel but also learning beyond the pages.
What is Kaholmahoratuek about?
Setting in Bangkok’s old-town area during World War II, Kaholmahoratuek (Prapt, 2014) presents five serial murder cases, in which the arrangement of the crime scenes is the clue to crack the secret-code poetry (one of many forms of Thai poetry, called Gonlabot—กลบท) leading to the murderer.
The poster of Kaholmahoratuek tv series (2018)
With simple writing-style fused with references from a real community, the book has the potentials to promote cultural and social study (Bishop, 1990; Cotton&Daly,2015), including history and other past narratives (Bortolotti & Hutcheon, 2007; Hoster et al., 2018), among readers from middle school onward. The book’s inspiration for Thai poetry and geography study was highlighted as many people shared Bangkok maps and various poetry patterns online to help each other solve the case before the book’s TV adaptation (2018) ended. However, these discussions still focused only on mystery-solving, not discovering the story’s historical and cultural richness.
The map of crime scenes that clues readers to the secret-code poem deciphering.
Enrich Reading Experience with the historical Trail
The story’s historical background, including several cultural points, was left untouched until Kaholmahoratuek literary tour (2018) was held. From a historian guide, the tour participants learned about Thai politics before and during the World War II and picked up local history– e.g. the old Bangkok demography, food, lifestyle, innovation, art, and architecture– from historical artifacts and cultures still preserved in the visited community.
During the walk, the author also shared with them his data collecting process and methods to integrate history into fiction. The writing techniques revelation can inspire more reading into history and its utilization in writing. After the tour, many participants shared their experience online, drawing in new readership to the novel, generating more topics of discussion among them, and inspiring posterior tours of the same route.
Samples of fan-made maps and theories shared in online communities
The literary tour map.
This example proves that a literary tour can encourage readers to actively connect their reading with wide areas of knowledge. Feeling that literature permeating throughout daily-life settings can also inspire deeper study and more artistic presentations of the community ones are in, leading to wider engagement inside and outside the communities in preserving local memories for the next generations.
Reference
Primary text
Pipatpattanaprapt, C. (2014). Kaholmahoratuek. Amarin Publishing. Bangkok.
Secondary texts
Bishop, R. S. (1990) Mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors. Perspectives. 6 (3), ix–xi.
Bortolotti, G.R. & Hutcheon, L. 2007, "On the Origin of Adaptations: Rethinking Fidelity Discourse and "Success": Biologically", New Literary History, vol. 38, no. 3, pp. 443-458
Cotton, P. and Daly, N. (2015) Visualising Cultures: The ‘‘European Picture Book Collection’’ Moves ‘‘Down Under’’. Children’s Literature in Education. 46:88–106
Hoster Cabo, B., Lobato Suero, M.J. and Ruiz Campos, A. M. (2018). ‘Interpictoriality in Picturebooks’. In: B. Kümmerling-Meibauer. & Taylor & Francis Group 2018, The Routledge companion to picturebooks, Routledge, an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, Abingdon Oxon. pp. 91-102. Available from: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781315722986/chapters/10.4324/9781315722986-10 (Last accessed 19th April 2020).
Turner-Bisset, R. & ProQuest (Firm) (2005) Creative teaching: history in the primary classroom, David Fulton Publishers, Abingdon, Oxon.
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