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THE CAMBODIAN LITERATURE IN FRENCH COLONIAL ERA
Cambodian literature based on the contemporary world, though still inspired by classical themes, began to emerge in the mid-19th century. However, not until 1908 - with the publication of Pantan Ta Mas (‘The Recommendations of Grandfather Mas’) - did the Khmer script appear in print.
Opposition from monks to mass production of Cambodian texts – thought to be a desecration of the written word, with its magico-religious powers – meant that Cambodian writing was slow to appear in its own country, and was first published in other French colonial centres before Phnom Penh.
Literature was not considered an art form until the 1930s and 1940s, when short stories, plays and novels began to appear, most of them published on the pages of magazines. Around this time the Khmer term for literature, aksar sastr, began to come into use. Modern Cambodian novels of this period included Rim Kin’s Sophat (‘Name of the Hero’), which in 1938 was turned into a popular modern theatre play, and Kim Hak’s Tek Tonle Sap (‘The Waters of Tonle Sap’), published in serial form in Khmer and French in Kambuja Surya Magazine, the Journal of the Buddhist Institute. This organisation, initially called the Royal Library of Cambodia, was created by the École Française d’extrême-orient (EFEO), and French academics were much involved in the choice of published material and in Khmer language scholarship in general.
Other leading novelists of this pre-war period included Nhok Them, Mith Sokhon and Nou Hach, whose works still remain popular today.
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