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Cambodian Literature: From Angkor to Year Zero and Beyond

literature review in khmer

Photo: Sharon May, “Bayon, Cambodia” (2009)

It has been forty years since the black-clad Khmer Rouge marched into Phnom Penh during the Khmer New Year of April 1975 and evacuated the city, sending its inhabitants on foot to work and starve in labor camps in the countryside, initiating “Year Zero.” Literature, art, and religion were abolished. The Khmer language itself was changed. The ability to read and write, knowledge of a foreign language, even the wearing of eyeglasses, could get one killed. During the regime, between 1975 and ’79, nearly two million people—out of a population of only seven million—died of starvation, disease, torture, and execution. According to one estimate, less than one percent of intellectuals survived. Most estimate about ten percent of artists survived; the same applies to books. Out of six hundred librarians, only three remained. During the Khmer Rouge period the Buddhist monasteries—traditional repositories of learning and literature—were ransacked and converted to prisons. The National Library was used to raise pigs. In the words of activist Vannath Chea, “The arts are like women: the first to be degraded in poverty and war.”

Cambodia is a small heart-shaped country—about the size of the US state of Washington—set in between Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and the Gulf of Thailand. In the northwest lies the great lake of the Tonle Sap, on whose edges rise the magnificent temples of Angkor. This civilization flourished between the ninth and fifteenth centuries, and recent archeological mapping has revealed that Angkor was in fact the largest pre-industrial city in the world. In 1863, Cambodia became a protectorate of France; it gained independence in 1953, only to become inadvertently caught up in the American war in Vietnam. The US heavily bombed Cambodia in the 1960s and ’70s, before the Khmer Rouge took over in 1975.

While Cambodia is famous for the “killing fields” of the Khmer Rouge and for the temples of Angkor, it is less known for its writing. Nevertheless, Cambodia possesses a rich literature—both oral and written—and had a thriving community of writers before the war. This issue includes examples of this material, rarely translated into English, from the Angkor era through the Khmer Rouge regime and afterward.

The earliest recorded writings in Cambodia are stone inscriptions in Sanskrit, dating back to the fifth century. We are fortunate to have a translation of one of these inscriptions, composed at the pinnacle of the Angkor era by Queen Indradevi, celebrated as one of Cambodia’s first known female poets. Her poem (c. 1190–1200 AD) was carved into the Great Stele of Phimeanakas. Indradevi’s words are brought to life by translator Trent Walker, who chants the queen’s Sanskrit in Khmer style.

By the fourteenth century, Khmer had replaced Sanskrit as the official language. Classical Khmer represents the metaphysical union between Indian Brahmin and native Khmer of Cambodia’s creation myths. It combines the multisyllabic vocabulary of Pali and Sanskrit with the largely monosyllabic, highly alliterative and onomatopoeic native vocabulary. Classical Khmer poetry has about fifty forms, using complex meters and intricate rhyme schemes.

The epics, composed in thousands of stanzas, could take days to chant. These classics were recorded between the fourteenth to nineteenth centuries. The most famous epic poem in Cambodia is the Reamker , the Cambodian version of the Indian Ramayana, which has been recited, sung, and danced in various forms for centuries. Other epic poems include Lpoek Angkor Vat (The Story of Angkor Wat), which celebrates the Angkor temples; the Jataka tales, stories of the former lives of the Buddha; and the Tum Teav, based on a seventeenth-century tragic love story, considered Cambodia’s Romeo and Juliet. The classic tale of separated lovers would become the subject of many of Cambodia’s later modern novels.

Modern Cambodian literature began to emerge in the early nineteenth century. Khmer poet and scholar Ukñā Suttantaprījā Ind (1859–1924) was a pivotal figure. His poem  Journey to Angkor Wat describes his travels to attend King Sisowath’s arrival at the Angkor temples in 1909. The manuscript represents a transitional period in literature, between “tradition” and “modernity.” Possibly commissioned by the King, it was discovered posthumously, and the first edition was published by the Buddhist Institute. In the excerpt translated here, the poet’s recounting of the river journey becomes a meditation on life, desire, and impermanence.

The Buddhist Institute, which printed Ukñā Suttantaprījā Ind’s famous Gatilok and other literature, became the nation’s first publisher in the early 1900s. Khmer-language newspapers and journals first appeared in the 1920s, although the first Khmer-owned and operated newspaper, Naggaravatta (Angkor Wat) did not appear until 1937. The first Khmer modern novel also appeared in the 1930s. A new Khmer term was invented for the novel, pralomlok, which means a story that is written to seduce the hearts of human beings. Many of these early works featured ill-fated lovers and contained moral and social critique. As was common for the era in Southeast Asia, and for writers such as Dickens and Tolstoy earlier in Europe, most novels were first serialized in newspapers or journals. Among the early novels still read today are The Waters of Tonle Sap by Kim Hak, The Tale of Sophat by Rim Kim, The Rose of Pailin by Nhok Them, and Wilted Flower by Nou Hach. Literature became linked with national identity, as quoted in the journal Kambuja Surya , “If its writing disappears, the nation vanishes.”

Following Cambodia’s independence in the mid-twentieth century, literacy, education and publication expanded. Songwriting became a literary form. This was the heyday of Cambodian rock and roll, the “golden” voice of Sinn Sisamouth, and a vibrant, sophisticated community of writers and intellectuals, fluent in both Khmer and French, who were creating new Khmer literature and national consciousness. This literary community was also threatened by censorship, disappearances, assassinations, the closing down of publications, and the war that was spilling over from neighboring Vietnam. After the 1970 coup, which deposed Prince Sihanouk, civil war ensued between the Khmer Republic and the Khmer Rouge.

Kham Pun Kimny, featured in this issue, wrote about urban and political life in a surreal, satirical style during this tumultuous time. He was one of the first writers Soth Polin hired for his newspaper Nokor Thom . “Crazy for Wandering” comes from Kham Pun Kimny’s collection, Control Yourself: Don’t Cry, Don’t Laugh—Philosophies of the Strange and Absurd. Not long after the book’s publication, he disappeared.

On April 17, 1975, less than four decades after the publication of Cambodia’s first novel, the flourishing of Cambodian literature and scholarship abruptly ended with the Khmer Rouge takeover. Writing of a personal nature was completely prohibited. To dare to write risked one’s life. The diary of Oum Sophany is one of the few personal accounts known to have been written while the Khmer Rouge were in power. Laura Jean McKay’s essay, “The Keeper,” featured in this issue, tells the story of Oum Sophany and quotes passages from her remarkable diary.

On January 7, 1979, Vietnamese-backed troops ousted the Khmer Rouge. The handful of artists and writers who survived found themselves in a shattered country. The nation’s infrastructure had been destroyed, and the land seeded with mines and unexploded ordnance. There was widespread poverty and illiteracy. In addition, writers faced censorship, years of lost education, and a lack of printing presses; spare parts, ink, and even paper were hard to come by.

Considering all this, it is surprising that anyone wrote at all. But people did, among them Oum Sophany. Almost as soon as the Khmer Rouge regime ended, a new literature began to appear: novels were handwritten, often in pencil, on the cheap graph-lined paper of student notebooks, then photocopied or recopied by hand and rented out by the day at market stalls. Many memoirs also have been published over the decades, both inside and outside of Cambodia.

As for the former generation of writers, we are fortunate to have the work of three who survived the war and continue to write: U Sam Oeur, Kong Bunchheoun, and Soth Polin.

U Sam Oeur began singing poems as a child while herding water buffalo and received his MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop in 1968, after which he returned to Cambodia. He survived the Khmer Rouge years by feigning illiteracy and pretending at times to be deaf and dumb. “I could not speak,” he says. “Even though people asked, Are you deaf? Are you mute? I always shook my head. There were no words. Just work and work. No talking. No looking at anyone. No looking at the sky, nothing.” He translated Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass into Khmer and is one of the first Cambodian poets to write in free verse. He believed this break from the rigid structures of classical Khmer poetry was necessary in order to convey the sorrow of the war. Even so, he still chants his poetry in traditional Khmer style. In this issue he is featured chanting with rap artist praCh in a unique poetic collaboration. His prose piece, “Silkworms,” recalls a time in his youth when he helped his mother raise silkworms during the Japanese occupation of Cambodia from 1942 to 1943.

Kong Bunchheoun, born in Battambang province, began his long writing career as a novelist, playwright, poet, and lyricist in the 1950s in Phnom Penh. He escaped execution during the Khmer Rouge time thanks to a cadre who had read his novels and testified to his “profound sense of social justice.” He continues to be one of Cambodia’s most prolific writers. “The Shade of the Tenth Coconut Tree” is among the many songs he wrote for Sinn Sisamouth in the 1970s inspired by the Sangkae River.

Cambodia’s strong oral tradition of poetry and storytelling is carried on today by traditional artists such as the bluesy, improvisational chapey master Kong Nay, known as the Ray Charles of Cambodia, and by a younger generation of spoken-word and rap artists, among them praCh. Called “Cambodia’s first rap star” by Newsweek, praCh was born in Cambodian refugee camps at the end of the war. In the tracks featured in this issue, he collaborates with Master Kong Nay and poet U Sam Oeur. 

Soth Polin learned to read and write from his great-grandfather, the poet Nou Kan, and began writing novels, short stories and philosophical tales in the 1960s. He survived the Khmer Rouge because he had fled for refuge to Paris after a friend’s assassination in 1974; he lived in France for a decade before going to the U.S. “When you lose your country, you lose everything,” he said. “If you are a writer, you no longer have the echo of your readers.” In France, he survived by driving a taxi. He published one novel in French, The Anarchist , an excerpt of which is featured in this issue.

The devastation of the Khmer Rouge period continues to impact writers today. Writers still must contend with high illiteracy rates, lack of availability of books, lack of mentors, scarcity of publishers and the absence of a central publication distribution network. Some have turned to online publishing. Many self-publish their work, through photocopies or on Facebook and blogs. Others write video scripts and song lyrics. Government-sponsored literary prizes and nongovernmental organizations provide some support. The Nou Hach Literary Project publishes Nou Hach Literary Journal, conducts literary awards, and holds creative-writing workshops and conferences. PEN Cambodia also supports writers through workshops and publication. 

The Center for Khmer Studies is instrumental in Khmer scholarship. The Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam), under the direction of Youk Chhang, has gathered hundreds of thousands of documents, photos, films, and interviews, as well as published several books, including translations of world literature into Khmer, and the famous Tum Teav into English.

In addition, an increasing number of Cambodian filmmakers are making their mark, foremost among them award-winning Rithy Panh, who helped create the Bophana Center in Phnom Penh, which preserves Cambodia’s film, photographic and audio history. Named for Rithy Panh’s film Bophana: A Cambodian Tragedy , which tells the story of the forbidden love letters of Hout Bophana and Ly Sitha, the center also trains Cambodian filmmakers, many of whom have won awards in their own right. 

The resilience of Cambodian writers, past and present, cannot be overstated. The loss of family, friends, mentors, education, country, home—even of paper, printing presses, and ink—none have stopped Cambodians from pursuing the illusive, seductive and demanding vocation of writing. “I hope our art continues. I think it will survive,” Soth Polin says. “There will be another generation of writers. But right now, what we have lost is indescribable. Khun Srun, Hak Chhay Hok, Chou Thani, Kem Sat . . . They are gone . . . What we have lost is not reconstructable. An epoch is finished. So when we have literature again, it will be a new literature.” 

Some of the material in this essay was drawn from “In the Shadow of Angkor: A Search for Cambodian Literature” and author interviews that first appeared in In the Shadow of Angkor: Contemporary Writing from Cambodia (Manoa: An International Journal/University of Hawai‘i Press, 2004). 

© Sharon May. All rights reserved.

Sharon May researched the Khmer Rouge regime for Columbia…

Sky of the Lost Moon

The keeper: oum sophany, the anarchist.

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Women and Political Leadership in Cambodia - Literature Review

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This review considers literature in English on women and leadership in Cambodia. It was undertaken in 2018 in preparation for the Public Perceptions of Women as Leaders research to be conducted by Cambodian women’s rights organisations in partnership with International Women’s Development Agency (IWDA). The focus of the literature is on women and political leadership; however, women’s activity in social and economic spheres is also of interest. The review was updated in October 2019 to reflect changes.

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The Myth of Angkor as an Essential Component of the Khmer Rouge Utopia

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  • Henri Locard 7  

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One of the reasons the Democratic Kampuchea regime was more brutal than other communist regimes may partly originate from the grandeur of the Angkorian era in the Khmer Rouge’s (KR) megalomaniac, utopian imagination. Was this modelled on an illusory future or on an imagined past? Even before the KR seized power, they managed to fashion a bizarre amalgam of royalty, revolution, and past glory through the propaganda trip made by Norodom Sihanouk to Angkor in March 1973. Soon after seizing power on April 17, 1975 they organized a three-day victory celebration within the precincts of Angkor Wat temple and spared the conservation team in the evacuation of Siem Reap. Angkor and the greatness of its past civilization entered the revolutionary rhetoric and fed the megalomania of the leaders. More specifically, the revolutionaries were convinced that Angkor owed its prosperity to the achievements of their forebears who were believed to have blanketed the entire territory with an intricate irrigation network. The “hydraulic city”––a term introduced in the 1960s by the French archaeologist at Angkor, Bernard-Philippe Groslier––had become a hydraulic country. During the KR foreign visitors were granted visits to Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom, as well as visits to some of the grand reservoirs and dams built during the regime. These, along with the Potemkin villages erected in the area, served to eclipse the immense suffering of the populace. Democratic Kampuchea became a laboratory experiment for a form of revolutionary neo-colonialism that has its roots in the West––a Marxism-Leninism revised by Lenin, Stalin, and later, Mao. The KR period became an ugly caricature of the “civilizing mission” and used an incoherent jumble of ideas borrowed from the West.

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King Ang Duong in a letter to Napoleon III dated November 25, 1856.

“Our race lived in cities over which my dynasty, my family, reigned, while your forebears were wandering westwards seeking lands where their barbarity could feed itself” (translated H.L.), original text: “Notre race [aryenne] habitait les villes sur quoi régnait ma dynastie, ma famille, alors que vos aïeux erraient vers l‘ouest cherchant des terres où leur barbarie pût se nourrir.”

Received on November 5 via personal communication with Julio Jeldres, Sihanouk’s official biographer in 2011. The Vietnamese would not allow the Chinese to accompany Sihanouk on the tour.

Received on May 10, 2011 via personal communication with Claude Jacques.

The Lyon Police Laboratory was founded in 1910 by my grandfather, Edmond Locard.

According to art historian Danielle Guéret, what everyone believes––namely, that the towers of Angkor Wat are represented on the Cambodian flag––is not quite true. The five towers represent Mount Meru, the residence of the gods: The central tower represents Çiva, the supreme deity, who is superior to all other gods, flanked by Brahma on his right and Vishnu on his left.

Editor’s note: In 2006 Peter Fröberg Idling published the Swedish book Pol Pot’s Smile. A Swedish Travel through Cambodia of the Red Khmer (published in German in 2013). Here, the author describes in detail how the four travelers became victims of perfectly staged Khmer Rouge propaganda.

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Locard, H. (2015). The Myth of Angkor as an Essential Component of the Khmer Rouge Utopia. In: Falser, M. (eds) Cultural Heritage as Civilizing Mission. Transcultural Research – Heidelberg Studies on Asia and Europe in a Global Context. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-13638-7_9

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literature review in khmer

A New Asian American Boom: A Reading List of the Cambodian American Experience

Bunkong tuon recommends anthony veasna so, vichet chum, sokunthary svay, and more.

I feel a cultural shift in the way the publishing world is accepting Cambodian American stories. In 2021, Ecco Press posthumously published the groundbreaking story collection, Afterparties , by Anthony Veasna So, opening new doors for Khmer American writers. The next year the University of Hawai’i Press published a treasure trove of writings by Cambodians in Srok Khmer and in the diaspora, and 2023 saw the publication of three major books by Cambodian Americans.

In short, we are witnessing a boom in Cambodian American literature.

I’ve been waiting for this moment for some time now. I grew up Khmer on the East Coast in the 1980s, and like many new Americans, was surrounded by white teachers, white students, and mainly read books by white authors. Instinctively, I knew that literature was my way out of the depression and alienation I felt. I wanted to tell my story and have people know what I was going through as a Cambodian refugee in America. I craved books by and about my people.

In the early 1990s I discovered books by survivors of the Cambodian Genocide. Testimonial autobiographies by Someth May, Haing Ngor, and Pin Yathay, as well as memoirs of child survivors like Chanrithy Him and Loung Ung, all document the atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge while bearing witness to the suffering of the Cambodian people.

These books helped me, a child survivor of the genocide, understand what happened in Cambodia and what my uncles, aunts, and grandparents went through. But they weren’t enough. We are more than one story. I needed to know what happened to us in America.

My new novel Koan Khmer is a bildungsroman about an orphaned refugee who was saved by literature, and it is in conversation with the authors below because it presents a perspective of Khmer life in the States. By no means is the list below exhaustive. Rather, these books were chosen because they were published in the past several years and depict the diverse experience of Cambodians in America—a small sample of the boom in Cambodian American literature that the 2020s have brought.

Afterparties: Stories - So, Anthony Veasna

Anthony Veasna So, Afterparties: Stories

  Anthony Veasna So creates a broad network of characters in his debut collection, in which not every narrator is marked by the Cambodian Genocide. We Cambodian American readers recognize our world in So’s stories: businesses like the donut shop, the video store, the garage shop, owned by Khmer elders and sometimes run by their children.

We see oums and mings going to the wat (Cambodian Buddhist temple), bringing food to monks and receiving blessings from them. We see second-generation characters grappling with their elders on issues of home, culture, and identity. These stories seem like they were written for So himself and Cambodian Americans like him: not for white America.

Sadly, So passed away before his debut collection came out. Ecco published his second collection, Songs of Endless Repeat: Essays and Outtakes , in 2023.

Kween - Chum, Vichet

Vichet Chum, Kween

Vichet Chum is a Cambodian American actor and playwright. His debut novel, Kween , is told from the perspective of a queer second-generation Cambodian American student Soma Kear. This YA novel tackles immigration and deportation, diversity and inclusion, Cambodian history and culture.

The Cambodian Genocide is only a facet of Soma’s story as the novel takes place in Lowell, MA. Soma experiences what most high schoolers experience: friendship, romance, social media, family dynamics, and conflicts at school.

Ultimately, the novel is about Soma finding her voice and living up to her Khmer name as she navigates her father’s deportation, an overbearing older sister, and first love.

Put It on Record: A Memoir-Archive - Svay, Sokunthary

Sokunthary Svay, put it on record: a memoir-archive

put it on record: a memoir-archive is a critical inquiry on what it means to be a Cambodian American in this global, multi-faceted, media-saturated world. In this hybrid collection, Sokunthary Svay uses a tapestry of memoir, personal essays, poems, photographs, letters, the Khmer alphabet, memos and newspaper ads, to map out Cambodian America, from stories about her parents to a meditation on the work of Cambodian artist Joe Bun Keo, essays on Black-Asian solidarity and pan-Asian coalition to postpartum depression, music, and operas.

In the title work, Svay aims to put on record Cambodian American history, culture, and identity that has been absent far too long from the American archive. Svay’s voice, throughout this hybrid collection, is fierce, intelligent, brave, as she sings a Cambodian America that we Khmers dream about.

Ma and Me: A Memoir - Reang, Putsata

Putsata Reang, Ma and Me

Ma and Me is a memoir by journalist Putsata Reang, whose family left Cambodia on a naval ship with three hundred other refugees before the Khmer Rouge takeover. Reang was a sick and dying baby whose mother nursed her back to life. She grew up in Corvallis, Oregon, where she feels this double debt to the mother who gave her life and saved her.

Not wanting to disappoint her traditional mother, Reang hides her queer identity. Ma and Me is beautifully told, honest, and powerful, as Reang considers gender, feminism, queerness, and the patriarchy in Cambodian culture, as well as exploring war, immigration, PTSD, generational trauma, and survivor’s guilt.

Ultimately, the book is about finding a space, a home, for the author to live as her authentic and true self.

Out of the Shadows of Angkor: Cambodian Poetry, Prose, and Performance Through the Ages - Walker, Trent

Sharon May, Christophe Macquet, Trent Walker, Phina So, Rinith Taing, Out of the Shadows of Angkor

Out of the Shadows of Angkor is a follow-up to In the Shadows of Angkor , a special issue of Mānoa on Cambodian writings, published by the University of Hawai’i Press in 2004 . Like the previous collection, Out of the Shadows of Angkor is a labor of love, a collaborative effort on the part of the editors and guest editors, as well as an act of literary retrieval, restoring and translating Cambodian literature, including works that were destroyed by the Khmer Rouge.

For Khmers in the diaspora and English readers, this collection is a treasure trove of Cambodian literature, beginning with poetry carved in the stones on Angkor temples to epic poems and modern novels. The collection ranges between verse, prose, performance pieces, and a graphic novel by Khmer writers in the diaspora—which is why this collection is included here.

Lulu in the Sky - Ung, Loung

Loung Ung, Lulu in the Sky

This is an honorable mention because Lulu in the Sky came out in 2012, a rare case of a major press publishing a representation of Khmer American experience long before the literary boom. The autobiography completes Ung’s trilogy, with First They Killed My Father gaining such a success that it was made into a Netflix film directed by Angelina Jolie. Her second book, Lucky Child , details Ung’s return to Cambodia to be reunited with a sister who was left behind after the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime.

Lulu in the Sky exclusively focuses on Ung’s life in America, where she tries to fit in American high school and college while suffering from PTSD. Ung finds healing in love and her work as a human rights activist. Mark Priemer, who courts Ung, is patient and sympathetic as he supports Ung in her journey to recovery and healing.

______________________________

Koan Khmer - Tuon, Bunkong

Koan Khmer   by Bunkong Tuon is available via Curbstone Press.

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  • How to Write a Literature Review | Guide, Examples, & Templates

How to Write a Literature Review | Guide, Examples, & Templates

Published on January 2, 2023 by Shona McCombes . Revised on September 11, 2023.

What is a literature review? A literature review is a survey of scholarly sources on a specific topic. It provides an overview of current knowledge, allowing you to identify relevant theories, methods, and gaps in the existing research that you can later apply to your paper, thesis, or dissertation topic .

There are five key steps to writing a literature review:

  • Search for relevant literature
  • Evaluate sources
  • Identify themes, debates, and gaps
  • Outline the structure
  • Write your literature review

A good literature review doesn’t just summarize sources—it analyzes, synthesizes , and critically evaluates to give a clear picture of the state of knowledge on the subject.

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Table of contents

What is the purpose of a literature review, examples of literature reviews, step 1 – search for relevant literature, step 2 – evaluate and select sources, step 3 – identify themes, debates, and gaps, step 4 – outline your literature review’s structure, step 5 – write your literature review, free lecture slides, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions, introduction.

  • Quick Run-through
  • Step 1 & 2

When you write a thesis , dissertation , or research paper , you will likely have to conduct a literature review to situate your research within existing knowledge. The literature review gives you a chance to:

  • Demonstrate your familiarity with the topic and its scholarly context
  • Develop a theoretical framework and methodology for your research
  • Position your work in relation to other researchers and theorists
  • Show how your research addresses a gap or contributes to a debate
  • Evaluate the current state of research and demonstrate your knowledge of the scholarly debates around your topic.

Writing literature reviews is a particularly important skill if you want to apply for graduate school or pursue a career in research. We’ve written a step-by-step guide that you can follow below.

Literature review guide

Prevent plagiarism. Run a free check.

Writing literature reviews can be quite challenging! A good starting point could be to look at some examples, depending on what kind of literature review you’d like to write.

  • Example literature review #1: “Why Do People Migrate? A Review of the Theoretical Literature” ( Theoretical literature review about the development of economic migration theory from the 1950s to today.)
  • Example literature review #2: “Literature review as a research methodology: An overview and guidelines” ( Methodological literature review about interdisciplinary knowledge acquisition and production.)
  • Example literature review #3: “The Use of Technology in English Language Learning: A Literature Review” ( Thematic literature review about the effects of technology on language acquisition.)
  • Example literature review #4: “Learners’ Listening Comprehension Difficulties in English Language Learning: A Literature Review” ( Chronological literature review about how the concept of listening skills has changed over time.)

You can also check out our templates with literature review examples and sample outlines at the links below.

Download Word doc Download Google doc

Before you begin searching for literature, you need a clearly defined topic .

If you are writing the literature review section of a dissertation or research paper, you will search for literature related to your research problem and questions .

Make a list of keywords

Start by creating a list of keywords related to your research question. Include each of the key concepts or variables you’re interested in, and list any synonyms and related terms. You can add to this list as you discover new keywords in the process of your literature search.

  • Social media, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, TikTok
  • Body image, self-perception, self-esteem, mental health
  • Generation Z, teenagers, adolescents, youth

Search for relevant sources

Use your keywords to begin searching for sources. Some useful databases to search for journals and articles include:

  • Your university’s library catalogue
  • Google Scholar
  • Project Muse (humanities and social sciences)
  • Medline (life sciences and biomedicine)
  • EconLit (economics)
  • Inspec (physics, engineering and computer science)

You can also use boolean operators to help narrow down your search.

Make sure to read the abstract to find out whether an article is relevant to your question. When you find a useful book or article, you can check the bibliography to find other relevant sources.

You likely won’t be able to read absolutely everything that has been written on your topic, so it will be necessary to evaluate which sources are most relevant to your research question.

For each publication, ask yourself:

  • What question or problem is the author addressing?
  • What are the key concepts and how are they defined?
  • What are the key theories, models, and methods?
  • Does the research use established frameworks or take an innovative approach?
  • What are the results and conclusions of the study?
  • How does the publication relate to other literature in the field? Does it confirm, add to, or challenge established knowledge?
  • What are the strengths and weaknesses of the research?

Make sure the sources you use are credible , and make sure you read any landmark studies and major theories in your field of research.

You can use our template to summarize and evaluate sources you’re thinking about using. Click on either button below to download.

Take notes and cite your sources

As you read, you should also begin the writing process. Take notes that you can later incorporate into the text of your literature review.

It is important to keep track of your sources with citations to avoid plagiarism . It can be helpful to make an annotated bibliography , where you compile full citation information and write a paragraph of summary and analysis for each source. This helps you remember what you read and saves time later in the process.

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To begin organizing your literature review’s argument and structure, be sure you understand the connections and relationships between the sources you’ve read. Based on your reading and notes, you can look for:

  • Trends and patterns (in theory, method or results): do certain approaches become more or less popular over time?
  • Themes: what questions or concepts recur across the literature?
  • Debates, conflicts and contradictions: where do sources disagree?
  • Pivotal publications: are there any influential theories or studies that changed the direction of the field?
  • Gaps: what is missing from the literature? Are there weaknesses that need to be addressed?

This step will help you work out the structure of your literature review and (if applicable) show how your own research will contribute to existing knowledge.

  • Most research has focused on young women.
  • There is an increasing interest in the visual aspects of social media.
  • But there is still a lack of robust research on highly visual platforms like Instagram and Snapchat—this is a gap that you could address in your own research.

There are various approaches to organizing the body of a literature review. Depending on the length of your literature review, you can combine several of these strategies (for example, your overall structure might be thematic, but each theme is discussed chronologically).

Chronological

The simplest approach is to trace the development of the topic over time. However, if you choose this strategy, be careful to avoid simply listing and summarizing sources in order.

Try to analyze patterns, turning points and key debates that have shaped the direction of the field. Give your interpretation of how and why certain developments occurred.

If you have found some recurring central themes, you can organize your literature review into subsections that address different aspects of the topic.

For example, if you are reviewing literature about inequalities in migrant health outcomes, key themes might include healthcare policy, language barriers, cultural attitudes, legal status, and economic access.

Methodological

If you draw your sources from different disciplines or fields that use a variety of research methods , you might want to compare the results and conclusions that emerge from different approaches. For example:

  • Look at what results have emerged in qualitative versus quantitative research
  • Discuss how the topic has been approached by empirical versus theoretical scholarship
  • Divide the literature into sociological, historical, and cultural sources

Theoretical

A literature review is often the foundation for a theoretical framework . You can use it to discuss various theories, models, and definitions of key concepts.

You might argue for the relevance of a specific theoretical approach, or combine various theoretical concepts to create a framework for your research.

Like any other academic text , your literature review should have an introduction , a main body, and a conclusion . What you include in each depends on the objective of your literature review.

The introduction should clearly establish the focus and purpose of the literature review.

Depending on the length of your literature review, you might want to divide the body into subsections. You can use a subheading for each theme, time period, or methodological approach.

As you write, you can follow these tips:

  • Summarize and synthesize: give an overview of the main points of each source and combine them into a coherent whole
  • Analyze and interpret: don’t just paraphrase other researchers — add your own interpretations where possible, discussing the significance of findings in relation to the literature as a whole
  • Critically evaluate: mention the strengths and weaknesses of your sources
  • Write in well-structured paragraphs: use transition words and topic sentences to draw connections, comparisons and contrasts

In the conclusion, you should summarize the key findings you have taken from the literature and emphasize their significance.

When you’ve finished writing and revising your literature review, don’t forget to proofread thoroughly before submitting. Not a language expert? Check out Scribbr’s professional proofreading services !

This article has been adapted into lecture slides that you can use to teach your students about writing a literature review.

Scribbr slides are free to use, customize, and distribute for educational purposes.

Open Google Slides Download PowerPoint

If you want to know more about the research process , methodology , research bias , or statistics , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

  • Sampling methods
  • Simple random sampling
  • Stratified sampling
  • Cluster sampling
  • Likert scales
  • Reproducibility

 Statistics

  • Null hypothesis
  • Statistical power
  • Probability distribution
  • Effect size
  • Poisson distribution

Research bias

  • Optimism bias
  • Cognitive bias
  • Implicit bias
  • Hawthorne effect
  • Anchoring bias
  • Explicit bias

A literature review is a survey of scholarly sources (such as books, journal articles, and theses) related to a specific topic or research question .

It is often written as part of a thesis, dissertation , or research paper , in order to situate your work in relation to existing knowledge.

There are several reasons to conduct a literature review at the beginning of a research project:

  • To familiarize yourself with the current state of knowledge on your topic
  • To ensure that you’re not just repeating what others have already done
  • To identify gaps in knowledge and unresolved problems that your research can address
  • To develop your theoretical framework and methodology
  • To provide an overview of the key findings and debates on the topic

Writing the literature review shows your reader how your work relates to existing research and what new insights it will contribute.

The literature review usually comes near the beginning of your thesis or dissertation . After the introduction , it grounds your research in a scholarly field and leads directly to your theoretical framework or methodology .

A literature review is a survey of credible sources on a topic, often used in dissertations , theses, and research papers . Literature reviews give an overview of knowledge on a subject, helping you identify relevant theories and methods, as well as gaps in existing research. Literature reviews are set up similarly to other  academic texts , with an introduction , a main body, and a conclusion .

An  annotated bibliography is a list of  source references that has a short description (called an annotation ) for each of the sources. It is often assigned as part of the research process for a  paper .  

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.

McCombes, S. (2023, September 11). How to Write a Literature Review | Guide, Examples, & Templates. Scribbr. Retrieved September 23, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/dissertation/literature-review/

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  • Introduction

Classical literature

French influence.

4:043 Dickinson, Emily: A Life of Letters, This is my letter to the world/That never wrote to me; I'll tell you how the Sun Rose/A Ribbon at a time; Hope is the thing with feathers/That perches in the soul

Khmer literature

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  • Table Of Contents

Khmer literature , body of literary works of Khmer peoples of Southeast Asia , mainly Cambodia .

The classical literature of Cambodia comprises works composed in verse and recorded between the 16th and mid-19th century; much of it reflects the cultural influence of India. It can be classified according to three major genres: the epic , verse novels, and cbap , or “codes of conduct.”

4:043 Dickinson, Emily: A Life of Letters, This is my letter to the world/That never wrote to me; I'll tell you how the Sun Rose/A Ribbon at a time; Hope is the thing with feathers/That perches in the soul

The best-known epic is the Reamker (“Honour of Rama”; Eng. trans. Reamker ), the Cambodian version of the Ramayana , one of the great epic poems of India. Surviving texts of the Reamker date from the 16th or 17th century, but bas-reliefs at Angkor Wat show that the Rama (Cambodian Ream) story had been known in Cambodia for centuries. The Cambodian version includes incidents and details not found in the Sanskrit original written by the poet Valmiki. As in other Southeast Asian countries, the Rama story in Cambodia is not confined to the realm of literature but extends to all Cambodian art forms, from sculpture to dance drama and from painting to tourist art. Another epic, Lpoek Angkor Vat (“The Story of Angkor Wat”), which dates from the beginning of the 17th century, celebrates the magnificent temple complex at Angkor and describes the bas-reliefs in the temple galleries that portray the Rama story.

Verse novels emerged during the early 18th century. They are usually long, in some instances consisting of as many as 8,000 stanzas. Most are based on the jataka tales (stories of the former lives of the Buddha, found widely in Southeast Asian literature), while others draw on local folktales and legends . One of the best-known is Tum Teav , a tragic love story believed to be based on real events that occurred during the 17th century. The story was passed down orally and then eventually recorded in the 19th century by the poet Santhor Mok. It remains a widely known story that is taught in schools and often retold in comic-strip format. It has also been filmed on two occasions and has inspired stage adaptations and popular songs.

The cbap are didactic poems that were written by monks and used for moral instruction. The earliest surviving examples date from the 17th century, although the genre is believed to be considerably older. They were usually short, the shortest being only 29 stanzas, and passages from them are quoted as proverbs. They offer practical rules, based on Theravada Buddhist philosophy, for a wide variety of everyday activities, ranging from home economics and education to gender roles and government. In traditional Cambodian society, monks would use the cbap as texts for children to read, copy, and memorize.

Literature flourished during the reign of King Ang Duong (1841–60). The king, himself a renowned poet, brought together writers at his court who were involved not only in composing original works but also in revising old manuscripts and translating Buddhist texts from Pali into Khmer. After Cambodia became a French protectorate in 1863, the royal court continued to be the centre of literary production. French scholars began to take an interest in Cambodian culture and to collect and publish folktales, first in Paris and then in Cambodia. In 1930 they were involved in establishing the Buddhist Institute as a centre for the preservation and development of Cambodian national culture. The Buddhist Institute quickly became the main publisher in the country, bringing to readers works that had, until then, often been available only on palm-leaf manuscripts; its journal, Kambujasuriya , played a major role in publishing works of classical literature, religious works, folktales, and, later, novels; it also served as a forum for serious scholarship in Cambodia.

literature review in khmer

French cultural influence, the educational expansion that created a reading public, and the growth of print media all facilitated the emergence of the prose novel in Cambodia in the late 1930s. To these factors must also be added a nationalistic motive, for several early novelists were anxious to challenge the dominance of Chinese and Vietnamese novels in the street stalls. These novels represented a total break from traditional Cambodian literature, taking prose as their medium, ordinary people as their protagonists, and everyday situations for their setting.

Rim Kin’s Sophat , written in 1938 and published in Vietnam in 1941 but not available in Cambodia until January 1942, is widely regarded as the “first” Cambodian novel. It is essentially a poor boy–rich girl romance , in which the hero, Sophat, faces a series of obstacles, misunderstandings, and improbable coincidences before he learns that he is not a poor orphan but actually of noble birth; the novel duly ends happily with his marriage to the girl he loves, the adopted daughter of his father. Dik Danle Sap (“The Waters of Tonle Sap”), by Kim Hak, was also hailed as “the first modern novel of Cambodia” when it appeared in Kambujasuriya in January 1939, but it never enjoyed the same popularity and acclaim as Sophat . Two other classic novels from the same period have, like Sophat , been made into films and taught in schools. They are Nhok Them’s Kulap Pailin (“The Rose of Pailin”), first serialized in Kambujasuriya in 1943, and Phka srabon (“The Faded Flower”) by Nou Hach, first serialized in the weekly newspaper Kambuja in 1947. In the former a hardworking but lowly gem miner wins the hand of the mine owner’s daughter after proving his courage and integrity , in part by saving her life; the latter novel takes the traditional arranged marriage as its theme and ends tragically when the heroine falls terminally ill through depression because her mother insists on choosing her spouse. By the end of the French Protectorate in 1953, about 48 novels had appeared. Between 1954 and 1969, more than 500 novels were published, with almost half of them appearing in the years 1965 and 1966. Variations on the themes of arranged marriage and thwarted love continued to be popular; the twist in Hak Chhay Hok’s best-selling O phsaen maranah (1965; “The Fatal Smoke”) is that the rich heroine happily goes along with her parents’ choice, jilting the poor student who had earlier saved her life; he then falls sick, fails his exams, and dies. By the late 1960s, the political situation within Cambodia deteriorated and a sharp decline in literary production followed; some writers dared not write, while economic pressures also contributed to a reduction in the number of novels published. One well-known novel that did appear during this period was Nou Hach’s Mala tuon citt (“Garland of the Heart”), published in 1972 but written some 20 years earlier; the novel portrays Cambodian society during World War II and reflects the author’s nationalism .

In 1975 the Khmer Rouge captured Phnom Penh; in almost four years in power they did little to foster literature, beyond the promotion of revolutionary songs glorifying the peasants and the new society they were supposedly building. Cambodian refugees in exile, especially in France, did write novels, short stories, and poems, typically depicting the suffering endured prior to and during hazardous escapes from Cambodia and the pain of exile and separation. One such “survival novel,” Vipatti knun samarabhumi sneha (1990; “Disaster in the Battlefield of Love”), written in the United States by Duong Ratha, is unusual for its portrayal of life in the Khmer Rouge “liberation zones” before the fall of Phnom Penh in 1975. Within Cambodia itself, a revival began to take place after the overthrow of the Khmer Rouge regime; many of the novels that appeared in the 1980s reflected official attitudes to the recent past, with stories of Khmer Rouge atrocities, the sufferings of ordinary people, and the heroism of those, including the Vietnamese, who fought against the Khmer Rouge. Slik jhoe cak maek (1987; “The Leaves That Fall from the Trees”) by Kong Boun Chhouen, for example, depicts the cruelty of the Khmer Rouge through the experiences of Vanny, the seven-year-old heroine, who is saved from execution by liberating Vietnamese troops. Such overtly political fiction gave way in the early 1990s to more popular sentimental novels and crime fiction. Mao Somnang’s prizewinning Ralak pok khsac (1996; “The Waves”), for example, in which the poor, orphaned heroine eventually overcomes a succession of obstacles, to find love and happiness, is typical of the kind of plot that had been popular almost half a century earlier; where it differs, is in a greater reliance on dialogue and the introduction of minor characters and subplots, reflecting the author’s profession as a television scriptwriter.

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literature review in khmer

Editor Q&A: Celebrating Cambodian Poetry, Prose, and Performance in New Landmark Anthology

Editors sharon may and trent walker on  out of the shadows of angkor , the newest title from mānoa journal, that publishes this month..

Out of the Shadows of Angkor , the newest title from  MĀNOA , emerges from the thirty-year effort of a community seeking to bring together Khmer works of literature. In doing so, they not only translated rare works into English for the first time, but also helped to salvage, reconstruct, and resuscitate parts of books destroyed by the Cambodian Civil War. This issue represents a selection of what has been achieved. 

Readers will find in this volume: a comprehensive range of Khmer works over 1400 years; translations of classical texts in ancient script; selections of modern Cambodian poetry, prose, and folk theater; and contemporary writings by Cambodian refugees and children of the diaspora living in countries from Australia to the U.S., Canada, and Europe. This is a companion volume to  In the Shadow of Angkor   (2004).

Below, guest editors Trent Walker and Sharon May tell us about how this book came together. 

_________________________________________________________

Editors of Out of the Shadows of Angkor. Top row, L to R: Sharon May, Christophe Macquet, Trent Walker Bottom row: Rinith Taing, Phina So, Frank Stewart  Photo courtesy of: Trent Walker

University of Hawai‘i Press: What was the inspiration for this issue?

Trent Walker and Sharon May, Editors: Cambodian writers have been recording their literary gifts for over a millennium and a half. Yet very little Cambodian literature originally composed in Khmer, Sanskrit, or French is available in English. Our anthology seeks to change that by joining a plethora of original literary translations of Cambodian texts with works composed in English by members of the global Cambodian diaspora. 

UHP: What is the book essentially about?

Editors:  Out of the Shadows of Angkor  unites the work of 33 different authors across fourteen centuries of Cambodian history. Their poems, short stories, novels, and essays are paired with a range of anonymous texts from the seventh century to the present, including inscriptions, oaths, chants, songs, epics, folk tales, and theater. Nineteen different translators make these works shine in English, offering accessible notes that frame these Cambodian compositions for a wide audience. A special emphasis on twentieth- and twenty-first-century writers, including those across four continents of the diaspora, showcases the present and emerging future of post-Khmer Rouge literature both inside and outside Cambodia.

UHP: Who was involved, and what was the process like of putting it together?

Editors: Sharon May, guest editor of  In the Shadow of Angkor , a smaller but path-breaking 2004 anthology of contemporary Cambodian literature published by  MĀNOA  and University of Hawai‘i Press, brought together a team of four fellow guest editors over the course of over a decade. The guest editors—Phina So, Rinith Taing, Christophe Macquet, and Trent Walker, along with Sharon—have each long been leaders in advocating for Cambodian writers, literature, and publishing. We relied on each other’s strengths and on wide networks of literary friendships in Cambodia and beyond to bring the project to completion.

UHP: Tell us about the title. What’s the story of how you came to this title?

Editors: The title of the first volume,  In the Shadows of Angkor,   arose when Sharon was brainstorming with her friend Bhavia Wagner; Cambodian literature has long been in the shadows of the great temples and the tragedies of war, at least in the eyes of the West. As a considerably larger, non-overlapping companion volume to that 2004. MĀNOA  anthology,  Out of the Shadows of Angkor  celebrates Cambodian poetry, prose, and performance emerging onto the world stage. Outside of the Khmer diaspora, Anglophone readers are still likely to only know Cambodia for the horrors of the Khmer Rouge or the splendors of Angkor Wat. Our book presents for the first time in English the vast spectrum of Cambodian writing through the ages—by turns joyous and tragic, pithy and elegant, tender and whip-smart. 

The Accused (1973), an account of imprisonment by Khun Srun, is nearly impossible to find in Cambodia today. An English translation of the excerpt can be found in Out of the Shadows of Angkor.  Photo courtesy of: Sharon May

UHP: What are some highlights of the issue? What should readers not miss?

Editors: The foreword by Vaddey Ratner and a special preface on Cambodian American writers by Sokunthary Svay set the tone for the book. Indradevi’s “ In Praise of Sister Queens ,” one of the oldest known works by a female author in Southeast Asia, and Brah Rajasambhar’s sixteenth-century poem, “ My Soul of Gold ,” long thought lost, anchor the classical section. Khun Srun’s “ A Small Request ” as well as excerpts from his novel  The Accused  cement his reputation as one of most insightful writers from the 1960s and ‘70s. Extracts from works by Nou Hach, Soth Polin, and Ty Chi Huot showcase the treasures of modern Khmer fiction. Poets ranging from Chey Chap and Pich Tum Kravel in Cambodia to Prince Amrindo Sisowath and Khau Ny Kim in France are also featured. Diasporic voices shine throughout: Maria Hach’s brilliant essay, “ An Archive of Haunting ,” especially in conversation with pieces by Boreth Ly and Elizabeth Chey, reveals powerful connections linking war, memory, and the arts. In the closing section on performance, the genius of Kong Nay, the country’s most famous living bard, comes to life through an extended interview as well as his bawdy lullaby, “ An Elephant Rocks Its Trunk .” Throughout the issue, don’t miss the stunning paintings of Theanly Chov from his  Surviving   series, which capture the future-forward dreams of many Cambodians today. 

Kong Nay, Cambodia's most famous living bard, playing the chapei dang veng, a traditional Cambodian long-necked lute in his home in 2008.   Photo courtesy of: Sharon May

UHP: Is there anything else that you’d like to share?

In addition to classical Cambodian literature that has never before been translated into English, this book presents writing that was nearly lost during Cambodia’s civil war, the Khmer Rouge regime, and its aftermath. When Sharon first began work on the previous volume,  In the Shadow of Angkor,  an American journalist told her, “Cambodians can’t write.” We hope that this new volume,  Out of the Shadows of Angkor ,  shows that they most certainly can, and have done so for centuries with humor, wisdom, beauty, and depth.

Trent Walker  is a postdoctoral fellow of the Ho Center for Buddhist Studies at Stanford University and a specialist in the manuscripts and chanting practices of mainland Southeast Asia. 

Sharon May   worked for Columbia University’s Center for the Study of Human Rights—living and working in Cambodia while researching the Khmer Rouge regime—and was a Wallace Stegner Fellow in fiction at Stanford University.

Out of the Shadows of Angkor: Cambodian Poetry

Out of the Shadows of Angkor

Read free on project muse:.

On Cambodian American Writers

by Sokunthary Svay

A Small Request

by Khun Srun, Christophe Macquet, Sharon May

Subscribe to  MĀNOA

All  MĀNOA  subscribers will receive the issue,  Out of the Shadows of Angkor,  upon print publication in September 2022 and an additional volume on Burmese literature in Winter 2022. A one-year, individual subscription costs $35.

Order  Out of the Shadows of Angkor

Order your copy on Amazon for $25. Shipping begins in September 2022. 

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The Modern Novel

The world-wide literary novel from early 20th century onwards, cambodian literature.

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អក្សររលត់ ជាតិរលាយ អក្សរពណ្ណរាយ ជាតិថ្កើងថ្កាន (If letters disappear, the nation will disappear, if letters are brilliant, the nation is excellent.)

Ratner , Rim Kin , Suphany

Other links

Literature of Cambodia Cambodia: Bloggers promote Khmer Literature Khmer literature Writing after the slaughter Geoff Ryman on Cambodian writers Enter the next generation of Khmer literature Contemporary Cambodian Literature: Nou Hach Literary Journal, Vol 7 When a Nation Loses Its Literature (On The Mekong Review, And A Burgeoning Cambodian Literary Scene) Cambodian Literature: From Angkor to Year Zero and Beyond Cambodian Literature Cambodia authors forge Khmer language literary revival

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Translation of "review" into Khmer

ពិនិត្យឡើងវិញ, រៀនសាឡើងវិញ [c are the top translations of "review" into Khmer. Sample translated sentence: How can we benefit from reviewing the way Jehovah saved the Israelites? ↔ តើ យើង អាច ទទួល ប្រយោជន៍ អ្វី ពី ការ ពិចារណា អំពី របៀប ដែល ព្រះ យេហូវ៉ា បាន សង្គ្រោះ ជន ជាតិ អ៊ីស្រាអែល?

A second or subsequent reading of a text or artifact. [..]

English-Khmer dictionary

ពិនិត្យឡើងវិញ, រៀនសាឡើងវិញ [c.

Show algorithmically generated translations

Automatic translations of " review " into Khmer

Translations with alternative spelling

"Review" in English - Khmer dictionary

Currently we have no translations for Review in the dictionary, maybe you can add one? Make sure to check automatic translation, translation memory or indirect translations.

Images with "review"

Phrases similar to "review" with translations into khmer.

  • Document Review មើលឯកសារឡើងវិញ

Translations of "review" into Khmer in sentences, translation memory

             




 

IMAGES

  1. Summary Khmer Literature by Phanna PANG

    literature review in khmer

  2. Summary Khmer Literature by Phanna PANG

    literature review in khmer

  3. Khmer Literature by Cheab Kunthea

    literature review in khmer

  4. Summary Khmer Literature by Phanna PANG

    literature review in khmer

  5. Ly Theam Teng: A Legendary Khmer Literature Intellectual

    literature review in khmer

  6. សិក្សាអត្ថបទអក្សរសិល្ប៍ខ្មែរ រឿង កុលាបប៉ៃលិន ភាគទី៤

    literature review in khmer

VIDEO

  1. សម្លាប់ទាហានរុស្សីជាង ៣០០ នាក់ដើម្បីសងសឹកអោយប្រពន្ធកូន

  2. គ្រាប់កាំភ្លើងទំលុះលលាដ៏ក្បាល

  3. តែងសេចក្តី៖ ព្យាយាមគង់បានសម្រេច -Khmer Literature

  4. រឿងសង្ខេបតែវែងឪមហា គឺរឿង រាមកេរ្តិ៍

  5. អ្នកលេងវេទមន្ត កម្លាំងយក្ស 😁

  6. Study English Khmer/ Formal and Informal of saying goodbye / សិក្សាអង់គ្លេសខ្មែរ

COMMENTS

  1. An Essential Guide to Better Literature Reviews

    Overview. The literature review is an essential component of high-quality academic and policy research papers. It summarizes and synthesizes the arguments and ideas of existing knowledge on a particular subject, helps to identify gaps in the existing literature on the subject, and situates the research presented within the field of study.

  2. Cambodian Literature: From Angkor to Year Zero and Beyond

    Photo: Sharon May, "Bayon, Cambodia" (2009) It has been forty years since the black-clad Khmer Rouge marched into Phnom Penh during the Khmer New Year of April 1975 and evacuated the city, sending its inhabitants on foot to work and starve in labor camps in the countryside, initiating "Year Zero.". Literature, art, and religion were ...

  3. An Essential Guide to Better Literature Reviews

    Overview: The literature review is an essential component of high-quality academic and policy research papers. It summarizes and synthesizes the arguments and ideas of existing knowledge on a particular subject, helps to identify gaps in the existing literature on the subject, and situates the research presented within the field of study.

  4. Women and Political Leadership in Cambodia

    2020. This review considers literature in English on women and leadership in Cambodia. It was undertaken in 2018 in preparation for the Public Perceptions of Women as Leaders research to be conducted by Cambodian women's rights organisations in partnership with International Women's Development Agency (IWDA).

  5. When a Nation Loses Its Literature

    The Khmer Rouge era and the Cambodian-Vietnamese war officially ceased in October 1991, yet the cultural devastation wrought by the turmoil has continued to encumber Cambodia's literary scene. Nine years after the end of war, an American named Sharon May arrived in Cambodia to search the Kingdom for Khmer literature.

  6. PDF UNICEF Cambodia Report on the Findings from a Systematic Literature

    The report's findings are based on a systematic review of existing literature, which identified a total of 74 high quality research papers (including academic and 'grey' literature). The review aimed to include all relevant materials in both English and Khmer languages, which were identified through systematic searches of online databases by

  7. In the Shadow of Angkor: A Search for Cambodian Literature

    income by writing video scripts and song lyrics. The negative Western perception of Cambodian writing dates to the nine- teenth and early twentieth centuries, the time of the French Protectorate. While extolling the architecture of the ancient Angkor civilization, French scholars dismissed Khmer writing as inferior.

  8. The Myth of Angkor as an Essential Component of the Khmer ...

    Obviously, the research conducted by the newly created École française d'Extrême Orient was beginning to bear fruit and the enlightened monarch understood the significance of these relics for Cambodian past history and identity. In fact, nationalism in Cambodia began with an evocation of Angkor's greatness made in the first Khmer political newspaper Nagarawatta, meaning "Angkor city."

  9. PDF Psychological Approaches to Mental Health Care in Cambodia and South

    This literature review synthesises existing studies in order to provide a nuanced understanding of the approaches currently being used in psychology in the context of South East Asia, as part of ... Khmer Rouge period until early 1990s (Jegannathan, Kullgren, & Deva, 2015; Olofsson, San

  10. PDF Literature Review

    This literature review summarizes key research findings relating to children's reading habits internationally and in Cambodia. It was commissioned by The Asia Foundation's Let's Read program to support the work of Let's Read and other organizations working in the field of children's education and literacy skills development in Cambodia.

  11. A New Asian American Boom: A Reading List of the Cambodian American

    My new novel Koan Khmer is a bildungsroman about an orphaned refugee who was saved by literature, and it is in conversation with the authors below because it presents a perspective of Khmer life in the States. By no means is the list below exhaustive. Rather, these books were chosen because they were published in the past several years and depict the diverse experience of Cambodians in America ...

  12. Literature review as a research methodology: An overview and guidelines

    As mentioned previously, there are a number of existing guidelines for literature reviews. Depending on the methodology needed to achieve the purpose of the review, all types can be helpful and appropriate to reach a specific goal (for examples, please see Table 1).These approaches can be qualitative, quantitative, or have a mixed design depending on the phase of the review.

  13. How to Write a Literature Review

    Examples of literature reviews. Step 1 - Search for relevant literature. Step 2 - Evaluate and select sources. Step 3 - Identify themes, debates, and gaps. Step 4 - Outline your literature review's structure. Step 5 - Write your literature review.

  14. Khmer literature

    Classical literature. The classical literature of Cambodia comprises works composed in verse and recorded between the 16th and mid-19th century; much of it reflects the cultural influence of India. It can be classified according to three major genres: the epic, verse novels, and cbap, or "codes of conduct.". The best-known epic is the ...

  15. PDF The Long-Term Legacy of the Khmer Rouge Period in Cambodia

    This paper studies the long-term impact of genocide during the period of the Khmer Rouge (1975-79) in Cambodia and contributes to the literature on the economic analysis of conflict. Using mortality data for siblings from the Cambodia Demographic and Health Survey in 2000, it shows that excess mortality was extremely high and heavily

  16. PDF WAVE: Women and Political Leadership in CAMBODIA

    The following review considers literature in English on women and leadership in Cambodia. It was undertaken in 2018 in preparation for Public Perceptions of Women as Leaders research to be conducted by Cambodian women's rights organisations in partnership with International Women's Development Agency (IWDA).1 The focus of the literature is ...

  17. PDF Grade 12 Literature Text Book Review

    This report presents an analysis of Grade 9 and 12 Khmer Literature textbooks in response to the three research questions in the main report. Grade 12 Textbook Review (Lessons 1-10, pages 1-268 ...

  18. PDF Cambodian Literature: An Introduction

    Khmer poets embraced two possible meanings for their verses, with the hidden reading often revealing a sophisticated interpretation of Hindu or Buddhist philosophy. In many ways, Cambodia's Sanskrit literature is better known out-side Cambodia than its Khmer literature, having been assiduously studied and

  19. The meaning of community english literature review.

    The meaning of community english literature review. By: Watts, Esther M; Contributor(s): Working group on Social Organization in Cambodia; Material type: Text Publication details: May 1999. Description: 25 pages 30 cm DDC classification: 306.08909596 WAT

  20. Editor Q&A: Celebrating Cambodian Poetry, Prose, and Performance in New

    Out of the Shadows of Angkor, the newest title from MĀNOA, emerges from the thirty-year effort of a community seeking to bring together Khmer works of literature.In doing so, they not only translated rare works into English for the first time, but also helped to salvage, reconstruct, and resuscitate parts of books destroyed by the Cambodian Civil War.

  21. Cambodian literature

    Cambodian nobleman King Ang Duong (1841-1860) is known in Khmer literature for being not only a king but a famous classical writer in prose. His novel Kakey or Ka key (from the Sanskrit word for a "female crow"), written while he was studying in Siam (Thailand), is inspired by a Thai folk tale Ka Kee , and has elements of regional folktales.

  22. Cambodian Literature

    Writing after the slaughter Geoff Ryman on Cambodian writers. Enter the next generation of Khmer literature. Contemporary Cambodian Literature: Nou Hach Literary Journal, Vol 7. When a Nation Loses Its Literature (On The Mekong Review, And A Burgeoning Cambodian Literary Scene) Cambodian Literature: From Angkor to Year Zero and Beyond.

  23. review in Khmer

    Check 'review' translations into Khmer. Look through examples of review translation in sentences, listen to pronunciation and learn grammar.

  24. English-Khmer Dictionary

    English-Khmer dictionary is an English to Cambodian translation. ...