Alienation, Unhomeliness and Desire for Belonging in K.S. Maniam’s The Return

Seyedeh Robabeh Zabihzadeh,Raihanah Mohd Mydin,Ruzy Suliza Hashim

doi:10.5539/ells.v7n2p120

Abstract

Malaysia is a multicultural and multi ethnic society in which national and ethnic identities are very critical and widely disputed issues. Accordingly, several Malaysian writers such as K.S. Maniam have addressed the issues in their literary productions. This paper intends to examine the dilemmas, agonies and desolations of Indian community in Malaysia which have been reflected in K.S. Maniam’s autobiographical novel The Return (1981). In the story, Maniam voices out the experiences of Indian minority in the troubled times of Malaysia and their struggle for assimilation and adaptation to the new land as well as their identity crisis. Central characters of the story, Ravi, Periathai and Naina as three different generations of Indian migrant in the landscape of Malaysia attempt to embrace the new land as their home and build their coherent or homogeneous Malaysian identity. This paper also explores Maniam’s protagonist’s (Ravi) identity conflicts and his endeavor to escape from his unsettled identity as an Indian Malaysian. Ravi seeks his identity in mastering English, the colonial language, yet this is the very point of his alienation as he finds out that all his preconceptions about language was false and illusionary.

Highlights

Malaysia is one such country in which a dialectical bond exists between literature and history (De Souza, 2001; Raihanah, 2009)
This paper explores themes of alienation, unhomeliness and desire for belonging in Maniam’s first novel The Return (1981) which is largely autobiographical
The following section will explore the themes of alienation, unhomeliness and desire for belonging in the life of Periathai, Naina and Ravi that in a broader sense reflect the marginalization of Indian community in the land of Malaysia

Summary

Introduction

Malaysia is one such country in which a dialectical bond exists between literature and history (De Souza, 2001; Raihanah, 2009). The central motifs and themes in his works are concerned to colonial and post-colonial issues such as alienation, unhomeliness, displacement, identity construction, nationhood, sense of belonging and personal and political challenges of living in a multicultural society In most of his works Maniam provides the readers with a vivid descriptive picture of rural life in Malaysia from the Tamil Indian Malaysian perspective from a rural area and rubber estate on the north part of the Malay Peninsula. Such viewpoint from the frontier, in addition to a strong Hindu spirituality and a craving for the English language, constitute the core of Maniam’s life and literary productions (Wicks, 2007). In the course of the story it can be perceived that “these two realities are barely compatible, for the principal characters spend most of the novel in a futile attempt over half a century to put down South Indian roots in Malaysian” (Wicks, 2002, p. 5)

Literature Review

Conceptual Theory

Textual Analysis

Conclusion