Abstract
Malaysian crime fiction in Malay is still under researched, with the main stages of its development yet to be identified. This article aims to partially close this gap by addressing the period before World War II. The study uses the comparative method, applied synchronically to determine the extent of Western influence on Malay crime fiction at a particular time; and diachronically, to outline the historical evolution of the genre. The analysis demonstrates that in the 1920s, the influence of Western crime fiction resulted in borrowings and imitations of foreign plots. Action took place predominantly abroad and the riddle formed the core of the narrative. In the 1930s, the genre had evolved to depict local realities, and the stories became politically engaged and coloured by Malay nationalism. The focus in the narratives shifted from the riddle to the sociopolitical message of the author. Consequently, by the 1940s, Malay crime fiction rapidly lost its generic features, and this brought about the subsequent decline of the genre in Malaysia.
Highlights
Malaysian crime fiction in Malay is still under researched, with the main stages of its development yet to be identified
Crime fiction in the Malay language has received some scholarly attention, but this has largely been directed at works produced in the Netherland East Indies
Certain details on crime prose can be obtained from studies on the history of Malay Malaysian literature, the most comprehensive of which is the collective work published by Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (Hussain)
Summary
Malaysian crime fiction in Malay is still under researched, with the main stages of its development yet to be identified. Important conclusions can be made based on the works dealing with translations into Malay from foreign languages that discuss or mention crime genres, including the work by Elizabeth Chandra, Doris Jedamski (“Translation”), and Holger Warnk This information is insufficient to trace the line of development of crime fiction in British Malaya, which is the aim of the present article. This paper aims to show that the contacts with foreign literature not just took place, but that their results were processed by a local mindset in accordance with the appropriate historical and ideological contexts This process appears especially perceptible in crime fiction. Like Shamini Flint, enjoy considerable international success, while several other crime novelists are praised by critics and well received by readers (Pikri)
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