Abstract
The essay is an attempt to highlight the significance and the extent of religious influence on classical Malay literature. It plans to do this through the analysis of the structural elements of the plot at both at the surface and underlying level. To narrow down the analysis, only one genre of Malay literature, the so-called hikayat romance will be taken as corpus of investigation. To allow room for a more comprehensive analysis within this restricted corpus, two types of hikayat romance will be taken to task; these are the fantasy/court romance and the hagiographical romance. Both of these works are suitable for this study as they exhibit a remarkable level of religious influence in their textual elements. The analysis, however, will focus especially on the “exile motif” which is the controlling and generative element in the plot. Keywords: hikayat romance, generic structure, exile motif, Hindu interpretative model, sufistic interpretative model
Highlights
Within the genre structure of Malay literature viz. the medieval (15th-16th century) and the classical period (17-19th century), hikayat, in its general sense, denotes the genre form rather than genre per se
The term hikayat was applied to all written prose/ semi prose oral stories, especially the court romance
The hikayat romance made its first appearance against the background of the transitional period from Hinduism to Islam
Summary
Within the genre structure of Malay literature viz. the medieval (15th-16th century) and the classical period (17-19th century), hikayat (as well as syair and kitab), in its general sense, denotes the genre form rather than genre per se (see Braginsky, 2004). The hikayat romance made its first appearance against the background of the transitional period from Hinduism to Islam (the medieval period) In literature, this period was characterized mainly by the “Islamization” of pre-Islamic (Hindu/animistic) texts, the result of which was a highly synthesized Malay literature, breeding hybridized forms of texts and genres, one of which was the synthesized hikayat, being one of two good examples of synthesized genres, the other being the annals, or silsilah literature (for details read Noriah, 2007). Under the stronger influence of Islam, like most writings of the post-Islamic period, the genre became more aligned to Islam and its contents showed a greater affinity with Islamic ideas, themes and motifs. Both types of the hikayat will be analysed
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