Malaysian Literature In English Research Articles

Mohammad A. Quayum, ed. <i>Reading Malaysian Literature in English: Ethnicity, Gender, Diaspora, and Nationalism</i>

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Modernity and Spirituality in Malaysian Anglophone Poetry: An Interview with the late Ghulam-Sarwar Yousof

Malaysian literature in English epitomises the move to the new world and incorporates various national and international, social, political, and cultural subjects. Ghulam-Sarwar Yousof (1939-2022), an eminent Malaysian playwright and poet, voices the spiritual vacuum these changes bring within the modern man and draws the path towards relief, solace, and comfort in the soul’s journey back to the Creator. Ghulam-Sarwar’s poetry explores various social and cultural aspects, but no endeavour to date has been taken to discuss its spiritual dimensions. Given this background, this interview with Ghulam-Sarwar Yousof outlines his perspectives on the quest for spirituality and the modern man’s hunger and restlessness to find a meaning for existence as a way to connecting with the higher Being. Using the qualitative method of semi-structured interview that contains both structured and unstructured questions, the paper sheds light on the artistic abilities Yousof shows in blending themes of self, love, nature, and society. The paper attempts to critically appreciate the interweaving of modernity with spirituality in Ghulam-Sarwar’s poetry and demonstrates how it is clothed in simple language, coupled with a sublime content, and delineated with harmonious and rhythmic intensity of his mystical experiences. It seeks to situate his mystic poetry within the realm of modern Anglophone poetry.

Using Cooperative Reading Strategies for Learning and Comprehending Literature among Chinese Primary School Students

English, in Chinese primary schools, is learnt as the third language after Chinese and Bahasa Melayu. This makes English difficult to master since Malaysian Chinese school learners have limited time to practise the language. Incorporating Malaysian literature in English has been a part of our curriculum for a long period of time as it offers a more familiar, relatable setting and cultural elements while also promoting English proficiency to the students. Comprehension of English literature by Chinese primary school students requires great effort and practice by the children as it is not their native language. Therefore, language teachers are advised to introduce different types of reading strategies that are suitable to the students’ needs. Cooperative reading requires socialisation and communication which can push the students towards conversing with each other in English language which in the end improves their comprehension too. In case of short stories, students are able to read the material again and again and this helps in expanding their vocabulary, when an individual has a broad vocabulary, it becomes easier for them to explain and understand concepts better as there are more words available in their mind for description. Researching and exploring the use of reading cooperative strategies for learning and comprehending literature is important to teachers in order to improve students’ learning and understanding of literature.

BOOK REVIEW Mohammad A. Quayum (Ed.) Reading Malaysian Literature in English: Ethnicity, Gender, Diaspora, and Nationalism. Singapore: Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd, 2021.

BOOK REVIEW Mohammad A. Quayum (Ed.) Reading Malaysian Literature in English: Ethnicity, Gender, Diaspora, and Nationalism. Singapore: Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd, 2021.

A Tribute to Professor Jan Wisseman Christie (1947–2021)

A Tribute to Professor Jan Wisseman Christie (1947–2021)

Mohammad A. Quayum (Ed), Reading Malaysian Literature in English: Ethnicity, Gender, Diaspora, and Nationalism

Mohammad A. Quayum (Ed), Reading Malaysian Literature in English: Ethnicity, Gender, Diaspora, and Nationalism

HUMAN AND GHOST ATTACHMENT IN HANNA ALKAF’S THE GIRL AND THE GHOST

For centuries, authors of literary works have sought to bewitch and enchant readers with accounts of supernatural elements such as monsters, spirits and ghosts. Ghosts especially are often depicted as representations of evil and the polar opposite of mankind. In Hanna Alkaf’s The Girl and The Ghost (2020) the adolescent protagonist, Suraya, develops an unusual bond with a ghost, Pink. This is indeed refreshing, considering the human-ghost relationship in the local literary scene is often represented as antagonistic, opposing forces, resulting in ghosts being portrayed as evil, vengeful creatures set to taunt, haunt and wreck humans’ lives. Critical examination of the human-ghost bond in the local literary-critical practice is lacking. This research aims to fill this gap by examining the human-ghost bond in The Girl and The Ghost and how this bond contributes to the (human) protagonist’s personal development. In this paper, The Girl and The Ghost is read using John Bowlby’s theory of attachment due to its robust approach to understanding human beings' emotional bond, or attachment, with their attachment figures. We argue the human-ghost bond in The Girl and The Ghost sets the novel apart from other local ghost stories filled with wicked, destructive ghosts. The findings suggest other possibilities of attachment figures when the relationship between a mother and child grows apart. The unusual but enduring relationship between Suraya and Pink demonstrates that a child’s secure attachment need not be limited to motherly figures.
 Keywords: Malaysian literature in english, the girl and the ghost, hanna alkaf, ghost tales, attachment theory

Thinking, Feeling, Reading: On Methodologies in Scholarship on Malaysian Literature in English

This essay is aboutthe production of scholarship on Malaysian literature in English. On the premise that existing readings of Malaysian texts arelargely based on the methodology of critique, it proposes that the emerging model of reading known as postcritique has the potential to contribute to the further diversification of scholarship on said literature. To illustrateits potential,postcritiqueis put to work on Lee Kok Liang’s classic novel, Flowers in the Sky, leading to the argumentthat negative aesthetics is the hitherto unacknowledged strength of the text and that coming into knowledge of this value requires the reader tonot only think but also feel his way through the act of readingand meaning-making.

Malaysian Literature in English: A Critical Companion

Malaysian Literature in English: A Critical Companion

The postcolonial millennium: New directions in Malaysian literature in English

The postcolonial millennium: New directions in Malaysian literature in English

Ethno Cultural Concept of Family Life in Malaysian Literature in English

A family involves two or more persons who live in the same household and are related through blood, marriage, or adoption . Family is “a social group branded by a common home, economic collaboration, and reproduction. It includes grown-ups of both genders, at least two of whom sustain a socially approved sexual relationship, and one or more children, own or adopted, of the adults living together(Alakavuklar, 2009).The study is going to examine the concept of family in term of father/mother, father /children, mother/children binary opposition between three main ethnic groups in Malaysia (Malay ,Chinese ,Indian ) through Malaysian novels in English: ‘The Rice Mother', ‘Evening Is the Whole Day’, ‘Green Is the Color’, and ‘The Garden of Evening Mist’.

The Visible Flâneuse in Chan Ling Yap’s Where the Sunrise is Red

Malaysia’s historical image in literature has almost always been exotically depicted. In some parts of literary works, geographical and physical settings serve merely as a literary device. The overwhelming depictions of characters’ geographical movements and relationship with their cities in the novel, Where the Sunrise is Red sparks the current resurgence to explore the visibility of the female protagonists in terms of their representations in the public sphere. Thus, the extent to which their representations are central to the development of the narration is debatable and to understand this; we must take into consideration Baudelaire’s construction of European urban figure, flâneur, emphasising the female version, the flâneuse. Different locations in colonial Malaysia and England seem to be the manifold literary device with which Yap develops her plots, yet the focus will be only at the crucial public domain that invites stares, barriers, and perceptions through the eyes and feelings of the character. Besides emphasising the characterisation of the protagonist, this setting is also symbolic of the underlying themes in the novel. The various public spheres where the protagonist is physically and visibly connected depict the reconstruction of a flâneuse in Malaysia’s historical representation in literature. Hence, the objectives of this study involve identifying the role of the public sphere and elaborating how these settings serve as the platform for flâneuse’s visibility in the Asian context through characterisation, physical setting, and symbols in the text. Keywords: flâneur; flâneuse; public sphere; historical fiction; Malaysian literature in English

STATES OF MALAY POWERLESSNESS IN THE WORKS OF CHE HUSNA AZHARI

Background and Purpose: The development of scholarship on Malaysian Literature in English (MLiE) continuously receives attention, especially on one particular direction, which is the studies of the Malays. Inspired by the Malay proverb “Diluah mati mak, ditelan mati bapa” (Malay for ‘between the devil and the deep sea), this study looked into local literature in relation to powerlessness and its social complexity where we argue that the Malays are often caught in-between entanglements that prohibit individualism, as due to societal prejudice.
 
 Methodology: This study employed thematic analysis where upon familiarizing with Azhari’s short stories, namely Mariah and of Bunga Telur and Bally shoes, the researchers identified themes that help understand the types and causes of powerlessness as illustrated in the short stories before associating the Malays’ state of powerlessness and their emotional suppression.
 
 Findings: Findings revealed that both genders suffer from the Malay prejudice and their own lack of emotional strength, causing both to be powerless captives in different contexts, unlike the Western societies where similar situations might lead to alienation.
 
 Contributions: The study contributed towards the understanding of social phenomenon, namely issues regarding powerlessness among the Malays. Such contribution is significant at developing potentials within building national talent, especially those regarding family and spiritual values. 
 
 Keywords: Che Husna Azhari, emotional suppression, Malays, Malaysian literature in English, powerlessness.
 
 Cite as: Ismail, H. H., & Al-Subaihi, M. N. (2020). States of Malay powerlessness in the works of Che Husna Azhari. Journal of Nusantara Studies, 5(1), 211-233. http://dx.doi.org/10.24200/jonus.vol5iss1pp211-233

Nature in contemporary Malaysian life-writings in English

ABSTRACTThis article investigates the representation of nature in contemporary Malaysian life-writings in English by female writers of Malay, Chinese and Indian ethnic origins. Adibah Amin’s This End of the Rainbow, Christine Ramsay’s Days Gone By and Muthammal Palanisamy’s From Shore to Shore are analysed by contextualizing the use of nature as an element in narrative strategy that indicates a sense of textual commonality. Through an examination of the agency and subjectivity of each protagonist, this article argues that nature is used to forward a homogenizing identity in the Malay nationalist life-writing, and to trace and validate diasporic roots in the Chinese and Indian texts. Despite the nationalist and diasporic attributes of the three texts, which are grounded on the writers’ ethnic differences, the use of nature indicates a common concern and promising future for the development of Malaysian Literature in English.

PORTRAYALS OF POST-INDEPENDENT MALAY MEN IN MALAYSIAN NARRATIVES

This paper emerged from a personal set of observations on the evolving male gender roles, currently drawing attention in Malaysia. As such, the study adds to the budding literature on Malay men and their gender roles and that of Malaysian literature in English. This comparative study is within its initial exploration on literary portrayals of Malay men’s experiences, as part of performing their gender roles, specifically from Lee Kok Liang’s ‘Ronggeng Ronggeng’ and Che Husna Azhari’s ‘Pak De Samad’s Cinema’. We argue that Malay men’s gender roles as protective entities has not undergone a tremendous change. Since the experiences of these men are narrated by a third person, understanding these men through the use of Chilesiz’s phenomenological model enables us to answer a focused phenomenon – the men’s experience as saviours in order to provide a priori that matches the societal, collective impression, perception and expectation of these men’s gender roles. Situated in an early postindependent Malaysian context, these men are moulded into a courageous lot. Instead of fleeing for safety, readers are implored upon with gutsy men whose sense of survivability are fuelled by untamed courage upon seeing threat (either to themselves or people of affection) while juggling with societal expectations as part of forming their gender identity. Instead of using the conventional phenomenological reading onto these men, these men are viewed to show a possession of quality judgement while performing their role as saviours.Keywords: Consciousness, gender roles, intentionality, Malay men; Malaysia, literatureCite as: Ismail, H.H & Barani, F. (2018). Portrayals of post-independent Malay men inMalaysian narratives. Journal of Nusantara Studies, 3(2),162-175.http://dx.doi.org/10.24200/jonus.vol3iss2pp162-175

“Local” and “national” transformations: Cultural globalization, heterogeneity, and Malaysian literature in English

Much of early critical attention on cultural globalization has centred around the emphasis on homogenization. In recent decades, however, postcolonial scholars have tended to focus on the idea of heterogenization, suggesting that this has perhaps been the major outcome of cultural globalization. For them, globalization has opened a space for the periphery to have a voice, with the authority of the centre subject to question from the margins. Offering an examination of Malaysian literature in English and drawing its main theoretical insights from postcolonial studies, this article argues that the Malaysian nation-state’s embrace of globalization, and of English as a prime agent in the globalizing process, has given rise to a context where it is creative writing in the former colonial language that has become the very medium that offers resistance to forms of cultural hegemony embedded in state-sanctioned conceptions of national identity.

Malaysia’s Development Success Story: Critical Responses in Contemporary Malaysian Novels in English

Malaysia is often hailed as a development success story. However, one criticism of this success story is the over-emphasis on the ideology of economic and capitalist growth by the state in its setting, determining and directing of development. This paper looks into some of the most interesting and critical reflections on development. Representing prominent voices in Malaysian literature in English, K. S. Maniam, Chuah Guat Eng and Yang-May Ooi delve into Malaysia’s development success story through Between Lives (2003), Days of Change (2010) and The Flame Tree (1998), respectively. Through textual analysis, I examine how these writers treat the state’s prevailing ideology of development. Through their creative responses to the rapid development that has occurred in Malaysia, Maniam, Chuah and Ooi offer individual expression and powerful critiques of development, not merely reflecting on the ideology of economic and capitalist growth but also illustrating different perspectives on development based on notions of social justice, democracy and cultural sustainability. That is not to say that they reject development. On the contrary, they acknowledge that development is part and parcel of social, economic and political processes. However, through their treatment of development, they bring to light other equally important issues, thus emphasizing the flaws in adopting a development model that is essentially based on economic and capitalist growth.

“She Had ‘Balls’”: Islamic Liberalism And The Modern Woman In A Contemporary Malaysian Fiction In English

The paper wants to dissect the plurality of contemporary Malay society by focusing on the construction of woman sexuality as charged with an amalgam of Islam Parochialism that is seen as a restrictive sociopolitical mechanism and (de)concentrated modernization that decentres religious functions in contemporary Malay society and uses instead a rather ‘filtered’ Islam as colour for the contours of life. Further, the paper underscores the fictive, yet real advances of the Malay woman in terms of critical consciousness and beauty manifested in cultural materialism as both are seriously equated to power. The woman, however, with all the intellectual and material elevation intervenes with (masculine) sexualisation. Hence, the paper capitalizes thenecessity to examine the complexities of masculine sexualisation, as fortified by Western modernity, which is a process of recognizing the feminine presence that inevitably generate erotic desire to sexual fantasy that ultimately constructs the woman. The paper’s major thrust is to reconceptualise the notion of power anchored in the ideological framework of its polysemous nature. Such progressive elucidation of the concept creates tension between empowerment and domination which is a relevant concern in feminist politics and interpretations in that the specific implication of such reconceptualization is the object of becoming not oppressors, but of becoming liberated that in the discourse of Malayness is largely problematic as it is always perceived to be antithetical to revitalization of Islam through authentic Malaysian Literature in English for ‘liberalism’ in this case, is associated with the rupture of women’s sexuality.

Malaysian Literature in English: A Bibliography of Primary Works 1

Malaysian Literature in English: A Bibliography of Primary Works 1