Malaysian Literature in English
Malaysian Literature in English

Author: Mohammad A. Quayum

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2020-05-15

Total Pages: 293

ISBN-13: 1527551989

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This collection of essays brings together work by some of the most internationally acclaimed critics of Malaysian literature in English from different parts of the world, including Australia, Canada, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and the US. It investigates the works of major writers of the tradition in the genres of drama, fiction and poetry, from its beginnings to the present, focusing mainly on thematic and stylistic trends. The book pays particular attention to issues such as gender, ethnicity, nationalism, multiculturalism, diaspora, hybridity and transnationalism, which are central to the creativity and imagination of these writers. The chapters collectively address the challenges and achievements of writers in the English language in a country where English, first introduced by the colonisers, has experienced a mixed fate of ups and downs in the post-independence period, due to the changing, and sometimes strikingly different, policies adopted by the government. The book will be of interest to readers and researchers of Malaysian literature, Southeast Asian studies and postcolonial literatures.

Peninsular Muse
Peninsular Muse

Author: Mohammad A. Quayum

Publisher: Peter Lang

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 312

ISBN-13: 9783039110612

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This book brings together for the first time interviews with sixteen major writers in the English language from Malaysia and Singapore. Three generations of writers representing various literary genres and ethnic groups come together to make this book fully illustrative of the literature of the two countries. In their respective interviews, the writers discuss significant issues pertaining to their own lives, careers, and works. They also explain what they think of the present state of their own societies, literatures, and cultures, and where they stand vis-à-vis the questions of religion, science, technology, censorship, gender, ethnicity, multiculturalism, nationalism, and globalisation. Moreover, the writers comment on the challenges they encounter writing in an «alien» language as well as in an environment of growing materialism and technocracy; and, finally, they discuss the future of their own writing and writing in English in Malaysia and Singapore more generally.