Dipika Mukherjee

Mohammad A. Quayum

Kirpal Singh

Contemporary Short Stories From Singapore And Malaysia A Unique Anthology Of Short Fiction From South-East Asia The Merlion And The Hibiscus Brings Together The Work Of Nineteen Exceptional Writers From Singapore And Malaysia. Written Over The Last Fifty Years, These Stories Reflect The Richness Of A Multicultural Society And Its Experience Of War And Colonialism. In Gopal Baratham S, The Interview , A Veteran Of The Second World War Looks Back On His Years As A Japanese Prisoner Of War And His Unique Relationship With His Interrogator. In Tragedy Of My Third Eye , Suchen Christine Lim Writes Of Ping, A Six-Year-Old Who Would Rather Be An Outcaste Than A Slave And Ends Up Paying The Price For This Both At School And At Home. In Victoria And Her Kimono , M. Shanmughalingam Parodies The Legacy Of Colonialism. Also In This Collection Are Deeply Insightful And Entertaining Stories About A Generation Grappling With Issues Of Religious, Ethnic And Gender Identities. Catherine Lim S Write, Right, Rite , For Instance, Is A Brilliant Take-Off On The Absurdity Of Moral And Ethical Policing. In Another Memorable Story, Bugis By Alfian Sa At, An Encounter With A Transvestite Opens A Teenager S Eyes To The Shallowness Of The World Around Her And To Her Own Hidden Desires. Set In The Small Towns And Cities Of Malaysia And Singapore, These Stories Capture The Richness And Complexity Of Life In A Region That Is An Extraordinary Blend Of Different Races, Languages And Cultures.

Contemporary Short Stories from Singapore and Malaysia

The Merlion and the Hibiscus

This book is a fresh examination of Rabindranath Tagore’s ideas on nationalism and his rhetoric of cosmopolitanism. It critically analyses the poetics and the politics of his works and specifically responds to Tagore’s three lectures on nationalism delivered during the early years of the twentieth century and later compiled in his book Nationalism (1917). This volume: Discusses Tagore’s perception of nationalism – the many-sidedness of his engagement with nationalism, the root causes of his anathema against the ideology, ambiguities and limitations associated with his perception and his alternative vision of cosmopolitanism or global unity; Cross-examines an alternative view of cosmopolitanism based on Tagore’s inclusivist ideology to “seek my compatriots all over the world”; Explores how his ideas on nationalism and cosmopolitanism found myriad expressions across his works – in prose, fiction, poetry, travelogue, songs – as well as in the legacy of cinematic adaptations of his writings; Investigates the relevance of Tagore’s thoughts on nationalism and cosmopolitanism in relation to the contemporary rise of religious, nationalist and sectarian violence in the twenty-first century. A key study on the relevance of Tagore’s political philosophy in the contemporary world with contributions from eminent Tagore scholars in South Asia as well as the West, this book will be of great interest to readers and researchers in the fields of literature, political science, cultural studies, philosophy and Asian studies.

Perceptions, Contestations and Contemporary Relevance

Tagore, Nationalism and Cosmopolitanism

Nor Faridah Abdul Manaf

Essays on Malaysian Literature

Writing a Nation

Malaysian Women's Writing in English, 1940s-1990s

Colonial to Global

This book brings together fourteen articles by prominent critics of Malaysian Anglophone literature from five different countries: Australia, Italy, Malaysia, Singapore, and the US. It investigates the thematic and stylistic trends in the literary products of selected writers of the tradition in the genres of drama, fiction, and poetry, from its beginnings to the present, focusing mainly on the postcolonial themes of ethnicity, gender, diaspora, and nationalism, which are central to the creativity and imagination of these writers. The book explores the works of not just the established writers of the tradition but also those who have received little critical attention to date but who are equally gifted, such as Adibah Amin, Edward Dorall, Rehaman Rashid, and Huzir Suleiman. The chapters collectively address the challenges and achievements of writers in the English language in a country where English is widely used in daily life and yet marginalised in the creative domain to elevate the status of writings in the national language, i.e., Bahasa Malaysia. The book will demonstrate that in spite of such recurrent neglect of the medium, Malaysia has produced a number of outstanding writers in the language, who are comparable in creativity and craftsmanship to writers of other Anglophone traditions. The book will be of interest to readers and researchers of Malaysian literature, postcolonial literatures, minority literatures, gender studies, and Southeast Asian studies.

Ethnicity, Gender, Diaspora, and Nationalism

Reading Malaysian Literature in English

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.

Interviews with Modern Malaysian and Singaporean Poets, Novelists and Dramatists

Peninsular Muse

Studies in Malaysian Literature in English

One Sky Many Horizons

Phui Nam Wong

The Literatures in Englishes. Sharing borders : studies in contemporary Singaporean-Malaysian literature. Volume 2

Writing Asia

Saul Bellow and American Transcendentalism explores Saul Bellow's moral and philosophical affinity with the writers of American transcendentalism, especially Emerson and Whitman. Its focus is on the «vintage» Bellow, or his «mature» novels, from Henderson the Rain King (1959) to The Dean's December (1982). In these novels, Bellow highlights a moral crisis, arising from humankind's despiritualization and dehumanization, which, he believes, is responsible for an ongoing dichotomy in the modern world. Bellow describes this as a dichotomy of the «Cleans» and the «Dirties», in the context of American culture. To rectify this dichotomy and redeem humankind from its current «death-ridden» state, Bellow and his protagonists advance a vision of life that corresponds to the transcendental vision of dialogue and «double consciousness», or coordination and balance. Like Emerson, they advocate, «The mid-world is best... A man is a golden impossibility; the line he must walk is a hair's breadth». Comparable to Whitman, they urge the individual to «knit the knot of contrariety» and act as «an arbiter of the diverse».

Saul Bellow and American Transcendentalism

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.

A Critical Companion

Malaysian Literature in English

Mohammad A. Quayum

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