Ecocriticism is concerned with the relationship between literature and environment or how the rel... more Ecocriticism is concerned with the relationship between literature and environment or how the relationships between humans and their physical world are reflected in literature. In this paper, we attempt to analyse selected poems of Muhammad Haji Salleh using some concepts from ecocriticism as an analytical lens. The premise of this paper is based on the poet's symbiotic relationship which has become a significant feature of his work. Using six of his nature poems to exhibit Muhammad's idea of mutual relationship between the human world and the natural world of environment, we show the poet's concern about the slightest interference of human beings into the world of nature which results in the disruption of human-nature relationship. Muhammad Haji Salleh does not limit himself to presenting the brighter and darker side of nature, rather he has gone a step further to reveal the very concept of ecosystem and reflect the blossoming of ecological consciousness in modern Malaysian society. This approach of reading Muhammad Haji Salleh exhibits the current interest in the environment and the ways in which it has to be treated with respect and love. By explicating the intrinsic features of nature in his selected poems, we can inculcate environmental awareness and inspire ecological consciousness among people in Malaysia and elsewhere in the world.
Pertanika journal of social science and humanities, 2016
Adrienne Kennedy, in her oeuvre, has addressed the intersecting complications of gender and race.... more Adrienne Kennedy, in her oeuvre, has addressed the intersecting complications of gender and race. Most of her plays have examined and explored the ways in which these categories are constructed in American society. Through her focus on the experience of African American female characters, Kennedy’s theatrical work has illuminated the ways in which African American women are doubly oppressed. From this perspective, Sarah of the Funnyhouse of a Negro presents one of the most significant issues discussed by contemporary African American literature, which is the intersectionality of oppression. Funnyhouse was written in 1964, and the theory of intersectionality was established in 1989. Therefore, investigating the play through the lens of intersectionality reflects that Funnyhouse had advanced the time in which it had been written. The present paper aims to illustrate alienation through the lens of intersectionality to examine oppression and suffering experienced by Sarah. To accomplish...
Domestic violence against women is a common social ill that destroys thousands of women’s lives w... more Domestic violence against women is a common social ill that destroys thousands of women’s lives worldwide (Khan, 2000). However, the growth of this concern, particularly in developing countries such as Afghanistan, requires more scholarly attention not only because the lives of many Afghan women are affected by it, but also because it remains overlooked due to socio-cultural norms that consider discussions about it as taboo. Of late, however, there is a rising trend among members of the Afghan Diaspora in portraying domestic violence against their womenfolk back home through such artistic mediums as fiction (Parveen, 2015). Therefore, in this paper, we shall examine the manifestations of domestic violence against women in the Afghan context through a textual analysis of The Patience Stone by Atiq Rahimi, an author belonging to the Afghan Diaspora. Originally written in French, this breakthrough novella highlights the harsh reality of the misery suffered by many Afghan women on a reg...
The present genre of Indian literary writings on untouchability encompasses fictional or semiauto... more The present genre of Indian literary writings on untouchability encompasses fictional or semiautobiographical narratives produced by writers who are mostly untouchables themselves, and the more widely-accepted of such writings are those that solely focus on the oppression of the untouchable community. In the process of privileging oppression, these writers often fail to provide a balanced portrayal of the community"s ethnic characteristics. The key concerns of this paper, therefore, are to analyse the motivation of untouchable writers who choose to stereotype their people as "the victimized other", and to bring to the forefront works of writers who have made conscious efforts to infuse aspects of ethnicity, culture and rituals into their writings. This paper analyses two short stories on untouchability written in Tamil and translated into English, The Binding Vow (2009/2012) by Imayam, and Eardrum (2000/2012) by Azhakiya Periyavan, with the aim of investigating the writers" stand on the ethnic and ritualistic culture of their people. The findings of this study reveal that the writers" privileging of oppression over ethnic issues reflects a strong influence of Dalit ideologies, and that despite such a pattern, there are those who continue to employ culture and rituals as tools to empower their people. The study also implies that the ethnicity and rituals of the untouchable community deserve equal attention as the portrayal of oppression in Indian literary writings on untouchability, and that by privileging oppression, writers are misleading their people into abandoning and rejecting their true ethnic and cultural identity.
In varying degrees, Arabic poetry is rich with natural images but they are employed differently b... more In varying degrees, Arabic poetry is rich with natural images but they are employed differently by Arab poets. This article analyses some selected Arabic poems through the lens of ecocriticism to explore how the natural environment is always a shaping force of individuals and contribute to the greening of resistance through parts of the biotic community in the Arab world. The premise of this article has its roots in the recent ecocritical arguments on the elastic and permeable boundaries of the field and its applicability as a lens through which to read any literary text. The discussion is focused on some selected Arabic poems which lend themselves well to the ecocritical interpretation and show how the Arab poets such as Mahmoud Darwish, Tawfiq Zayyad, Fadwa Tuqan, and Salem Jubran engage the natural environment in their poems. The analysis of the selected poems, which represent the other Arabic poems of their genre, advocates the ecocritical way of expressing resistance in Arabic poetry to signify the profound presence and engagement of the natural world in exhibiting the human resistance to the occupation of the land. It also reveals that the Arab poets have highlighted the interconnectedness between the human and nonhuman world in their poetry. By incorporating the Arab viewpoints and voices such as the ones we presented in this article, ecocriticism is instrumental in meeting its targeted scope as a multinational, multi vocal, multicultural area of scholarship.
International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature, 2013
Traditional education of literature would do injustice to both students and the discipline in thi... more Traditional education of literature would do injustice to both students and the discipline in this age of globalization. This is the era when teachers should use critical pedagogy to teach any genre of literature. Nowadays, a great number of memoirs form the Middle East perpetuate Islamophobia; yet some of them are taught at schools in the West. Perpetrating and perpetuating Islamophobia, as a trait of globalization, can be seen in some Iranian diasporic writings as well. This paper examines Persepolis: The story of a childhood, a diasporic Iranian memoir that is included in the educational curriculum of some Western schools. Utilizing Fiore's theory of critical pedagogy, we seek to provide ways for critical pedagogy of this memoir, and our discussion shows teachers how to use a text such as this to teach against Islamophobia.
Writing critical essays is an integral part of the undergraduates' learning experience especially... more Writing critical essays is an integral part of the undergraduates' learning experience especially within the Literature in English programme at the School of Language Studies and Linguistics, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. Every literature course including Critical Appreciation, Gender Identities and Selected Literary Works, which were the focus of this research project, requires the learners to discuss and present in written form pertinent issues in an analytical and engaging way using relevant citations from published materials. However, we found that our learners face significant problems in these areas. Some of the problems were rudimentary and could be dealt with through personal consultation. Nonetheless, most of the problems faced by our learners appeared more fundamental including the inability to discuss the issues in a critical manner, lack of paraphrasing skills and doing correct in-citations, purely summarizing the text without creating relevance with the topic and committing acts of plagiarism. As an intervention strategy, we incorporated and expanded certain available approaches that assist students to acquire the main skills they require in order to develop educated responses and write critical essays for literature.
In the novels of the Malaysian Indian K. S. Maniam, the contestation of recognition and reificati... more In the novels of the Malaysian Indian K. S. Maniam, the contestation of recognition and reification forms the central tension in the protagonists' identity development as members of a minority community in the multi-ethnic landscape of Malaya/Malaysia. Each central character's conflict lies in his/her ability/disability to balance accepting ethno-cultural recognition on the one hand and contesting the reification that the Indian ethnic group subjects him/her to on the other (subsequently championing what Michael Sandel coins an "unencumbered" sense of self-a self that is "free and independent" from "the sanctions of custom and tradition"). This paper discusses Maniam's three novels, The return, In a far country and Between lives, to ascertain the extent to which recognition and reification are important themes in the award-winning novelist's corpus. Using the conceptualisation of recognition, reification and the unencumbered self, the paper investigates how Maniam's three Indian Malaysian protagonists, Ravi, Rajan and Sumitra, like most members of minority communities who are faced with the challenges of a multi-ethnic social landscape, challenge the ethno-cultural imposition that their own ethnic community subjects them to while realising the significance of culture towards a healthy sense of selves.
Asian journal of social sciences and humanities, 2014
Research by Smith (2010) has shown that one of the implications of culture is the expansion of po... more Research by Smith (2010) has shown that one of the implications of culture is the expansion of power. This paper explores how power is legitimized through the idealizing of Malay adat (customs) by the “dominant knowers” in Malaysia’s popular TV fiction. Based on Conversation Analysis of selected narrative exchanges in Julia and On Dhia, dominant knowers prevail in conflicts using adat-related reasons in instituting the roles of women and men in everyday discourses. While Malay women attempt to establish themselves as the dominant knowers by using logic, their logic is turned down whereas in scenes where women are hardly given any chance of a voice, they are made invisible through mere sighs as if they have been pushed to a position where they lack personal choices. By focusing on TV fiction’s narrative exchanges, we ultimately unveil that although TV fiction is broadcast in times of modernity, Malay adat is still legitimate for expanding power and authority in everyday unconscious e...
Malay kingdom is ruled by ‘RAJA’ (King). Historically, there is an evidence of a treaty among Dem... more Malay kingdom is ruled by ‘RAJA’ (King). Historically, there is an evidence of a treaty among Demang Lebar Daun and Seri Tribuana on the terms of a sovereign, wise and just ruler (Sulalatus Sulatin, 1612). Since then, Malacca has stood up as a very strong, powerful and in control of the Malay Archipelago under the rules of RAJA. Consequently, over the years Malacca has in contact with the Dutch, British, Chinese, Arabs, Indians and many others for their businesses. Apart from the trading activities, the contact has a positive impact to the Malay language itself. One of them is more loanwords has absorbed into the Malay language. Nevertheless, the invasion of British under the Pangkor Treaty (1874) and the amendment of article 23(1) and article 181 (2) in Federal Constituition 1993, have caused the sovereignty and dignity of RAJA reduced to Malay customs and religion only. Since then, the word RAJA is no longer confined to king that rules the nation. Apparently, this development has ...
Forough Farrokhzad was one of the most important poets in twentieth century (1935-1976) in Iran. ... more Forough Farrokhzad was one of the most important poets in twentieth century (1935-1976) in Iran. A poet, who for the first time in the history of Persian literature broke boundaries, wrote from a feminine point of view and accentuated the experiences of being a woman. In this paper, we aim to explore her depiction of women in “Green Delusion” through a stylistic and lexico-grammatical method known as “transitivity” which is one of the most prominent part of Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistic approach. We have shown in the present study how socially constructed meaning and linguistic structure in the poetic discourse is related. By focusing on the microelements of words, we reveal the poet’s stance toward the situation of women in her society. The findings reveal that many of Farrokhzad’s poems represent feminine sensibility, voicing the inner self of a woman who speaks about love, hate, death and life, simultaneously. Her poetic gesture in most of her poetry was totally femi...
International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences
John Updike, one of America's avant-garde novelists, is one of those who have fictionalized the p... more John Updike, one of America's avant-garde novelists, is one of those who have fictionalized the post-9/11 atmosphere and consequences in his 22 nd novel, Terrorist. By means of employing a Muslim American teenager as the main character, the Muslim other in Terrorist has been characterized within the post-9/11 geopolitical context of wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine. This paper sets out to address Terrorist's exemplifications of geography of these Muslim countries and situate them within post-9/11 geopolitical and colonial contexts. Colonial shadows are the inferences and insinuations where colonial acts and conditions are justified, vindicated and normalized either through the narrative's representation of Muslims or via demonstrating pertaining geographies. By illustrating the narrative's colonial shadows, this paper aims at fathoming and expounding the overt and covert colonial implications and associations between the narrative and colonized topographies. In Terrorist, Palestinians are represented in connection with violence and terrorism in comparison with the nonviolent Israelis in order to vindicate the Israeli colonial standing in Palestine. Also, American colonial wars on Iraq and Afghanistan are shown as benign and justified self-defense acts.
This paper explores the narratives of Sara Aboobacker (1936-), a prolific South Indian Muslim wom... more This paper explores the narratives of Sara Aboobacker (1936-), a prolific South Indian Muslim woman writer. In her thirty years of literary production, Aboobacker's narratives showcase female characters from the South Indian Muslim community and highlight the varied experiences and the multiple identities they possess in a multicultural society. This study relies on the term " Muslimwoman " coined by Miriam Cooke whereby she homogenises Muslim women all over the world. The study proposes that undifferentiating the female experiences of Muslim women as suggested by Cooke requires a more refined categorisation incorporating the heterogeneous identity of Muslim women especially in multicultural societies. The current reading attempts to address this concern with a two-part discussion of Aboobacker's narratives. The first part focuses on the three primary religious concepts of talaq or divorce, polygamy and purdah, and conveys that though Aboobacker's female charac...
Pertanika Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, Feb 1, 2016
Adrienne Kennedy, in her oeuvre, has addressed the intersecting complications of gender and race.... more Adrienne Kennedy, in her oeuvre, has addressed the intersecting complications of gender and race. Most of her plays have examined and explored the ways in which these categories are constructed in American society. Through her focus on the experience of African American female characters, Kennedy's theatrical work has illuminated the ways in which African American women are doubly oppressed. From this perspective, Sarah of the Funnyhouse of a Negro presents one of the most significant issues discussed by contemporary African American literature, which is the intersectionality of oppression. Funnyhouse was written in 1964, and the theory of intersectionality was established in 1989. Therefore, investigating the play through the lens of intersectionality reflects that Funnyhouse had advanced the time in which it had been written. The present paper aims to illustrate alienation through the lens of intersectionality to examine oppression and suffering experienced by Sarah. To accomp...
The proliferation of TV fiction can be partly explained by TV producers attuning their products t... more The proliferation of TV fiction can be partly explained by TV producers attuning their products to draw audience’s attention. Narratives of love dominate the plots and almost always the good is pitted against the evil, rich against the poor - ultimately the good always wins. The formula may be clichéd, but in places where news of war, terrorism, diseases, violence, and conflicts usually prevail, respite from tumultuous realities of the world can often be found in popular TV fiction. Here, we study three popular Malay TV fiction, Julia, On Dhia, and Adam & Hawa to examine how TV fiction viewers relate to them through personal narratives and focus group interviews. Through their voices, we reveal that despite TV fiction viewers’ constant preoccupation with Western-imposed globalization, the TV fiction set against the backdrop of globalization can encourage the viewers to re-route their ways to re-discover their imaginary ‘good old days’ that are often dismissed, neglected or forgotten.
Asiatic: IIUM Journal of English Language and Literature, 2016
This paper explores the narratives of Sara Aboobacker (1936-), a prolific South Indian Muslim wom... more This paper explores the narratives of Sara Aboobacker (1936-), a prolific South Indian Muslim woman writer. In her thirty years of literary production, Aboobacker’s narratives showcase female characters from the South Indian Muslim community and highlight the varied experiences and the multiple identities they possess in a multicultural society. This study relies on the term “Muslimwoman” coined by Miriam Cooke whereby she homogenises Muslim women all over the world. The study proposes that undifferentiating the female experiences of Muslim women as suggested by Cooke requires a more refined categorisation incorporating the heterogeneous identity of Muslim women especially in multicultural societies. The current reading attempts to address this concern with a two-part discussion of Aboobacker’s narratives. The first part focuses on the three primary religious concepts of talaq or divorce, polygamy and purdah, and conveys that though Aboobacker’s female characters are situated in a l...
International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences
Hilary Tham, primarily known as a Chinese-Malaysian-American poet, makes use of her rich Asian-Ch... more Hilary Tham, primarily known as a Chinese-Malaysian-American poet, makes use of her rich Asian-Chinese heritage in the various anthologies she has written throughout her life in America. She plays the role of cultural mediator by translating cultural artefacts she grew up with and aspects of the American culture she has embraced. In this paper, we explore the way Tham negotiates her multiple cultural identities through her selected poems by employing cultural translation as a lens. In the analysis, the translation of multiple cultures is centered thematically on food culture, parenting culture, old age culture, ancestor worship culture, funeral culture, and expression of love culture. We argue that the hyphenated identities negotiated in Tham's selected poems are heterogeneous, multifaceted, polyphonic, and never unilateral by characterization. Although Tham is conscious of her role and agency as a cultural mediator in communicating the cultural differences of Asian-Chinese immigrants to her American audience, she negotiates the imbalanced power relations in most of the cultural issues and problematizes the "in-betweenness" of cultural identities, which culminates in the creation of a "Third Space" that fuses the East and the West as part of her cultural being. By way of implication, the focus on hyphenated identities through the lens of cultural translation contributes to the creation of cultural consciousness and mutual understanding of cultural variations between East-West cultures in Asian and American communities.
In the novels of the Malaysian Indian K. S. Maniam, the contestation of recognition and reificati... more In the novels of the Malaysian Indian K. S. Maniam, the contestation of recognition and reification forms the central tension in the protagonists' identity development as members of a minority community in the multi-ethnic landscape of Malaya/Malaysia. Each central character's conflict lies in his/her ability/disability to balance accepting ethno-cultural recognition on the one hand and contesting the reification that the Indian ethnic group subjects him/her to on the other (subsequently championing what Michael Sandel coins an "unencumbered" sense of self-a self that is "free and independent" from "the sanctions of custom and tradition"). This paper discusses Maniam's three novels, The return, In a far country and Between lives, to ascertain the extent to which recognition and reification are important themes in the award-winning novelist's corpus. Using the conceptualisation of recognition, reification and the unencumbered self, the paper investigates how Maniam's three Indian Malaysian protagonists, Ravi, Rajan and Sumitra, like most members of minority communities who are faced with the challenges of a multi-ethnic social landscape, challenge the ethno-cultural imposition that their own ethnic community subjects them to while realising the significance of culture towards a healthy sense of selves.
This paper traverses readings on Malay cultural identities. While previous research on Malay cult... more This paper traverses readings on Malay cultural identities. While previous research on Malay cultural identities has presented a broad overview, this paper attempts to frame this discussion based on elite constructions and socio-cultural worldviews of the Malay world. It proposes to be a start to exploring what is distinctive and worthwhile about Malay cultural identities.
Ecocriticism is concerned with the relationship between literature and environment or how the rel... more Ecocriticism is concerned with the relationship between literature and environment or how the relationships between humans and their physical world are reflected in literature. In this paper, we attempt to analyse selected poems of Muhammad Haji Salleh using some concepts from ecocriticism as an analytical lens. The premise of this paper is based on the poet's symbiotic relationship which has become a significant feature of his work. Using six of his nature poems to exhibit Muhammad's idea of mutual relationship between the human world and the natural world of environment, we show the poet's concern about the slightest interference of human beings into the world of nature which results in the disruption of human-nature relationship. Muhammad Haji Salleh does not limit himself to presenting the brighter and darker side of nature, rather he has gone a step further to reveal the very concept of ecosystem and reflect the blossoming of ecological consciousness in modern Malaysian society. This approach of reading Muhammad Haji Salleh exhibits the current interest in the environment and the ways in which it has to be treated with respect and love. By explicating the intrinsic features of nature in his selected poems, we can inculcate environmental awareness and inspire ecological consciousness among people in Malaysia and elsewhere in the world.
Pertanika journal of social science and humanities, 2016
Adrienne Kennedy, in her oeuvre, has addressed the intersecting complications of gender and race.... more Adrienne Kennedy, in her oeuvre, has addressed the intersecting complications of gender and race. Most of her plays have examined and explored the ways in which these categories are constructed in American society. Through her focus on the experience of African American female characters, Kennedy’s theatrical work has illuminated the ways in which African American women are doubly oppressed. From this perspective, Sarah of the Funnyhouse of a Negro presents one of the most significant issues discussed by contemporary African American literature, which is the intersectionality of oppression. Funnyhouse was written in 1964, and the theory of intersectionality was established in 1989. Therefore, investigating the play through the lens of intersectionality reflects that Funnyhouse had advanced the time in which it had been written. The present paper aims to illustrate alienation through the lens of intersectionality to examine oppression and suffering experienced by Sarah. To accomplish...
Domestic violence against women is a common social ill that destroys thousands of women’s lives w... more Domestic violence against women is a common social ill that destroys thousands of women’s lives worldwide (Khan, 2000). However, the growth of this concern, particularly in developing countries such as Afghanistan, requires more scholarly attention not only because the lives of many Afghan women are affected by it, but also because it remains overlooked due to socio-cultural norms that consider discussions about it as taboo. Of late, however, there is a rising trend among members of the Afghan Diaspora in portraying domestic violence against their womenfolk back home through such artistic mediums as fiction (Parveen, 2015). Therefore, in this paper, we shall examine the manifestations of domestic violence against women in the Afghan context through a textual analysis of The Patience Stone by Atiq Rahimi, an author belonging to the Afghan Diaspora. Originally written in French, this breakthrough novella highlights the harsh reality of the misery suffered by many Afghan women on a reg...
The present genre of Indian literary writings on untouchability encompasses fictional or semiauto... more The present genre of Indian literary writings on untouchability encompasses fictional or semiautobiographical narratives produced by writers who are mostly untouchables themselves, and the more widely-accepted of such writings are those that solely focus on the oppression of the untouchable community. In the process of privileging oppression, these writers often fail to provide a balanced portrayal of the community"s ethnic characteristics. The key concerns of this paper, therefore, are to analyse the motivation of untouchable writers who choose to stereotype their people as "the victimized other", and to bring to the forefront works of writers who have made conscious efforts to infuse aspects of ethnicity, culture and rituals into their writings. This paper analyses two short stories on untouchability written in Tamil and translated into English, The Binding Vow (2009/2012) by Imayam, and Eardrum (2000/2012) by Azhakiya Periyavan, with the aim of investigating the writers" stand on the ethnic and ritualistic culture of their people. The findings of this study reveal that the writers" privileging of oppression over ethnic issues reflects a strong influence of Dalit ideologies, and that despite such a pattern, there are those who continue to employ culture and rituals as tools to empower their people. The study also implies that the ethnicity and rituals of the untouchable community deserve equal attention as the portrayal of oppression in Indian literary writings on untouchability, and that by privileging oppression, writers are misleading their people into abandoning and rejecting their true ethnic and cultural identity.
In varying degrees, Arabic poetry is rich with natural images but they are employed differently b... more In varying degrees, Arabic poetry is rich with natural images but they are employed differently by Arab poets. This article analyses some selected Arabic poems through the lens of ecocriticism to explore how the natural environment is always a shaping force of individuals and contribute to the greening of resistance through parts of the biotic community in the Arab world. The premise of this article has its roots in the recent ecocritical arguments on the elastic and permeable boundaries of the field and its applicability as a lens through which to read any literary text. The discussion is focused on some selected Arabic poems which lend themselves well to the ecocritical interpretation and show how the Arab poets such as Mahmoud Darwish, Tawfiq Zayyad, Fadwa Tuqan, and Salem Jubran engage the natural environment in their poems. The analysis of the selected poems, which represent the other Arabic poems of their genre, advocates the ecocritical way of expressing resistance in Arabic poetry to signify the profound presence and engagement of the natural world in exhibiting the human resistance to the occupation of the land. It also reveals that the Arab poets have highlighted the interconnectedness between the human and nonhuman world in their poetry. By incorporating the Arab viewpoints and voices such as the ones we presented in this article, ecocriticism is instrumental in meeting its targeted scope as a multinational, multi vocal, multicultural area of scholarship.
International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature, 2013
Traditional education of literature would do injustice to both students and the discipline in thi... more Traditional education of literature would do injustice to both students and the discipline in this age of globalization. This is the era when teachers should use critical pedagogy to teach any genre of literature. Nowadays, a great number of memoirs form the Middle East perpetuate Islamophobia; yet some of them are taught at schools in the West. Perpetrating and perpetuating Islamophobia, as a trait of globalization, can be seen in some Iranian diasporic writings as well. This paper examines Persepolis: The story of a childhood, a diasporic Iranian memoir that is included in the educational curriculum of some Western schools. Utilizing Fiore's theory of critical pedagogy, we seek to provide ways for critical pedagogy of this memoir, and our discussion shows teachers how to use a text such as this to teach against Islamophobia.
Writing critical essays is an integral part of the undergraduates' learning experience especially... more Writing critical essays is an integral part of the undergraduates' learning experience especially within the Literature in English programme at the School of Language Studies and Linguistics, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. Every literature course including Critical Appreciation, Gender Identities and Selected Literary Works, which were the focus of this research project, requires the learners to discuss and present in written form pertinent issues in an analytical and engaging way using relevant citations from published materials. However, we found that our learners face significant problems in these areas. Some of the problems were rudimentary and could be dealt with through personal consultation. Nonetheless, most of the problems faced by our learners appeared more fundamental including the inability to discuss the issues in a critical manner, lack of paraphrasing skills and doing correct in-citations, purely summarizing the text without creating relevance with the topic and committing acts of plagiarism. As an intervention strategy, we incorporated and expanded certain available approaches that assist students to acquire the main skills they require in order to develop educated responses and write critical essays for literature.
In the novels of the Malaysian Indian K. S. Maniam, the contestation of recognition and reificati... more In the novels of the Malaysian Indian K. S. Maniam, the contestation of recognition and reification forms the central tension in the protagonists' identity development as members of a minority community in the multi-ethnic landscape of Malaya/Malaysia. Each central character's conflict lies in his/her ability/disability to balance accepting ethno-cultural recognition on the one hand and contesting the reification that the Indian ethnic group subjects him/her to on the other (subsequently championing what Michael Sandel coins an "unencumbered" sense of self-a self that is "free and independent" from "the sanctions of custom and tradition"). This paper discusses Maniam's three novels, The return, In a far country and Between lives, to ascertain the extent to which recognition and reification are important themes in the award-winning novelist's corpus. Using the conceptualisation of recognition, reification and the unencumbered self, the paper investigates how Maniam's three Indian Malaysian protagonists, Ravi, Rajan and Sumitra, like most members of minority communities who are faced with the challenges of a multi-ethnic social landscape, challenge the ethno-cultural imposition that their own ethnic community subjects them to while realising the significance of culture towards a healthy sense of selves.
Asian journal of social sciences and humanities, 2014
Research by Smith (2010) has shown that one of the implications of culture is the expansion of po... more Research by Smith (2010) has shown that one of the implications of culture is the expansion of power. This paper explores how power is legitimized through the idealizing of Malay adat (customs) by the “dominant knowers” in Malaysia’s popular TV fiction. Based on Conversation Analysis of selected narrative exchanges in Julia and On Dhia, dominant knowers prevail in conflicts using adat-related reasons in instituting the roles of women and men in everyday discourses. While Malay women attempt to establish themselves as the dominant knowers by using logic, their logic is turned down whereas in scenes where women are hardly given any chance of a voice, they are made invisible through mere sighs as if they have been pushed to a position where they lack personal choices. By focusing on TV fiction’s narrative exchanges, we ultimately unveil that although TV fiction is broadcast in times of modernity, Malay adat is still legitimate for expanding power and authority in everyday unconscious e...
Malay kingdom is ruled by ‘RAJA’ (King). Historically, there is an evidence of a treaty among Dem... more Malay kingdom is ruled by ‘RAJA’ (King). Historically, there is an evidence of a treaty among Demang Lebar Daun and Seri Tribuana on the terms of a sovereign, wise and just ruler (Sulalatus Sulatin, 1612). Since then, Malacca has stood up as a very strong, powerful and in control of the Malay Archipelago under the rules of RAJA. Consequently, over the years Malacca has in contact with the Dutch, British, Chinese, Arabs, Indians and many others for their businesses. Apart from the trading activities, the contact has a positive impact to the Malay language itself. One of them is more loanwords has absorbed into the Malay language. Nevertheless, the invasion of British under the Pangkor Treaty (1874) and the amendment of article 23(1) and article 181 (2) in Federal Constituition 1993, have caused the sovereignty and dignity of RAJA reduced to Malay customs and religion only. Since then, the word RAJA is no longer confined to king that rules the nation. Apparently, this development has ...
Forough Farrokhzad was one of the most important poets in twentieth century (1935-1976) in Iran. ... more Forough Farrokhzad was one of the most important poets in twentieth century (1935-1976) in Iran. A poet, who for the first time in the history of Persian literature broke boundaries, wrote from a feminine point of view and accentuated the experiences of being a woman. In this paper, we aim to explore her depiction of women in “Green Delusion” through a stylistic and lexico-grammatical method known as “transitivity” which is one of the most prominent part of Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistic approach. We have shown in the present study how socially constructed meaning and linguistic structure in the poetic discourse is related. By focusing on the microelements of words, we reveal the poet’s stance toward the situation of women in her society. The findings reveal that many of Farrokhzad’s poems represent feminine sensibility, voicing the inner self of a woman who speaks about love, hate, death and life, simultaneously. Her poetic gesture in most of her poetry was totally femi...
International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences
John Updike, one of America's avant-garde novelists, is one of those who have fictionalized the p... more John Updike, one of America's avant-garde novelists, is one of those who have fictionalized the post-9/11 atmosphere and consequences in his 22 nd novel, Terrorist. By means of employing a Muslim American teenager as the main character, the Muslim other in Terrorist has been characterized within the post-9/11 geopolitical context of wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine. This paper sets out to address Terrorist's exemplifications of geography of these Muslim countries and situate them within post-9/11 geopolitical and colonial contexts. Colonial shadows are the inferences and insinuations where colonial acts and conditions are justified, vindicated and normalized either through the narrative's representation of Muslims or via demonstrating pertaining geographies. By illustrating the narrative's colonial shadows, this paper aims at fathoming and expounding the overt and covert colonial implications and associations between the narrative and colonized topographies. In Terrorist, Palestinians are represented in connection with violence and terrorism in comparison with the nonviolent Israelis in order to vindicate the Israeli colonial standing in Palestine. Also, American colonial wars on Iraq and Afghanistan are shown as benign and justified self-defense acts.
This paper explores the narratives of Sara Aboobacker (1936-), a prolific South Indian Muslim wom... more This paper explores the narratives of Sara Aboobacker (1936-), a prolific South Indian Muslim woman writer. In her thirty years of literary production, Aboobacker's narratives showcase female characters from the South Indian Muslim community and highlight the varied experiences and the multiple identities they possess in a multicultural society. This study relies on the term " Muslimwoman " coined by Miriam Cooke whereby she homogenises Muslim women all over the world. The study proposes that undifferentiating the female experiences of Muslim women as suggested by Cooke requires a more refined categorisation incorporating the heterogeneous identity of Muslim women especially in multicultural societies. The current reading attempts to address this concern with a two-part discussion of Aboobacker's narratives. The first part focuses on the three primary religious concepts of talaq or divorce, polygamy and purdah, and conveys that though Aboobacker's female charac...
Pertanika Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, Feb 1, 2016
Adrienne Kennedy, in her oeuvre, has addressed the intersecting complications of gender and race.... more Adrienne Kennedy, in her oeuvre, has addressed the intersecting complications of gender and race. Most of her plays have examined and explored the ways in which these categories are constructed in American society. Through her focus on the experience of African American female characters, Kennedy's theatrical work has illuminated the ways in which African American women are doubly oppressed. From this perspective, Sarah of the Funnyhouse of a Negro presents one of the most significant issues discussed by contemporary African American literature, which is the intersectionality of oppression. Funnyhouse was written in 1964, and the theory of intersectionality was established in 1989. Therefore, investigating the play through the lens of intersectionality reflects that Funnyhouse had advanced the time in which it had been written. The present paper aims to illustrate alienation through the lens of intersectionality to examine oppression and suffering experienced by Sarah. To accomp...
The proliferation of TV fiction can be partly explained by TV producers attuning their products t... more The proliferation of TV fiction can be partly explained by TV producers attuning their products to draw audience’s attention. Narratives of love dominate the plots and almost always the good is pitted against the evil, rich against the poor - ultimately the good always wins. The formula may be clichéd, but in places where news of war, terrorism, diseases, violence, and conflicts usually prevail, respite from tumultuous realities of the world can often be found in popular TV fiction. Here, we study three popular Malay TV fiction, Julia, On Dhia, and Adam & Hawa to examine how TV fiction viewers relate to them through personal narratives and focus group interviews. Through their voices, we reveal that despite TV fiction viewers’ constant preoccupation with Western-imposed globalization, the TV fiction set against the backdrop of globalization can encourage the viewers to re-route their ways to re-discover their imaginary ‘good old days’ that are often dismissed, neglected or forgotten.
Asiatic: IIUM Journal of English Language and Literature, 2016
This paper explores the narratives of Sara Aboobacker (1936-), a prolific South Indian Muslim wom... more This paper explores the narratives of Sara Aboobacker (1936-), a prolific South Indian Muslim woman writer. In her thirty years of literary production, Aboobacker’s narratives showcase female characters from the South Indian Muslim community and highlight the varied experiences and the multiple identities they possess in a multicultural society. This study relies on the term “Muslimwoman” coined by Miriam Cooke whereby she homogenises Muslim women all over the world. The study proposes that undifferentiating the female experiences of Muslim women as suggested by Cooke requires a more refined categorisation incorporating the heterogeneous identity of Muslim women especially in multicultural societies. The current reading attempts to address this concern with a two-part discussion of Aboobacker’s narratives. The first part focuses on the three primary religious concepts of talaq or divorce, polygamy and purdah, and conveys that though Aboobacker’s female characters are situated in a l...
International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences
Hilary Tham, primarily known as a Chinese-Malaysian-American poet, makes use of her rich Asian-Ch... more Hilary Tham, primarily known as a Chinese-Malaysian-American poet, makes use of her rich Asian-Chinese heritage in the various anthologies she has written throughout her life in America. She plays the role of cultural mediator by translating cultural artefacts she grew up with and aspects of the American culture she has embraced. In this paper, we explore the way Tham negotiates her multiple cultural identities through her selected poems by employing cultural translation as a lens. In the analysis, the translation of multiple cultures is centered thematically on food culture, parenting culture, old age culture, ancestor worship culture, funeral culture, and expression of love culture. We argue that the hyphenated identities negotiated in Tham's selected poems are heterogeneous, multifaceted, polyphonic, and never unilateral by characterization. Although Tham is conscious of her role and agency as a cultural mediator in communicating the cultural differences of Asian-Chinese immigrants to her American audience, she negotiates the imbalanced power relations in most of the cultural issues and problematizes the "in-betweenness" of cultural identities, which culminates in the creation of a "Third Space" that fuses the East and the West as part of her cultural being. By way of implication, the focus on hyphenated identities through the lens of cultural translation contributes to the creation of cultural consciousness and mutual understanding of cultural variations between East-West cultures in Asian and American communities.
In the novels of the Malaysian Indian K. S. Maniam, the contestation of recognition and reificati... more In the novels of the Malaysian Indian K. S. Maniam, the contestation of recognition and reification forms the central tension in the protagonists' identity development as members of a minority community in the multi-ethnic landscape of Malaya/Malaysia. Each central character's conflict lies in his/her ability/disability to balance accepting ethno-cultural recognition on the one hand and contesting the reification that the Indian ethnic group subjects him/her to on the other (subsequently championing what Michael Sandel coins an "unencumbered" sense of self-a self that is "free and independent" from "the sanctions of custom and tradition"). This paper discusses Maniam's three novels, The return, In a far country and Between lives, to ascertain the extent to which recognition and reification are important themes in the award-winning novelist's corpus. Using the conceptualisation of recognition, reification and the unencumbered self, the paper investigates how Maniam's three Indian Malaysian protagonists, Ravi, Rajan and Sumitra, like most members of minority communities who are faced with the challenges of a multi-ethnic social landscape, challenge the ethno-cultural imposition that their own ethnic community subjects them to while realising the significance of culture towards a healthy sense of selves.
This paper traverses readings on Malay cultural identities. While previous research on Malay cult... more This paper traverses readings on Malay cultural identities. While previous research on Malay cultural identities has presented a broad overview, this paper attempts to frame this discussion based on elite constructions and socio-cultural worldviews of the Malay world. It proposes to be a start to exploring what is distinctive and worthwhile about Malay cultural identities.
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