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The modern Malay : A comparative study of Katherine Sim’s Malacca Boy (1957) and Mahathir Mohamad’s The Malay Dilemma (1970)

This article examines the representations of the modern Malay in Katherine Sim’s Malacca Boy (1957), which is set against the backdrop of historical events in British Malaya, including the Japanese Occupation. An important historical commentary on Malay life and modernising Malaya, the novel invites...

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Main Authors: Mohamad Rashidi Mohd Pakri,, Grace, V.S. Chin, Afzal, Malik Haroon
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2022
Online Access:http://journalarticle.ukm.my/20953/1/53674-198295-1-PB.pdf
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/20953/
https://ejournal.ukm.my/gema/issue/view/1554
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spelling my-ukm.journal.209532023-01-16T07:05:37Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/20953/ The modern Malay : A comparative study of Katherine Sim’s Malacca Boy (1957) and Mahathir Mohamad’s The Malay Dilemma (1970) Mohamad Rashidi Mohd Pakri, Grace, V.S. Chin Afzal, Malik Haroon This article examines the representations of the modern Malay in Katherine Sim’s Malacca Boy (1957), which is set against the backdrop of historical events in British Malaya, including the Japanese Occupation. An important historical commentary on Malay life and modernising Malaya, the novel invites us to revisit the ingrained scholarly views about colonial writers as well as the contemporary racial discourse about the Malay. Using a new historicist approach, this article has a two-fold aim: first, to analyse how Malacca Boy engages the critical issues of race and modernity in its portrayal of Malay identity through the protagonist, Hassan; and second, to examine the relevance of Sim’s portrayal in relation to the contemporary political narrative of the Malay in Mahathir Mohamad’s The Malay Dilemma (1970). Indeed, very little research has been done to consider how the trajectories of fiction and non-fiction intersect in the discussion of race and modernity, and therein lies the novelty and strength of our study. Although it is uncommon to compare literary fiction and non-fiction writing, we contend that such an unconventional approach to literary analysis will yield important insights to the narration of Malaysian history, both in the colonial past and postcolonial present, and the place of the modern Malay in it. Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2022-11 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://journalarticle.ukm.my/20953/1/53674-198295-1-PB.pdf Mohamad Rashidi Mohd Pakri, and Grace, V.S. Chin and Afzal, Malik Haroon (2022) The modern Malay : A comparative study of Katherine Sim’s Malacca Boy (1957) and Mahathir Mohamad’s The Malay Dilemma (1970). GEMA: Online Journal of Language Studies, 22 (4). pp. 279-294. ISSN 1675-8021 https://ejournal.ukm.my/gema/issue/view/1554
institution Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
building Tun Sri Lanang Library
collection Institutional Repository
continent Asia
country Malaysia
content_provider Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
content_source UKM Journal Article Repository
url_provider http://journalarticle.ukm.my/
language English
description This article examines the representations of the modern Malay in Katherine Sim’s Malacca Boy (1957), which is set against the backdrop of historical events in British Malaya, including the Japanese Occupation. An important historical commentary on Malay life and modernising Malaya, the novel invites us to revisit the ingrained scholarly views about colonial writers as well as the contemporary racial discourse about the Malay. Using a new historicist approach, this article has a two-fold aim: first, to analyse how Malacca Boy engages the critical issues of race and modernity in its portrayal of Malay identity through the protagonist, Hassan; and second, to examine the relevance of Sim’s portrayal in relation to the contemporary political narrative of the Malay in Mahathir Mohamad’s The Malay Dilemma (1970). Indeed, very little research has been done to consider how the trajectories of fiction and non-fiction intersect in the discussion of race and modernity, and therein lies the novelty and strength of our study. Although it is uncommon to compare literary fiction and non-fiction writing, we contend that such an unconventional approach to literary analysis will yield important insights to the narration of Malaysian history, both in the colonial past and postcolonial present, and the place of the modern Malay in it.
format Article
author Mohamad Rashidi Mohd Pakri,
Grace, V.S. Chin
Afzal, Malik Haroon
spellingShingle Mohamad Rashidi Mohd Pakri,
Grace, V.S. Chin
Afzal, Malik Haroon
The modern Malay : A comparative study of Katherine Sim’s Malacca Boy (1957) and Mahathir Mohamad’s The Malay Dilemma (1970)
author_facet Mohamad Rashidi Mohd Pakri,
Grace, V.S. Chin
Afzal, Malik Haroon
author_sort Mohamad Rashidi Mohd Pakri,
title The modern Malay : A comparative study of Katherine Sim’s Malacca Boy (1957) and Mahathir Mohamad’s The Malay Dilemma (1970)
title_short The modern Malay : A comparative study of Katherine Sim’s Malacca Boy (1957) and Mahathir Mohamad’s The Malay Dilemma (1970)
title_full The modern Malay : A comparative study of Katherine Sim’s Malacca Boy (1957) and Mahathir Mohamad’s The Malay Dilemma (1970)
title_fullStr The modern Malay : A comparative study of Katherine Sim’s Malacca Boy (1957) and Mahathir Mohamad’s The Malay Dilemma (1970)
title_full_unstemmed The modern Malay : A comparative study of Katherine Sim’s Malacca Boy (1957) and Mahathir Mohamad’s The Malay Dilemma (1970)
title_sort modern malay : a comparative study of katherine sim’s malacca boy (1957) and mahathir mohamad’s the malay dilemma (1970)
publisher Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
publishDate 2022
url http://journalarticle.ukm.my/20953/1/53674-198295-1-PB.pdf
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/20953/
https://ejournal.ukm.my/gema/issue/view/1554
_version_ 1755873350560776192
score 13.211869

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