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Rerouting the worlding of inter-ethnic estrangement through critical solace: Shivani Sivagurunathan’s Yalpanam

Notes of estrangement and exile, flight and peregrination are themes that are often closely threaded into the narratives of contemporary Malaysian novelists. This is especially so for those writers who live abroad but are continually drawn back across the sea of memory to draw on key episodes that h...

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Main Authors: Shanthini Pillai,, Jeslyn Sharnita Amarasekera,, Wong, Angeline Wei Wei
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2023
Online Access:http://journalarticle.ukm.my/22742/1/TT%2018.pdf
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/22742/
https://ejournal.ukm.my/3l/issue/view/1618
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spelling my-ukm.journal.227422023-12-26T10:18:46Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/22742/ Rerouting the worlding of inter-ethnic estrangement through critical solace: Shivani Sivagurunathan’s Yalpanam Shanthini Pillai, Jeslyn Sharnita Amarasekera, Wong, Angeline Wei Wei Notes of estrangement and exile, flight and peregrination are themes that are often closely threaded into the narratives of contemporary Malaysian novelists. This is especially so for those writers who live abroad but are continually drawn back across the sea of memory to draw on key episodes that have been the catalyst for the creation of the Malaysian diaspora. References to the racial riots of 1969 are foremost among these, with the Japanese Occupation a close second. We suggest that these have created an emerging empire of transnational narratives that has worlded Malaysia through the spectres of national trauma until many forget the very act of fictional worlding. In this paper, we interrogate the interior realities of home-based writings by choosing the novel Yalpanam (2021) by Shivani Sivagurunathan. We argue that the descriptive poetics of its narrative reworlds melancholy, trauma and shame through the interweaving of inter-ethnic and intergenerational perspectives. Taking centrestage is Yalpanam, the house from which the novel derives its very title that plays a significant role in rerouting the trajectory of inter-ethnic estrangement through an integration of solace and healing as part of the narrative’s rhetorical strategy. This trajectory unfolds in the novel through a bricolage of the legacies of the past that form the inner sanctum of the novel, integrating the micro-narratives of letters, folk memory, family stories and formalised historical events. We suggest that these micro-narratives are collectively restorative and recuperative. It is through the commingling of these micro narratives that the novel presents what we see as a re-worlding of transnational aesthetics of estrangement that eventually engenders a sense of solidarity through intertwined ethno-memories. Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2023-09 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://journalarticle.ukm.my/22742/1/TT%2018.pdf Shanthini Pillai, and Jeslyn Sharnita Amarasekera, and Wong, Angeline Wei Wei (2023) Rerouting the worlding of inter-ethnic estrangement through critical solace: Shivani Sivagurunathan’s Yalpanam. 3L; Language,Linguistics and Literature,The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies., 29 (3). pp. 258-271. ISSN 0128-5157 https://ejournal.ukm.my/3l/issue/view/1618
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 Notes of estrangement and exile, flight and peregrination are themes that are often closely threaded into the narratives of contemporary Malaysian novelists. This is especially so for those writers who live abroad but are continually drawn back across the sea of memory to draw on key episodes that have been the catalyst for the creation of the Malaysian diaspora. References to the racial riots of 1969 are foremost among these, with the Japanese Occupation a close second. We suggest that these have created an emerging empire of transnational narratives that has worlded Malaysia through the spectres of national trauma until many forget the very act of fictional worlding. In this paper, we interrogate the interior realities of home-based writings by choosing the novel Yalpanam (2021) by Shivani Sivagurunathan. We argue that the descriptive poetics of its narrative reworlds melancholy, trauma and shame through the interweaving of inter-ethnic and intergenerational perspectives. Taking centrestage is Yalpanam, the house from which the novel derives its very title that plays a significant role in rerouting the trajectory of inter-ethnic estrangement through an integration of solace and healing as part of the narrative’s rhetorical strategy. This trajectory unfolds in the novel through a bricolage of the legacies of the past that form the inner sanctum of the novel, integrating the micro-narratives of letters, folk memory, family stories and formalised historical events. We suggest that these micro-narratives are collectively restorative and recuperative. It is through the commingling of these micro narratives that the novel presents what we see as a re-worlding of transnational aesthetics of estrangement that eventually engenders a sense of solidarity through intertwined ethno-memories.
format Article
author Shanthini Pillai,
Jeslyn Sharnita Amarasekera,
Wong, Angeline Wei Wei
spellingShingle Shanthini Pillai,
Jeslyn Sharnita Amarasekera,
Wong, Angeline Wei Wei
Rerouting the worlding of inter-ethnic estrangement through critical solace: Shivani Sivagurunathan’s Yalpanam
author_facet Shanthini Pillai,
Jeslyn Sharnita Amarasekera,
Wong, Angeline Wei Wei
author_sort Shanthini Pillai,
title Rerouting the worlding of inter-ethnic estrangement through critical solace: Shivani Sivagurunathan’s Yalpanam
title_short Rerouting the worlding of inter-ethnic estrangement through critical solace: Shivani Sivagurunathan’s Yalpanam
title_full Rerouting the worlding of inter-ethnic estrangement through critical solace: Shivani Sivagurunathan’s Yalpanam
title_fullStr Rerouting the worlding of inter-ethnic estrangement through critical solace: Shivani Sivagurunathan’s Yalpanam
title_full_unstemmed Rerouting the worlding of inter-ethnic estrangement through critical solace: Shivani Sivagurunathan’s Yalpanam
title_sort rerouting the worlding of inter-ethnic estrangement through critical solace: shivani sivagurunathan’s yalpanam
publisher Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
publishDate 2023
url http://journalarticle.ukm.my/22742/1/TT%2018.pdf
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/22742/
https://ejournal.ukm.my/3l/issue/view/1618
_version_ 1787134661000953856
score 13.211869

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