Resisting Hegemony And Defending Chinese Identity In Selected Novels By Malaysian Chinese Writers
The purpose of this study is to find out how the theory of hegemony and various types of hegemonies are applicable in the analysis of the novels. It also focuses on how hegemony and its resistance assist us to understand Chinese identity, especially in the Malaysian context. This theory is used t...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English English |
| Published: |
2010
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| Online Access: | http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/12336/1/FBMK_2010_12A.pdf http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/12336/ |
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| Summary: | The purpose of this study is to find out how the theory of hegemony and various types of
hegemonies are applicable in the analysis of the novels. It also focuses on how
hegemony and its resistance assist us to understand Chinese identity, especially in the
Malaysian context. This theory is used to analyse how the protagonists engage
hegemony and its resistance in defending Chinese identity as portrayed in the novels by
Malaysian Chinese writers. The four selected novels are Yang-May Ooi’s Mindgame
(2000), Chong Seck Chim’s Once Upon a Time in Malaya (2005), Tash Aw’s The
Harmony Silk Factory (2005), and Tan Twan Eng’s The Gift of Rain (2007). These
novels are chosen because they promote Chinese philosophy, culture and history, which
are also embraced by the Chinese protagonists - Fei in Mindgame, Ah Kiew in Once
Upon a Time in Malaya, Johny Lim in The Harmony Silk Factory, and Philip Hutton in
The Gift of Rain.The study of hegemony is based mainly on Antonio Gramsci’s Selections from the
Prison Notebooks, and Hegemony and Socialist Strategy: Towards a Radical
Democratic Politics by Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, Jonathan Joseph’s
Hegemony: A Realist Analysis, as well as Mao Tse-tung’s On Guerilla Warfare, which
provide deep insights into how hegemony works and the strategies of resisting it.
Hegemony is found in politics, the economy, history, culture, philosophy and even
religion in society. The main theory engages constant changes and could be interpreted
differently according to the time, political, historical and cultural contexts. The
symbiotic relationship between hegemony and other related concepts such as diasporic
resistance, difference, and Chinese Communism in resisting ideological, educational and
economic hegemonies is discussed. In resisting historical, religious and cultural
hegemonies, the hegemonic concepts of revolution, alienation and dislocation are
applied and elaborated. By resisting hegemony, the Chinese protagonists in the texts
revisit their ancestral roots, Chinese history, religion, culture and language to defend
their Chinese identity. |
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