Writing Malay Consciousness

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Writing and Malay Consciousness

Writing has its own unique place in the history of self-awareness and the nationalist struggle in Malaysia. Beginning with the Al-Imam, which was published in 1906, Malay publications became the main thrust in championing and shaping the fight for nationalism.

Writing, whether in the form of novels, short stories or poems, all played distinct roles in galvanizing the spirit of Malay nationalism. These authors of malay awareness came from varied backgrounds. In the early stages, it was those with a religious education from the Middle East whose writings were most significant.

Subsequently, it was those educated through the Malay vernacular system and teacher training institutions whose writings were the primary driving force of a growing awareness. They included journalists as well as novelists, poets and short story writers.

It was then the turn of the journalist to bring Malay nationalism to the next higher level. Whether through direct statements or cynical implication, they started to challenge the British and colonial rule.

In the Malay newspapers of the 1930s, the growing outcry for self-governance and the importance of independence was the real headline news.

 

Writing a New Society: Social Change Through the Novel in Malay (Southeast Asia Publications Series) (Hardcover)

by Virginia Matheson Hooker

Writing a New Society is the first extended study of the novel in Malay and is a groundbreaking study of the relationship between social change and literary practice.

The book traces the emergence of the genre from the 1920s and, drawing on twenty-six of Malaysia's best-known novels, argues that the form was developed as a vehicle for transforming Malay ideas about themselves and their society. Virginia Hooker focuses on the underlying anxiety about racial identity, which underpins much of Malay writing and examines how ethnic identity is constructed and expressed.

About the Author
Virginia Matheson Hooker is professor of Indonesian and Malay in the Faculty of Asian Studies, Australian National University.

Review
During the course of the twentieth century Malaya has become Malaysia and the country has been transformed from a resource producing colony to a self-governing, industrialised, high-profile member of the rapidly expanding regional grouping of Southeast

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Writing Malay Consciousness

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