The Roots of Malay(an) Literature in English Dudley De Souza BBL 4306 Week 6

Introduction  When a literature in English was in the process of emerging, Singapore and Malaysia were under one political administration and the intellectuals of that time spoke in terms of a Malayan literature in English.  The war years effected the growth of a consciousness of the need for a national identity.

Malayan Literature  “It was the growing consciousness, the pressure of rising nationalism that furnished the incentive and the occasion for a more vital poetry.” – Edwin Thumboo (one of the most significant figures in the emergence of an indigenous literature in English.)  The earliest published attempts at serious imaginative writing in English by locals before the Second World War were those found in periodicals from Raffles College.

Malayan Literature  In the introduction of English as a medium of education in Malaya, the literary offerings showed an obvious dependence on English models in terms of content and style.  The dominant influences were the classical authors and this eventually gave way to modernist Anglo-American influences.

Literary Publication  The editors of The New Cauldron had a sense of mission; they saw themselves in the role of pioneers.  An attempt at the new literature by Wang Gungwu (“Awang”) in The New Cauldron entitled ‘Ahmad” mixes Malay with poetry in English.  One must regard works using “local colour” as the initial stage in the evolution of an authentic Malayan literature in English.

Medium of instruction  In the case of Singapore, English has strengthened its position as a link language and the language of administration while in the case of Malaysia, Bahasa Malaysia has steadily replaced English as the medium of instruction and the language of the nation.

The Evolution of a Malayan Literature  The question of the evolution of a Malayan literature and a Malayan nation seems to be constantly in the foreground.  “Youth therefore appeals to you, the young men and women of this country, to help stimulate interest in the creation of a genuinely original Malayan literature. …Or, are we to be a nation without our own literature?”

Problems  In the context of the Philippines, literature – especially the novels of Rizal (written originally in Spanish) – had already been serving as a catalyst for the gelling of a nation.  In the context of Singapore and Malaysia just before the Second World War, the situation was a self-conscious attempt at providing for a literature to express the national identity that was in the process of forming and, at the same time recognition of the important part that this literature has to play in the creation of that identity out of the disparate extant cultures in the country.

Conclusion  For the writer who used English: There was both the need to justify the choice of English as medium and the desire to plumb the depths of the psyche to the bed of his real self. It was a question of identity for the writer. Who am I, and whom am I writing for?