Minority literature, performativity, resistance: The case of anglophone and sinophone Malaysian writings

Abstract

This essay demonstrates how non-Malay language writers in Malaysia attempt to subvert the state's promotion of a single-language (Malay) literature as national literature through the practice of authorial insularity, which is writing within one's religio-ethnic community. In the case of sinophone literature, this practice has the added significance of refusing submission to a literary heritage (Chinese) that is fundamentally foreign to its cultural identity. The works of Malaysian anglophone writers such as Salleh ben Joned, Che Husna Azhari and K.S. Maniam, as well as Malaysian-born sinophone writer, Ng Kim Chew, will be discussed to illustrate my overarching point.