Mohammad A. Quayum |
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The role of literature in forging and maintaining a nation’s identity is always complex, and it is made more so when that literature reflects a variety of languages. Too often these languages and literatures bunker down as separate entities. Globalisation has given new impetus to matters of identity, nation and language, as have the most recent elections. That makes this book very timely, and in bringing together consideration of Malaysia’s literatures in all its main languages, Writing a Nation plays an important part in building Malaysia’s sense of itself, and of its literature as richly interactive.
· Dennis Haskell, Professor of English, Communications & Cultural Studies, University of Western Australia
Writing a Nation: Essays on Malaysian Literature is comprehensive on the multifarious nature of the Malaysian experience in literature. The focus on nationalism and the inclusiveness of Malaysian literary writings in Malay, Chinese, and English make this critical work truly groundbreaking. Mohammad A. Quayum and Nor Faridah Abdul Manaf have introduced an approach that can be used to study other national/postcolonial literatures of the world.
· Tanure Ojaide, Frank Porter Graham Professor of Africana Studies and English, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, USA |
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WRITING A NATION: ESSAYS ON MALAYSIAN LITERATURE |
