Mohammad A. Quayum |
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This is an ambitious project, one of the first of its kind…. The study includes all women who lived in these two countries, irrespective of their birthplace, provided that their work depicts a Malaysian background….The whole book is rich in discussion of the feminist concerns…. Manaf and Quayum offer sufficient examples of women’s writing to inspire readers to turn for the first time, or to renew acquaintance with these novels, as I myself did. They raise a wealth of fascinating issues. They demonstrate the charm and the as yet fledgling literary skills of the youthful writers, who continue to speak to us through their eyes. Manaf and Quayum offer examples of self-discovery among women. They pose thoughtful questions about the validity of the female voice in Malaysia and wonder how much is altered for public consumption, or whether literary critics fail to be honest because they are too kind to the fictional works of their friends in a small world. Above all, they show how much writing with a Malaysian background still exists in English. I would recommend this book, by turns amusing and informative, which offers some new insights into non-Muslim women’s lives in Malaysia, with quotations from a large number of works written in English. · Christine Campbell, RIMA (Australia) 36.1 (2002): 91-96.
The book is a comprehensive survey that charts the development of Anglophone women’s writing in Malaysia before and after independence… the book is extremely useful because there haven’t been any extensive studies of [Malaysian] Anglophone women writers… the study successfully explores the hitherto undervalued literary traditions in women’s writings… it does present a clear picture of the development of Malaysian Anglophone women’s writings over the last 60 years. This makes it recommended reading for students and researchers of Malaysian literature; a guide that will not only complement their research, but also provide them with a comprehensive view of the rich voices in Anglophone women’s writings. · New Straits Times (Malaysia), 14 November 2001. |
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COLONIAL TO GLOBAL: MALAYSIAN WOMEN’S WRITING IN ENGLISH 1940s—1990s |
