Colonial to Global: Malaysian Women’s Writing in English 1940s - 1990s

Colonial to Global: Malaysian Women’s Writing in English 1940s – 1990s aims to chart the development of Anglophone women’s writing in Malaysia, before and after Independence (1940s to 1990s), focusing on the development of themes and genres. The initial question is whether there is a traceable pattern of evolution in the tradition parallel to the one pointed out by Edwin Thumboo in 1976, in relation to Malaysian/Singaporean poetry in English. This idea of Thumboo, later adopted by Shirley Lim to explain the evolution of post-colonial writings in the Third World, will be looked into for its applicability and validity in the context of Malaysian Anglophone women writers. In adopting the evolutionary framework, however, the study notes a series of marginalisations that bring home the peripheral status of Anglophone women writers in Malaysia: the marginalisation of women in all patriarchal cultures in Malaysia; of Anglophone Malaysian literature because of the tension between the advocacy – of Malay as the national language and the usefulness of English as an international language which nevertheless carries a colonialist legacy, and finally (and indeed the emphasis of this study), the marginalisation of the works of Anglophone women writers, which are subject to all three kinds of marginalisation at once.

The book is chronologically divided into three sections. Part One deals with the works of pioneering Anglophone women writers during pre-Independence Malaya (1940s-1950s). This includes texts written by expatriate writers since writing in English by local women mainly exists as official reports of professional education activities and these reports were brief and factual and therefore inappropriate for inclusion in this book. Part Two examines the works of post-Independence women writers (1960s-1970s). The main concern is to investigate the dominant themes and genres explored by women writers of this period in the context of the framework offered by Thumboo and Lim and to chart development of the writings during this period. Part Three studies the writings by the “new” generation writing in English in Malaysia (1980s—1990s). The changes that take place in post-Independence and modernising Malaysia are reflected in these writings, and shifts of themes and genres which inform these works will be brought into focus in this section. This research highlights related problems in women’s writing in English in Malaysia, and investigates the position and status of the creative process as a matter of paramount importance. A genuine understanding of Anglophone women’s writing in Malaysia, its evolution, contemporary condition and likely future direction, is seen as essential if this section of the population is not to remain marginalized.