- School of Language Studies and Linguistics
Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities
NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF MALAYSIA (UKM)
43600 Bangi, Selangor D.E., MALAYSIA
- Multiculturalism, Minority Studies, Muslim Minorities, Malaysian Literature in English, Muslim diasporas in Europe and the US, Comparative Literature, and 17 moreLiterature And Language Teaching, Online Learning, Virtual Learning, Instructional Technology, Instructional Design, Educational Technology, Distance Education, Distance Learning, Learning And Teaching In Higher Education, Scholarship of Learning and Teaching, Veiling and headcovering, Veiling and Embodiment, Painting, Orientalism, iconography, Middle East, Art History, Islamic civilization, iconology, near east, cultural criticism, oriental veil, veiling and unveiling, female portraiture, Veiling, Women and Gender Issues in Islam, The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL);, and Selfiesedit
- A passionate educator at heart and a researcher in mind.edit
Manga as a cultural art form delves into various sociocultural issues and narratives, and the representation of diverse cultural contexts in manga has increased over the years. The role of Japanese manga as a site for intercultural... more
Manga as a cultural art form delves into various sociocultural issues and narratives, and the representation of diverse cultural contexts in manga has increased over the years. The role of Japanese manga as a site for intercultural understanding and engagement is worth further investigation, and research in this area is still growing. This article explores intercultural dialogue through a case study of the Japanese manga Satoko and Nada Volume 1 by Yupechika, which narrates the friendship between Satoko, a young Japanese woman, and Nada, her Saudi Muslim roommate. It adopts a literary approach to the analysis of the manga and employs textual analysis as the methodology. The manga is analysed through the lens of interculturalism and deep dialogue focusing on the themes of food, fashion and faith. Through the analysis, readers are exposed to the narrative of intercultural engagement as portrayed by the mangaka. Yupechika incorporates pre-existing prejudices in the engagement between t...
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Communicating stories matter when writers highlight the dynamics of mining the most private experiences for material. Whether humiliating or painful, it is often in the hands of writers that stories are made profound, interesting and... more
Communicating stories matter when writers highlight the dynamics of mining the most private experiences for material. Whether humiliating or painful, it is often in the hands of writers that stories are made profound, interesting and fascinating. Yet, to readers, vivid scenarios, specific identification, convincing characters and real-life snapshots, just to name a few, present insights into human condition. Malaysian writers who report such investigations describing more than just their own memories and histories include Bernice Chauly and her critically acclaimed memoir, "Growing Up with Ghosts". "Growing Up with Ghosts" begins with a private memory of a four-year-old girl at the freak drowning of her father and gradually unfolds into a patrio/matriographic memoir that recounts the paternal and maternal history of her Chinese and Punjabi ancestries. Using key concepts of memory theory and trauma studies including rememory, postmemory and empathic unsettlement, this article primarily examines the collection of episodic and semantic memory presented in the memoir. The reflexive and often sporadic, chaotic recounts following the death of her father provides a vivid depiction of the experience of post-parental death. The findings reveal how the filial memoir implicates the reader through "empathic unsettlement" of the trauma suffered by the memoirist through acts of memory, rememory and postmemory. The reader also suffers the burden through postmemory in the act of reading the delayed, indirect and secondary memory of the memoirist. Reading a multigenre, multivocal
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Motivated by the theme of cultural diversity in Hilary Tham's Tin Mines and Concubines (2005), a Malaysian fiction that depicts various family stories of multiethnic Malaysians in the 1960s, this article examines the ways in which the... more
Motivated by the theme of cultural diversity in Hilary Tham's Tin Mines and Concubines (2005), a Malaysian fiction that depicts various family stories of multiethnic Malaysians in the 1960s, this article examines the ways in which the author draws on her cultural memories of Malaysian society through the lens of ecocriticism. While cultural memories convey the memories embedded in physical monuments, eco-cultural memories signify memories implanted in ecological substances. Eco-cultural memories entwine both natural and cultural aspects and are essential to the subject of ecocriticism, which emphasises human-non-human links. The research sheds light on Malaysia's varied cultures by examining cultural memories incorporating animal, plant and culinary aspects. Tham's perceptions of cultural variety vary according to ethnic origins, cultural upbringing, belief systems, social classes, cultural practices and experiences. In general, examining Tham's eco-cultural recollections about bodily functions, weddings, superstitions, cultural alienation and social class reveals how the organic relationship between the animal, food and plant components fosters intercultural consciousness and interracial mutual understanding and misunderstanding in Malaysian society.
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This is a review paper on the apparent force of commercial success and social media presence being a key in the changes of female representation in popular culture using The Hunger Games dystopian trilogy's global commercial success and... more
This is a review paper on the apparent force of commercial success and social media presence being a key in the changes of female representation in popular culture using The Hunger Games dystopian trilogy's global commercial success and its impact as case in point. It argues that the trilogy's commercial success is valuable in helping normalise the flipped gender roles or subverting the stereotypical gender primes. While dystopian literature supposedly features worlds and societies beyond typical real-life rules, many parts of that fictional world will still exhibit traits and beliefs contemporary to its author and resonate with its audience. The normalisation of gender stereotypes can often be seen in characters and social dynamics portrayed repeatedly throughout other forms of media communication. These and other literary works carry within it these stereotypical traits or behaviours a shorthand frame of reference which are called tropes. In this paper, the tropes are viewed through the sociological lens called stereotype priming which is the perpetuation of stereotypes through systemic means targeting certain behaviours, traits or beliefs. This paper looks at instances of tropes exhibiting priming functions within the dystopian world of not just The Hunger Games trilogy and how the commercial success of the empowered female has paved the way for more positive female representation in popular media culture since then. This lens has been expanded to take into account how The Hunger Games trilogy continues to have relevance post-pandemic regarding issues that current facts have brought dangerously close to dystopian fiction.
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Kevin Powers is a war veteran, who employs his experience as a war veteran in the American army in Iraq from 2004 to 2005 to narrate his debut novel, The Yellow Birds (2013). This study investigates Powers' portrayal of post-heroism in... more
Kevin Powers is a war veteran, who employs his experience as a war veteran in the American army in Iraq from 2004 to 2005 to narrate his debut novel, The Yellow Birds (2013). This study investigates Powers' portrayal of post-heroism in the context of the Second Gulf War. This novel illustrates the deformed face of war within an emerging post-heroic atmosphere. Post-heroism, instead of bravery and chivalry, signals the decline of heroic ethos in the context of war, in which soldiers are left to question the true value of sacrifice in the battlefield. The narrative's battlefield imagery, emotive repercussions of those involved and motives of war are examined by referring to the soldiers' post-heroism. Albeit war is personified as a looming figure at the onset of the narrative, Powers' post-heroic narrative leaves little doubt of the futility of engaging with war.
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Stories written by women writers hold an instrumental position in literature as they highlight the female perspectives and worldview, spatially and temporally. In Celestial Bodies by Jokha Alharthi and A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam, the... more
Stories written by women writers hold an instrumental position in literature as they highlight the female perspectives and worldview, spatially and temporally. In Celestial Bodies by Jokha Alharthi and A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam, the female personal narratives include important details concerning the history of Oman and Bangladesh in the 1970s, respectively. This comparative study seeks to reveal images of motherhood in both novels and uncover the nature of the representation of mothers in Omani and Bangladeshi societies. The methodology adopts intersectionality as a lens to examine the images of mothering within the two socio-cultural contexts. The two novels revealed images of motherhood that are layered with complexities and tied to the culture they belong to. The narratives are also monumental as they reveal multifaceted themes of motherhood that lead to profound implications in the lives of the next generation.
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The paper presents an ecocritical exploration of the representation of the Kelantanese Malay identity and connectivity to the land in The Rambutan Orchard, an anthology of short stories by Che Husna Azhari. Although ecocriticism is a... more
The paper presents an ecocritical exploration of the representation of the Kelantanese Malay identity and connectivity to the land in The Rambutan Orchard, an anthology of short stories by Che Husna Azhari. Although ecocriticism is a well-established theory, its use to study the female Kelantanese Malay storyteller's portrayal of the environment in the Malaysian state of Kelantan is under-explored. Applying the pastoral approach in analysing the stories, the researchers uncover the representations of rural life, the characters' interactions with their surroundings and the consequences thereof with regards to the construction of identity. The ecocritical reading of the orchard in The Rambutan Orchard illustrates Che Husna's authorialdefined social reality as she narrates the multiple significations of the orchard in the lives of this fictional Kelantanese village. Subsequently, the anthology is framed within the quintessential Kelantanese Malay psyche and connectivity to their land of birth. The study finds that the orchard provides distinctiveness in the narrator's identity, symbolises her yearning for her place of origin and teaches her lessons on social hierarchy and personal worth. Finally, the orchard nurtures her self-efficacy by becoming a place of solace in her memories, consolidating her identity as a Kelantanese Malay in the world at large.
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After experiencing the American war in Iraq as a machine gunner in the U.S. Army, Kevin Powers deliberates on war and the risks surrounding the lives of all those involved in his debut novel, The Yellow Birds. This paper aims to uncover... more
After experiencing the American war in Iraq as a machine gunner in the U.S. Army, Kevin Powers deliberates on war and the risks surrounding the lives of all those involved in his debut novel, The Yellow Birds. This paper aims to uncover the survival psychology that underlies the behaviour of the two main characters in the novel, Private John Bartle and Private Daniel Murphy as well as other minor characters. Survival psychology expounds unpredictable and threatening situations where people's lives are at stake. They either choose to fight, flight or freeze in reaction to these horrible experiences, that is, they either take action, surrender or eventually die. In the context of war, soldiers frequently face such deadly situations. The reactions of the characters to the circumstances of war and their success and/or failure to cope with its dangers are indicative of their survival mechanism. The novel is examined according to the three major periods of impact in survival psychology, specifically, pre-impact, impact and post-impact periods. Bartle overcomes the psychological consequences of his war experience years after leaving the army, but Murphy loses his faculties in the chasms of war and consequently dies. The psychological survival of those who overcome these risks physically is not guaranteed. Such terrifying experiences of death may make these people vulnerable and exposed to psychological repercussions such as psychosis.
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This paper examines the status of Iraqis in Sinan Antoon's The Corpse Washer (2013) and Kevin Powers' The Yellow Birds (2013) within the circumstances of war in Iraq and addresses the repercussions of the American-led 2003 war on Iraq... more
This paper examines the status of Iraqis in Sinan Antoon's The Corpse Washer (2013) and Kevin Powers' The Yellow Birds (2013) within the circumstances of war in Iraq and addresses the repercussions of the American-led 2003 war on Iraq from an insider-outsider perspective, that is, Antoon's portrayal of his native land, Iraq, vis-à-vis that of Powers, an American who served in Iraq as a machine gunner for the US Army. This paper draws on Derek Gregory's conception of homo sacer, which is initially derived from Agamben's 1998 work. Homines sacri (singular: homo sacer), which emerge when the law suspends itself, are placed outside the law and can be abused and/or killed advertently. The insider-outsider perspectives in the aforementioned novels converge in the way that Iraqi civilians are given the 'bare life' status. The fragility and vulnerability of Iraqis in the face of American intervention can be seen both in life and death as the struggles of the living in performing the necessary Muslim ritual of cleansing and burying the deceased. However, the insider's perspective in Antoon's novel emphasizes the muted voices of the homines sacri.
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Albeit the context of war creates the atmosphere for trauma as previous studies demonstrate, representation of characters' psychological tendencies in war novels has not been sufficiently established. The notion of psychological... more
Albeit the context of war creates the atmosphere for trauma as previous studies demonstrate, representation of characters' psychological tendencies in war novels has not been sufficiently established. The notion of psychological tendencies used in this paper appropriates the selected concepts from Sensory Processing Sensitivity framework within the context of Highly Sensitive People (HSP). Through this method, the paper explores the personality-trait tendencies of characters in selected war narratives. The study uses two war narratives as its corpus, namely, Sinan Antoon's The Corpse Washer and Kevin Powers' The Yellow Birds. The finding reveals that the characters in both novels, namely Jawad and Murphy, are portrayed as sensitive to the changes in the environment compared to other characters within each narrative. In addition, these highly sensitive characters when triggered by their environment becomes emotionally reactive. Finally, the external and internal conflicts suffered by the characters are made worse by their psychological make up which adds depth to the narrative on war. This comparative study verifies the benefits of using psychological concepts as a lens to examine literary representations of character development in the context of war.
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Female narratives hold an important place in literature as they tell stories from women's perspectives, spatially and temporally. In Celestial Bodies by Jokha Alharthi and A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam, the female characters play a... more
Female narratives hold an important place in literature as they tell stories from women's perspectives, spatially and temporally. In Celestial Bodies by Jokha Alharthi and A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam, the female characters play a significant role in determining the outcome of the story as their personal narratives run parallel to the history of Oman and Bangladesh in the 1970s, respectively. The paper examines the intersectionality of gendered narratives through the lens of motherhood and individual lives within a nation in both texts with the aim of uncovering its manifestation in both Omani and Bangladeshi societies. The methodology adopts the theory of parenting as a lens to examine the textual depiction of mothering within the two socio-cultural contexts of Oman and Bangladesh with a specific focus on Diana Baumrind's categorisation of parenting styles. The findings suggest that the mothering styles portrayed in the two novels, namely authoritarian and permissive, are present in two distinct yet overlapping manners: one, within mother-daughter relationships grounded in cultural engagement, and two, through participation in nationhood. In addition, mothers in Celestial Bodies serve as witnesses to the cultural changes in Oman, creating intra-gender generational conflicts. In contrast, the mother figure in A Golden Age functions as the backbone of the youth's participation in Bangladeshi liberation. Many of the choices made by the mothers in the two novels implicate the lives of the youth, society, and consequently the nation-states. The implication of this comparative reading shows that the mothering roles in women's fiction are rich and multi-faceted as they partake in the pursuit of nationhood within and without the family institution.
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Manga as a cultural art form delves into various sociocultural issues and narratives, and the representation of diverse cultural contexts in manga has increased over the years. The role of Japanese manga as a site for intercultural... more
Manga as a cultural art form delves into various sociocultural issues and narratives, and the representation of diverse cultural contexts in manga has increased over the years. The role of Japanese manga as a site for intercultural understanding and engagement is worth further investigation, and research in this area is still growing. This article explores intercultural dialogue through a case study of the Japanese manga Satoko and Nada Volume 1 by Yupechika, which narrates the friendship between Satoko, a young Japanese woman, and Nada, her Saudi Muslim roommate. It adopts a literary approach to the analysis of the manga and employs textual analysis as the methodology. The manga is analysed through the lens of interculturalism and deep dialogue focusing on the themes of food, fashion and faith. Through the analysis, readers are exposed to the narrative of intercultural engagement as portrayed by the mangaka. Yupechika incorporates pre-existing prejudices in the engagement between the two culturally diverse characters. The narrative arc reveals the importance of empathy, space and value sharing in forging intercultural understanding. This reading into Yupechika's intercultural KEYWORDS visual narratives cultural understanding Yupechika deep dialogue Satoko and Nada Muslim manga inter-religious
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Ecocriticism investigates the link between literature and the natural world. It has received scant attention in the Arabic literary tradition, notably in the Yemeni canon. Using ecocriticism and environmental poetics, this article... more
Ecocriticism investigates the link between literature and the natural world. It has received scant attention in the Arabic literary tradition, notably in the Yemeni canon. Using ecocriticism and environmental poetics, this article analyses selected modern Yemeni poetry of Abdulaziz Al-Maqaleh and assesses the extent to which an ecological link exists between the persona and the geography of his homeland, Yemen. The findings suggest a duality of visualisations that contribute to the poet's environmental vision. The first vision is tangible, evidenced by his transfer from his birthplace to Cairo. The second is emotional that evokes contemporary sensitivity to ecology and sustainability, environmental challenges, and the links between nature and culture that have become obvious in current literary studies worldwide. His exile experience prompts the depiction of his deep environmental ties to Yemen. It is reflected in the various facets of Sana'a's green environment, which reflect the ardent hope of numerous people whose physical, mental, and
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The language of crises speaks differently for both men and women. With women, children, and the elders having to face the impacts more prominently, these groups of people are constantly marginalised, especially during troubled times.... more
The language of crises speaks differently for both men and women. With women, children, and the elders having to face the impacts more prominently, these groups of people are constantly marginalised, especially during troubled times. During this COVID-19 pandemic, one of the most concerning crises that arise is the crisis that involves societal life, gender relations, and masculinity performances, heightening the issue of gender inequality. The increasing number of domestic violence in particular countries shows that the essentialist idea of masculinity plays a big part in shaping men's response to the socio-gender crisis. This paper discusses how masculinity can be reimagined towards behaviours that embrace social empathy.
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Minority Muslim women living in Western societies have been continuously marginalised in several contexts. One example is their freedom to visibly project their identity as Muslims and practice Islam as their way of life without being... more
Minority Muslim women living in Western societies have been continuously marginalised in several contexts. One example is their freedom to visibly project their identity as Muslims and practice Islam as their way of life without being misrepresented or misunderstood. Another is the discriminating cultural practices towards them within the community that they belong to. Using two Muslim chick lit novels as case studies and the theme of 'spaces of hope' as explored by Phillips et al., this paper sets out to address the abovementioned issues. The methodology adapts and appropriates the third space theory as a lens to examine public and private experiences of the Muslim female characters in the selected Muslim chick lit. The finding indicates that Muslim chick lit creates female characters who carved out physical space to foreground the negotiation of culture and identity within the Western context. In addition, the finding also shows that the hijab functions as a material space allowing the Muslim female characters to move in and out of the public and personal spheres. Finally, the narratives also present a digital space from which the Muslim female characters can create a site of contestation between culture and identity. This digital space also contests the misrepresentations of and negative assumptions about female Muslim characters. As illustrated in the selected chick lit, spaces of hope are evident in three permutations-physical, material and digital. In conclusion, through this research into selected Muslim chick lit, the theme of spaces of hope is seen as a negotiation area of meaning and representation. It empowers the Muslim storytellers to open up spaces for contemplation and reinterpretation of their identity as Muslim women writers. In the process, it establishes the voices and presence of minority Muslim women within Western popular fiction genre.
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This paper examines the estranged father-son relationship in the 2014 American drama film The Judge and explores how the protagonist, Judge Palmer, and his son, Hank, negotiate between their remorse at failing to form filial attachment... more
This paper examines the estranged father-son relationship in the 2014 American drama film The Judge and explores how the protagonist, Judge Palmer, and his son, Hank, negotiate between their remorse at failing to form filial attachment and their continued defiance towards reconciliation. Both characters appear to mirror one another’s emotional disconnection as each isolates himself in a cocoon of invisibility and lack of interaction. This mirroring gesture is a motif that recurs throughout the film, making evident the internal and external conflicts of the narrative. The finding of the study indicates that the judge’s fear and shame i.e. his inner conflict, is rooted in the numbing of his emotions towards his second son. The finding also indicates that only by accepting the aspect of fear and shame does the protagonist learn to admit both his past failure and his current estrangement from his son. This recognition of his fear and shame, as the investigation illustrates, leads to a r...
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Throughout the more than 50 years of Pablo Neruda's poetic career, natural places were a fundamental component of his poetry. Neruda was a major 20th century Latin American and Nobel Prize winning poet who was famous as a... more
Throughout the more than 50 years of Pablo Neruda's poetic career, natural places were a fundamental component of his poetry. Neruda was a major 20th century Latin American and Nobel Prize winning poet who was famous as a political poet. This paper examines the concept of 'place' in Neruda's selected poems to reveal his experiences and emotions connected to specific places. 'Place' is an essential component of ecopoetry. In this paper, we utilise the conceptual framework of ecopoetry, which is a sub-theory of ecocriticism. Ecopoetry is a genre of poetry that explores how human beings are connected to their habitat or home, how 'home' is defined and built, and how a sense of 'place' is invoked. In this paper, we scrutinise the relationship between man and place (nature) with an emphasis on ecological awareness. Therefore, the paper will illustrate how the environment is closely associated with the concept of place. Based on the evidence presented, we propose that Neruda was very much an ecopoet and a 'place maker'. Through his poetry, he establishes his poetic goal to achieve 'topophilia' or love of places by illustrating that the knowledge of spiritual belonging is the result of the knowledge of one's physical roots.
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Research Interests: Geography and Cyberspace
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The semantic diversity of veil has been discussed by many scholars. The veil has been assigned various meanings and representations in the works of Muslim writers. This notion has found new dimensions particularly in Muslim diasporic... more
The semantic diversity of veil has been discussed by many scholars. The veil has been assigned various meanings and representations in the works of Muslim writers. This notion has found new dimensions particularly in Muslim diasporic writings where hybridized identities are constructed by experiences with racism, multiculturalism, ambivalence and religious dissonance in the host community. At the same time, Muslim diasporic women writers approach the notion of veil in various ways. This can be traced in a great diversity among Muslim women regarding the use of veil. In Iranian diasporic writings, issue of the veil constantly emerges as an indispensable facet of Iranian women's identities. The purpose of this study is to explore the prominent place that (un)veiling has for the construction of women's identities through the narratives of remembered pasts of diasporic Iranians in the United States. This paper mainly focuses on Azar Nafisi's writings to investigate and exami...
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... She was subjected to marginalisation for her race at the beginning of the narrative but later subjects the Muslim bi-racial American Aminah to misrecognition merely for her religious difference. ... Ed.Amy Gutmann. New Jersey:... more
... She was subjected to marginalisation for her race at the beginning of the narrative but later subjects the Muslim bi-racial American Aminah to misrecognition merely for her religious difference. ... Ed.Amy Gutmann. New Jersey: Princeton UP, 1994. Trinh T. Minh-Ha. ...
Research Interests: American Literature, Comparative Literature, Communication, English Literature, Journalism, and 15 moreArt, Literature, Literary Criticism, English language, Development communication, African American Literature, Diaspora, Media, Diaspora Studies, Islam, Contemoporary Literature, Alternate Media, English Language, Development Communication, and Asiatic
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As one of the prominent literary figures in the United States, Don DeLillo (2001) urged novelists to produce a counter-narrative in response to September 2001 attacks. Falling Man (2007) was published six years after the watershed event.... more
As one of the prominent literary figures in the United States, Don DeLillo (2001) urged novelists to produce a counter-narrative in response to September 2001 attacks. Falling Man (2007) was published six years after the watershed event. This paper aims to investigate DeLillo’s exemplification of Islam and Muslims in the light of post-9/11 discourse on Islam and Muslims. It also seeks to situate the novelist’s depiction of Islam and Muslims within due geopolitical implications. By means of architectures of enmity, the other is deliberately crafted into a discriminated entity whose enemy- like attributes are highlighted and reiterated to serve geopolitical interests in the other and justify violence against him/her. DeLillo’s architected enemies will be studied through three constructs, specifically, ‘difference,’ ‘Islamic agency’ and ‘clashing Islam.’ The first construct, ‘difference,’ inspects how contrast between Muslims and non-Muslims operates within the novel’s architected enmi...
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This article examines the process of acculturation in two female members of a Mexican-American community as represented in Lara Rios’s chick lit novels: Becoming Latina in 10 Easy Steps (2006, 2013) and Becoming Americana (2006). The... more
This article examines the process of acculturation in two female members of a Mexican-American community as represented in Lara Rios’s chick lit novels: Becoming Latina in 10 Easy Steps (2006, 2013) and Becoming Americana (2006). The examination of the two chick lit novels is conducted on a trajectory of ecological systems of development as well as in the light of the psychosocial attitude, self-image, expectations and assumptions about becoming Americana or the reverse. The two heroines who reportedly met each other by chance narrated the turning points in their lives, experiencing the developmental passages through which their attitudes, beliefs, intentions, feelings had been assiduously expressed towards age, gender, family, friends, job, ethnic background, as well as, the desire to become American and/or relapsing into being Latina. The article also points out that secure transition through the psychosocial developmental stages demands the trust in self, feminine power, and the ...
Research Interests: Psychology, Developmental Psychology, Multiculturalism, Popular Culture, Diaspora, and 11 moreLatin American literature, Contemporary Fiction, Diaspora Studies, Acculturation, Diaspora and transnationalism, Psychosocial, Multidisciplinary Research, Feeling, Ethnic Group, Ecological Systems Theory, and Woman and Gender Studies
Multicultural literacy has become a term that best represents the awareness of social-cultural diversity that exists in most countries today. As a skill, multicultural literacy also plays a vital role in the reading of minority fiction... more
Multicultural literacy has become a term that best represents the awareness of social-cultural diversity that exists in most countries today. As a skill, multicultural literacy also plays a vital role in the reading of minority fiction whose focal point, among others, is to partake in the recognition politics of the land. Within the Muslim Diasporic context, the value of multicultural literacy is pivotal now more than ever. With the dramatic deterioration of the trans-cultural social landscape around the world post 9/11 which has spiraled into a discourse of fear mongering, there is a more pronounced need to revive and revitalize the multicultural literacy project, specifically on Muslim Diaspora, towards promoting a more tolerant and hopeful living space for a multi-religious society as a whole. How can we promote the research into this emerging literary tradition within the university? And what effect will such research have in expanding our students’ multicultural literacy? This ...
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The bombings of the world trade towers in New York on the 11th of September 2001 dramatically changed the landscape of the west-east relations into blatant binary opposites of us and them. Within the western hemisphere, the repercussions... more
The bombings of the world trade towers in New York on the 11th of September 2001 dramatically changed the landscape of the west-east relations into blatant binary opposites of us and them. Within the western hemisphere, the repercussions of the 9/11 continue to be felt by minority Muslim communities living within the larger non-Muslim mainstream society such as America and Britain. The heightened tension has escalated into a new discourse termed Islamophobia causing Islam to be regarded as “a source of intolerance, extremism and terrorism, one whose adherents are out to destroy Western values.” Muslims living in the west, especially those who overtly exercise their religious sensibilities, be that in the form of the hijab for women or beard for men, bear the brunt of xenophobia exhibited by the mainstream society. This panel presentation sets out to address the issue of Islamophobia in fiction. The main premise of the presentation is to problematise the experience of being a Muslim...
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Research Interests: Sociology, Developmental Psychology, Gender Studies, Linguistics, Music and identity, and 15 moreAcculturation, American Indian Literature, Social Influence, Identity Development, Chinese American Literature, Literary studies, Acculturation and cultural identity, Language Studies, Romance, Multidisciplinary Research, Ethnic Group, Ecological Systems Theory, Mainstream, Diaspora Chick Lit, and Love Relationships
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Throughout the more than 50 years of Pablo Neruda's poetic career, natural places were a fundamental component of his poetry. Neruda was a major 20th century Latin American and Nobel Prize winning poet who was famous as a political... more
Throughout the more than 50 years of Pablo Neruda's poetic career, natural places were a fundamental component of his poetry. Neruda was a major 20th century Latin American and Nobel Prize winning poet who was famous as a political poet. This paper examines the concept of 'place' in Neruda's selected poems to reveal his experiences and emotions connected to specific places. 'Place' is an essential component of ecopoetry. In this paper, we utilise the conceptual framework of ecopoetry, which is a sub-theory of ecocriticism. Ecopoetry is a genre of poetry that explores how human beings are connected to their habitat or home, how 'home' is defined and built, and how a sense of 'place' is invoked. In this paper, we scrutinise the relationship between man and place (nature) with an emphasis on ecological awareness. Therefore, the paper will illustrate how the environment is closely associated with the concept of place. Based on the evidence present...
This paper examines the estranged father-son relationship in the 2014 American drama film The Judge and explores how the protagonist, Judge Palmer, and his son, Hank, negotiate between their remorse at failing to form filial attachment... more
This paper examines the estranged father-son relationship in the 2014 American drama film The Judge and explores how the protagonist, Judge Palmer, and his son, Hank, negotiate between their remorse at failing to form filial attachment and their continued defiance towards reconciliation. Both characters appear to mirror one another's emotional disconnection as each isolates himself in a cocoon of invisibility and lack of interaction. This mirroring gesture is a motif that recurs throughout the film, making evident the internal and external conflicts of the narrative. The finding of the study indicates that the judge's fear and shame i.e. his inner conflict, is rooted in the numbing of his emotions towards his second son. The finding also indicates that only by accepting the aspect of fear and shame does the protagonist learn to admit both his past failure and his current estrangement from his son. This recognition of his fear and shame, as the investigation illustrates, lead...
The grand narratives of Mother India posit women’s emancipation as the central concern, insisting on her public participation in the educational and economic sectors. The relegation of the archetypal motherhood to the national periphery... more
The grand narratives of Mother India posit women’s emancipation as the central concern, insisting on her public participation in the educational and economic sectors. The relegation of the archetypal motherhood to the national periphery is strictly rooted in the Hindu traditional culture. The schisms of caste, class, and religion in contemporary society are normalised whilst the gendered undercurrents of domestic violence, chauvinism and religious sensibilities are ignored. Such polished idealisms are, in fact, far from the living reality of most women and girls across all spheres in the country. By reviewing notable texts from past and present, this research problematises the position of Muslim women in India, specifically during the nationalistic discourse and post-independent era. The national freedom struggle movement assured a democratic constitution, which primed Mother India as the figurative Indian woman encrypting ideologies from socio-religious discourses. The grand narrat...
Research Interests: Sociology, Gender Studies, Humanities, Social Sciences, South Asian Studies, and 12 morePolitical Science, South Asia, Nationalism, Indian nationalism, Women and gender in Muslim societies, Postcolonialism and indian english fictions, Muslim Women, Indian women Fiction, Muslim Minority Affairs, Mother India, South Indian Muslim Women, and Muslim women writers
As a vibrant literary tradition, Malaysian literature in English, which began with a group of university students’ experimental narratives in the 1940s, captures the polemic of a multicultural, multi-ethnic, and multireligious Malaysia.... more
As a vibrant literary tradition, Malaysian literature in English, which began with a group of university students’ experimental narratives in the 1940s, captures the polemic of a multicultural, multi-ethnic, and multireligious Malaysia. Within this tradition, the 2021 book of essays titled Reading Malaysian Literature in English edited by Mohammad A. Quayum is an important resource material that warrants attention. Malaysian and diasporic Malaysian writers studied in this anthology include Lloyd Fernando (1926-2008), Ee Tiang Hong (1933-1990), Wong Phui
Nam (1935-2022), Edward Dorall (1936-), Adibah Amin (1936-), Ghulam-Sarwar Yousof (1939-2022), Salleh Ben Joned (1941-2020), KS Maniam (1942-2020), Shirley Geok-Lin Lim (1944-), Kee Thuan Chye (1954-), Rehman Rashid (1955-2017), Rani Manicka (1964-), Bernice Chauly (1968-), Preeta Samarasan, Tash Aw (1971-), and Huzir Sulaiman (1973-). If nothing else, this list provides a useful introduction to students and researchers interested in the anglophone literary tradition in Malaysia. The range of poets, playwrights, and prose writers listed include key 20th century and emerging 21st century Malaysian and diasporic
Malaysian writers. This anthology signals the importance placed on Malaysian and diasporic Malaysian voices who “do not sing to the foreign harp or feed their imagination of foreign harvests but who take their inspiration from the events and actions around them, whose writing is informed by the myths, reality and history that encompass their daily lives” (Quayum x).
Nam (1935-2022), Edward Dorall (1936-), Adibah Amin (1936-), Ghulam-Sarwar Yousof (1939-2022), Salleh Ben Joned (1941-2020), KS Maniam (1942-2020), Shirley Geok-Lin Lim (1944-), Kee Thuan Chye (1954-), Rehman Rashid (1955-2017), Rani Manicka (1964-), Bernice Chauly (1968-), Preeta Samarasan, Tash Aw (1971-), and Huzir Sulaiman (1973-). If nothing else, this list provides a useful introduction to students and researchers interested in the anglophone literary tradition in Malaysia. The range of poets, playwrights, and prose writers listed include key 20th century and emerging 21st century Malaysian and diasporic
Malaysian writers. This anthology signals the importance placed on Malaysian and diasporic Malaysian voices who “do not sing to the foreign harp or feed their imagination of foreign harvests but who take their inspiration from the events and actions around them, whose writing is informed by the myths, reality and history that encompass their daily lives” (Quayum x).