Making a nation: The colonial university as contact zone in the novels of Adibah Amin

Ahmad, Siti Nuraishah (2017) Making a nation: The colonial university as contact zone in the novels of Adibah Amin. In: 17th Biennial AsiaPac Symposium on Literature and Culture, 22nd-24th November 2017, Mutiara Damansara, Selangor. (Unpublished)

	PDF (Abstract) Restricted to Repository staff only Download (155kB) | Request a copy
	PDF Restricted to Repository staff only Download (252kB) | Request a copy

Abstract

In the 1950s, cities such as Singapore, Johor Bahru, and Kuala Lumpur were sites of intellectual and political ferment as Malaya and Singapore moved towards independence from British rule. Along with the struggle for independence, notions of identity, nation and belonging were also being played out in the cities, as the various ethnic communities remained divided. The Malaysian writer Adibah Amin (1936 - ) explores these issues in two of her novels, Tempat Jatuh Lagi Dikenang (1983) and This End of the Rainbow (2006), from the point-of-view of a young, female, Malay student in Singapore in the early ‘50s. This paper thus examines the city in Adibah’s novels as a site where competing visions of a future post-colonial nation are laid out and debated, and how the conflicts in the novels reveal the role of discourses on ‘race’ and identity in imagining the nation. Of particular interest is Adibah’s depiction of the university as a contact zone where young Malayans challenge colonialism and imagine a future nation whose members enjoy equal rights.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Plenary Papers)
Additional Information:	4869/62269
Uncontrolled Keywords:	colonial university, contact zone, novels, Adibah Ami
Subjects:	P Language and Literature > PR English literature
Kulliyyahs/Centres/Divisions/Institutes (Can select more than one option. Press CONTROL button):	Kulliyyah of Islamic Revealed Knowledge and Human Sciences > Department of English Language & Literature
Depositing User:	Dr. Siti Nuraishah Ahmad
Date Deposited:	02 Mar 2018 10:34
Last Modified:	02 Mar 2018 10:34
URI:	http://irep.iium.edu.my/id/eprint/62269

Actions (login required)

View Item