MLIE

1. MLIE Challenges and Prospects in the New Millennium

2. Introduction • The process of development of an independent Anglophone literature was hastened by consequences of the WW2 that “weaned the local literati from a complacent reliance upon the colonial power and stimulated the seeds of nationalism” (Quayum and Wicks)

3. Challenges • The marginalisation of the English language • M’sia is a plural, polyglot society, in which the attitude to English ranges from outright hostility to benign acceptance as a 2nd language. • National Language Act 1967 • Amendment Act 1971 • Article 152 • 13 May 1969

4. Language is “the most potent instrument of cultural control” (Fanon, Ngugi) • “In my view language was the most important vehicle through which power fascinated and held the soul prisoner. The bullet was the means of the physical subjugation. Language was the means of the spiritual subjugation” (Ngugi)

5. However, there are people who believe that when two languages or cultures come into contact, the experience is not solely that “of cruelty of oppression” but rather it encourages some cross-fertilisation, or what Homi Bhabha calls, ‘dialectical reorganisation” to take place.

6. The scepticism towards the English language casts doubts about the future of English in M’sia. • English was fast becoming a foreign instead of a second language in the 1970s (Asmah Hj Omar) • National lit. vs. sectional lit. • Prof. Ismail Hussein “dismisses literature in Chinese, Tamil, or English as foreign literatures or aimless literatures because in his view they were written in non-indigenous languages and could not be understood by all Malaysians.” (Quayum and Wicks)

7. Writers in English felt marginalised and were no longer given the opportunity to work in an atmosphere of free and fair contestation. • As a result, some writers chose ‘voluntary exile’ while others chose silence. • Ee Tiang Hong left the country in 1975 • Shirley Lim went to the USA, saying that the Language Act was “a more effective silencer than tanks and barbed-wire”

8. Muhammad Haji Salleh, on the other hand, experienced a cultural cringe. • “Should I lick the hand that strangles my language and culture?” • Wong Phui Nam went through a phase of protracted silence. His second volume of poetry came out 21 years after the first one.

9. Alien language • English is an ‘alien’ language in M’sia and although writers use it , the language can hardly assert any strong emotional or cultural bond with the place. • Its vocabulary, categories and codes are not always adequate or appropriate to describe cultural practices, flora and fauna or other physical and geographical conditions of the land. • Writers constantly need to infuse ‘local blood’ into the language.

10. Heterogeneous make-up of M’sian society • Writers lack a common pool of consciousness: there is no common source of collective imagery, symbols and myths (Maniam) • This challenge is expected to diminish as, with time, there is likely to be a more dynamic integration of local cultures and an evolution of a stronger, more full-bodied and vibrant indigenous tradition for young writers to fall back on and nurture their imaginations.

11. Other challenges • Dearth of readership and lack of a proper literary infrastructure • Lack of adequate writerly freedom • In groups, read pages 40 to 44 and try to explain to the other in the class the nature and consequences of the challenges above.

12. Read from page 44 to 49. Prepare a short presentation on the prospect of MLIE in the new millennium as mentioned by Quayum.