Poetic Imagination of the Malaysian Unconscious: Voices of the Youth

Transcription

1 Poetic Imagination of the Malaysian Unconscious: Voices of the Youth NORAINI MD YUSOF, RUZY SULIZA HASHIM, SHAHIZAH ISMAIL HAMDAN, RAIHANAH M.M., TAJUL ARIFIN MUHAMAD & SITI NUR SAADAH SAADUN School of Language Studies and Linguistics Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities UniversitiKebangsaan Malaysia Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia MALAYSIA Abstract: -This paper examines the perspectives of young Malaysians in their re-interpretations of two significant historical aspects of Malaysia, namely events in SejarahMelayu and in the country s struggle for independence. Dismantling the poetic narrative is a pre-requisite to their practice of re-visioning the nation s past prior to transforming the narrative into poetry. Reading from a New Historicist viewpoint provides them with an option of an alternative in reading and understanding history. Their poetic imagination, though that of the novice, offers insights into issues of identity and nation. By looking at the explicit in selected poems that have been published on-line, we will also explore the implicit gaps and cracks in these narrations which will form the basis for theorising the Malaysian unconscious. Key-Words: - Poetic imagination,malaysian unconscious,identity,nation,re-visioning the past 1 Introduction This paper examines the perspectives of young Malaysians in their re-interpretations oftwo significant historical aspects of Malaysia, namely events insejarahmelayuand in the country s struggle for independence. According to RuzySulizaHashim [1], [r]e-visionary writers seek to deconstruct images of the past by adapting and modifying them in order to give their readers other alternatives, other interpretations, other norms so different from its original scenario. Hence, dismantling the narrative is a pre-requisite to their practice of re-visioning the nation s past prior to transforming the narrative into a new form, in this instance, poems.history, as cited by Stanford [2], is concerned with the present as well as the past.the New Historicist stance in their reading of the historiography of the Sultanate of Melaka and historical narratives on Independence also allows these budding poets to challenge previous narrativesand present new alternatives. They then re-conceptualize their re-visioning of the Malay court narrative and historical narratives on Independence into verses and images. By examining their poems, we can disclose the fresh ways these young Malaysians re-interpret the nation's past. Imagination is important because re-visioning certainly requires a re-imagining of what is old or already there to re-create something new [3].Burroway in her book entitled Imaginative Writing; The Element of Craft defines imagination as actual pictures in the writer s mind when she claims [i]t s no accident that the words image and imagination have the same root (Latin imago, a picture or portrayal), because what all imaginative writing has in common is that it calls up pictures in the mind [4]. The importance of imagination, according to ArezouZalipour[5] in Imaging and Imagining Realities: Conceptualising Poetic Imagination in Contemporary Poetry is that it: varies between and within various eras of human history. Once it was regarded as a useful intermediary between sensation and reason, next it was regarded as a useful power, and then it was recognized as the prime faculty of the human mind. It was sometimes characterized as a reproductive process, later worshiped as a productive of creativity faculty. (ArezouZalipour [5]) Here, we have to remember that memory, knowledge, emotion, experiences in life and environment could be the main sources of our creative faculty or creative library in our mind, which is imagination. In creative writing, we can write about anything that we like as long as we get or have ideas and creative imagination. 2 New Historicism: Contesting the Nation s Past ISBN:

2 New Historicism is a theory that allows us to see the past in different ways because [t]he New Historicist sees facts that the people of the time did not, and this special insight is what enables him to grasp the "discursive practices" that ultimately "produced" the facts that the people did see [6]. New Historicism tries to promote the development of and gain attention for the histories of marginalized peoples [7]. In fact, this theory has been proposed to challenge several things in history and to give new dimension in knowing history because the objective of New historicism is to relook, re-view the past and to deconstruct the kinds of statements made about the past. Felluga [8] explains both New Historicists and Cultural Materialists are interested in recovering lost histories and in exploring mechanisms of repression and subjugation [9]. This denotes the meaning that New Historicism is extremely useful in helping the young Malaysians to recover the forgotten past. Felluga [8]further elaborates the characteristics of the theory that by emphasising that New Historicists are, like the Cultural Materialists, interested in questions of circulation, negotiation, profit and exchange [10]. It appears that New Historicism is the theory that is resolutely antiestablishment, always implicitly on the side of liberal ideals of personal freedom and accepting and celebrating all forms of difference and deviance [11]. It always seeks new and fresh perspectives in viewing the past. Webster [12], in his writing explains that New Historicism: proposes a new or alternative history to the conventional, established historical accounts and practice through which literary texts had been largely studied. This is achieved by turning away from an apparently stable, fixed history which formed a kind of backcloth to the imaginative workings of the artist s mind, to a past which was uneven, fragmented, even unfinished, so that history is a sight of conflict which is ongoing, not a stable form of containment. (Webster [12]) Therefore, reading from a New Historicist viewpoint provides the young Malaysians with an option of an alternative in reading and understanding history from many angles, not by just sticking to one old way of understanding the past. Through this theory, history can be read and transformed into fiction or poetry. Contestations in the realms of social, cultural and political spaces are made overt in literary texts which mirror the realities, aspirations, and challenges of the complex world in which we live in today [13]. In an earlier research on Malaysian fiction and the narratives on cyber-space, our findings reveal that Malaysian writers have moved beyond monolithic communal concerns to sociopolitical issues that blur ethnic, religious and political affiliations. The myriads of these writings highlight the concerns of a continuum of writers from the veteran to the young writers whose emphases have changed in accordance with the times and demands of everyday realities of Malaysian life. As the research has shown, bangsa continues to permeate the Malaysian social and political tapestry, [as] the emergent writings in the country signal a move towards defining a stronger individual voice rather than a purely collective one [14]. Gender, an issue previously side-lined, is given more emphasis and shows that it has become a point of contention and discussions, especially among the newer writers. As we have discovered, Malaysian writers raise other aspects of Malaysian nationhood. Most obviously, they have highlighted how women have been affected by modernity and fast development. While women have made great leaps in the educational and professional sectors, they too suffer from alienation due to contestations from personal ambitions and societal expectations [15]. The Malaysian writers have even taken on new medium, the Malaysian blogosphere, in which issues concerning the nation continue to occupy their discourse. As NorainiMdYusof and RuzySulizaHashim[16] contend, the blog becomes a hybridized space where the past and the present, even the east and the west, converge to stage contestations. Nevertheless, by focusing only on narratives and fiction, we may appear to present a lopsided and myopic perspective of the collective imaginary [17] of Malaysian writers. By extending the corpora to poetry, we now aim to discover the ways young Malaysians articulate their concerns regarding history. 3 Re-visioning the Past: Looking Back with Fresh Eyes Fundamental to the ways these young Malaysians view the past is the New Historicist act of revisioning. According to Adrienne Rich (cited inruzysulizahashim [1]), re-visioning is an act of looking back, of seeing with fresh eyes, of entering an old text from a new critical direction. Re-visioning allows writers to re-create the past by ISBN:

3 bringing back the notion of the past to the present, and by transforming characters or events for specific purposes. This strategy is useful because it: allows writers to address pressing sociocultural, political and ideological concerns from an alternative perspective. For example, many writers re-vision the past as a way of coming to terms with their identity, of knowing who they are With a strong sense of the self, a person can negotiate the presence and face a more challenging future; re-visioning also prompts a deconstruction of discourse that situates the review from a local perspective (NorainiMd.Yusof&RuzySulizaHashim [18]). Thus re-visioning entails a re-viewing of the past; this process involves tracing back, reopening and re-evaluating history (Roxas-Tope [19]). (Raihanah M.M, RuzySulizaHashim, Noraini Md. Yusof, ZalinaMohdLazim [3]) As such, re-visioning offers other alternatives in viewing the past, from the vantage point of the present to see things differently.similarly, Gundersen [20] explains in Re-visioning the Past: Toward a More Inclusive Telling of History that [t]o perceive history fully as an interactive experience requires both continuous re-visioning and re-searching of the past. Hence this will explain that re-visioning can be assumed as important in knowing history. An example of a Malaysian writer who has undertaken the act of re-visioning is Muhammad Haji Salleh; one of his re-visioning poems is sitenggang shomecoming [21]. In the original tale, Si Tenggang, a popular Malay folklore, is an ungrateful child who denounces his mother after his return from travelling due to his newfound fame and wealth. However, in Muhammad Haji Salleh s poem, the new Si Tenggang does not represent the ungrateful child, but he has become the knowing citizen of the world because of his travels [1]. The transformation of Si Tenggang s is made possible through re-visioning. Muhammad Haji Salleh also undertakes revisioning of SejarahMelayu[22] when: [i]nspired by the SejarahMelayu, a classical Malay court narrative dating back to the 16 th century, Muhammad Haji Salleh produces SajaksajakSejarahMelayu, which is a reconceptualization of the stories of Malay Kings. In doing so, Muhammad engages in the practice of re-visioning and makes relevant stories of the old to modern Malaysian readers. (RuzySulizaHashim [1]) This re-writing of SejarahMelayu is similar to the exercise that the young Malaysian writers carried out. They too viewed the past from different angles and inserted fresh ideas into their poems. How they view the past from their present situation will offer insights into the Malaysian unconscious. 4 The Corpus The young Malaysians comprise 25 undergraduate students of the Literature in English program at the School of Language Studies and Linguistics, UniversitiKebangsaan Malaysia (UKM). The creative works produced by the students are published on-line [23]. For the purpose of this paper, 3 poemsare selected as the corpus of this analysis on how history is re-written by young Malaysians. The three poems are: A Letter to You; Victory; and No World is Without Sacrifices[23]. 5 Discussion The process of transformation that employs revisioning strategies to re-discover the past is explicit in the three poems. The writer acts as a producer for his/ her own work and has every right to write [4]. This license allows thethree young Malaysians (henceforth, they will be referred to as S1, S2 and S3) who undertake the act of re-visioning events in SejarahMelayu and those surrounding the country s Independence (Merdeka) to write from whichever aspect that they prefer in their poems. In the first poem, A Letter To You [24], S1 has reconstructed the image of pre-independence women. In Malaysian historical narratives, the female voice is muted or erased, as though their existence and contributions do not matter in the history of Malay monarchy [1]. It cannot be denied that there are women whose names are quite prominent in Malaysia regarding Merdeka (Independence). However, the roles of the ordinary local womencan barely be traced in historical textbooks. In this poem, the voice of the ordinary woman who fights against colonial power is resurrected: say) Ooo you re hopeless (that s what they Ooo you re weak (that s what I hear) But wait, hold on, Who are they? ISBN:

4 What powers do they possess? To judge and to control? Isn t this our land? Isn t this our tradition? Hey you, yes you. Hear me out, We are natural born fighters, wirawati. The sacred blood of serikandimelayu runs inour veins, A strong force exists in our soul There is nothing that can hold us Tear us apart. We will shed our blood & sweat for the sakeof this precious land And hopefully one day, we can proudly scream our heart out for Merdeka! (A Letter To You [24]) S1 transforms the image of the conventional, passive and silent women to become bold and resilient in dismantling colonisation. Tyson [7] claims that traditional gender roles cast men as rational, strong, protective and decisive; they cast women as emotional (irrational), weak, nurturing and submissive.s1 does not only articulate their silences, but she also modifies the women into serikandimelayu (female Malaywarriors) who participate in protecting the land and the people. The traditional women speak directly to the British, the colonizer of Tanah Melayu (former name for preindependence Malaysia). In official narratives, prominence is given to male freedom fighters and the contributions of the women in the fight for independence have been marginalised. This poem, however, relocates the resisting female voices to the centre of the narration. Speaking gives these women agency, and the new women are unafraid to let their intentions known. In the second poem, Victory [25], S2 has reconstructed the image of the local and ordinary man during the road to merdeka. The personais portrayed as brave, and he is devoted to his country and people. In historical narratives, we see the past from the perspectives ofprominentleaders. The voice of the ordinary man and his contributions to achieve independence are relegated to the sidelines. S2, however, challenges previous perceptions and articulates the voice of the ordinary man: I never was a soldier, I know I am not, I never was a hero, I know I am not, I am just a young man with no superficial power, But I do know one thing. That I am a fighter, I walk bravely with the keris in my hand, Together with Tunku Abdul Rahman, Side by side, Not scared of anything, We keep on fighting, Blood spills everywhere, There is no sound of regrets, Only the sound of victory keeps on Chanting in our head, in our mind. Now we re free, we won this battle, Look, now we are the Master, We are the Tuan, And they are our slaves Alhamdulillah (praise to god) (Victory[25]) The poem above tells us the event of the past from the perspective of the young man that has been forgotten in previous narratives. Through the reconstruction of his character and through his voice, we see the past in a different way because S2 has also re-fashioned the past. In this context, we have to refresh our memory of past events surrounding Merdeka. Colonization in Tanah Melayuwas initiated with the conquest of Melaka in 1511 by the Portuguese and then followed by the Dutch and British. Malaysia achieved independence from the British in 1957: Malaysia's struggle for Independence is based on the courageous unity of the Malays that has become the main strength. This strength has become the base for the Malays to proceed with the discussion with the British to claim Malaya's Independence. Spearheading the struggle was Dato' OnnJaafar and was later handed down to Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra until the people's objective was reached on the night of 30th August 1957 at the field of Selangor Club where the flag of Union Jack was lowered for the last time and JalurGemilang was raised proudly - a new symbol for independent Malayans. The following day a new Independent nation was born with Tunku Abdul Rahman declaring the Malayan Independence at the Merdeka Stadium. (Barisan National [26]) From the excerpt above, Malaya was finally free from colonial power.there was no bloodshed. If we look at the re-visioning poem, however, the process ISBN:

5 of getting independence appears to involve war between the local people and the colonial power. In the poem, S2 sees history in a fresh way when he describes the past in a different mode. In fact, S2even denigratesthe British by calling them slaves of the Malays: Now we re free, we won this battle, Look, now we are the Master, We are the Tuan, And they are our slaves Alhamdulillah (praise to god) (Victory [25]) This verse obviously shows that the writer has re-created the past and also the image of the British. The British is portrayed as weak, no longer in command of the natives. History, as discussed earlier, tends to ignore certain voices, roles and events of the past. As pointed out by Tyson [7]: Indeed, because traditional historicism tended to ignore or marginalize private life as subjective and irrelevant. However, things can be changed now because through repositioning and foregrounding strategies, the marginalized characters in the past can be moved to the center of the narration. In the third poem,no World is Without Sacrifices,S3repositions the character of Hang Tuah into the heart of the poetic discourse. In SejarahMelayu, Hang Tuah s private life is rarely mentioned unlike his life as the Laksamana or the warrior who devotes himself to the land, the people and the Sultan. S3, however, foregrounds his private life.by depicting Hang Tuah s feelings for Princess Hang Li Po,one of Sultan Mansur Shah s consorts and, as such, the love depicted between Hang Tuah and Princess Hang Li Po is forbidden. In the poem, we hear Hang Tuah s inner voice: No world is without sacrifices, Sacrifices change the impossible to possible, If only loving you was possible to me, I would risk my all just to own you, Our unfulfilled love will continue to torment me, Princess Hang Li Po I believed you were meant for me From the moment our eyes met, I travelled across oceans to bring you to mycountry for my honorable king, Sultan Mansur Shah. A diplomatic act of bridging China and Malacca, I won your father s heart for him but I fell in love with you instead, With no concerns to my true duties, Love, You were given away, endowed to my king. (No World is Without Sacrifices[27]) In the stanzas above, S3 foregrounds the character of Hang Tuah by revealing his private life. Hang Tuah is moved into the nucleus of poetic narration and given a voice. However, in historical context (as illustrated in SejarahMelayu), Hang Tuah is not the one who went to meet the Emperor of China; this can be seen in the excerpt taken in the Malay Annals: When news reached China of the greatness of the Raja of Malaka, the Raja of China sent envoys to Malaka Sultan Mansur Shah gave orders that TunPerpatehPuteh, younger brother of BendaharaPaduka Raja, was then commanded by Sultan Mansur Shah to go as envoy to China.And when the season of the year for the return voyage to Melaka was come, the Raja of China bade Ling Ho make ready ships to coney Ling, his daughter, to Malaka. Ling Ho did so, and when the ships were nearly ready, the Raja of China chose out of five hundred command, to escort his daughter (Princess Hang Liu, and several hundred beautiful women attendants accompanied her). And when the ships were ready, TunPerpatehPuteh sought the Raja s leave to return to Melaka and the (Raja s) letter was borne in procession to the ship. TunPerpatehPuteh (then) set sail for Malaka, which he reached after a voyage of some length. Words was brought to Sultan Mansur Shah that TunPerpatehPuteh had arrived, bringing him a daughter of the Raja of China. (SejarahMelayu [22]) From the excerpt taken from SejarahMelayu, we can see that TunPerpatehPuteh was the one who met the Emperor of China. Hence, S3has re-narrated the past according to her personal preference. S3 alters the fact by switching the character of TunPerpatehPutehto Hang Tuah; and from this new character of Hang Tuah, we can clearly see his obsession for the Sultan s wife: Darling Princess Li Po, ISBN:

6 You conquered my heart before I even knew, Your alluring and enigmatic beauty is beyond this world, Your glowing radiant skin illuminates theblack dark sky just like the moon throughout the whole voyage to Malacca. You are the ultimate definition of a princess. Your demeanor will be treasured within mymemory till the sun stops blazing, (No World is Without Sacrifices [27]) Hang Tuah, as presented in historical texts, never violatesthe Sultan. In No World is Without Sacrifices [27], however, Hang Tuah s image as the loyal servant is now tarnished by his action in loving the wife of the Sultan. Hang Tuah is now accused as a traitor: you. gate, love. The words Sultan Mansur Shah utters Cut me like a razor blade, Shattering my already bruised heart. I oppose being accused as a traitor! Loving you is as pure as nature. As I sit here pleading for mercy, I wonder if I am destined to suffer alone. I accept the fact that I can never be with I shall stick to my principles, That there is no world without sacrifices. Although you are the only one at stake. Pray that we shall reunite once again. I ll forever be waiting for you at heaven s For you re my sacrificed never-ending (No World is Without Sacrifices [27]) In the beginning, Hang Tuah is depicted as a man who is willing to sacrifice everything for the sake of his love. This indirectly re-constructs the image of the traditional Hang Tuah in historical context because as explained before, Hang Tuah has been presented as being loyal and sincere to the Sultan. It is impossible for Hang Tuah to be a traitor. However, in the last stanza, we can see the new Hang Tuah still conforms to his devotion and duty to the Sultan. His reconstructed self in the poem merely reveals his inner voice and feelings. 6 Conclusion The three poems analysed are reconstructions of past events written by young Malaysian students who are still grappling with their place and identity within the country as they keep pace with global changes and demands. By exploring the issues raised, we are able to study the unconscious ways in which these young Malaysians articulate the Past in their poems. They look at the past in fresh new ways.the re-visioning that they have undertaken of events in SejarahMelayu and the road to Independence reflect the shifts of concerns of the young. Their poetic imagination, though that of the novice, offers insights into issues of identity and nation. By looking at the explicit in three poems that are published on-line, we explore the implicit gaps and cracks in these narrations which form the basis for theorising the Malaysian unconscious. Inherent within their discourse is the yearning to change certain parameters of norms. Their narrating of the past through poetic form allowed them to empower characters with voice and agency, reconstruct image and representation as well as reposition and foreground identities that have been marginalised in previous narratives. In these poems, the women are given voices; they can show their agency. These new voices privilege the muted or erased and forgotten subjects. They tear apart the traditional image of women portrayed as fragile, powerless, and passive to expose these new strong characters. Independence from the colonisers brought a new nationalistic sensitivity made possible through God s blessing. The Islamic faith is strengthened and given emphasis in the refrain of giving thanks to the Almighty. The poems show that these three students are no longer trapped in the traditional way of viewing the past. As young adults, while their re-visioning appears to show them asbeing anti-feudalistic, another aspect of their stance reveals that, asmalays, they will keep their promise to maintain deference for Malay sovereignty which is a tradition upheld within the Malay psyche. These aspects of the Malay unconscious are made overt in the voices of young Malaysians. References: [1] RuzySulizaHashim, Out Of The Shadows: Women in Malay Court Narratives. Bangi: PenerbitUniversitiKebangsaan Malaysia Bangi, [2] M.Stanford,,A Companion to the Study of History. UK: Blackwell Publisher Ltd., [3] M.M.Raihanah, RuzySulizaHashim, Noraini Md. Yusof, ZalinaMohdLazim, Gender, ISBN:

7 Multiculturalims and Re-visioning. Serdang: Universiti Putra Malaysia Press, [4] J. Burroway, Imaginative Writing: The Elements of Craft. Florida: Penguin Academics, [5] ArezouZalipour Imaging and Imagining Realities: Conceptualising Poetic Imagination in Contemporary Poetry. In RuzySulizaHashim, IsmanizamAzyzy, Noraini Md. Yusof, ZalinaMohdLazim. (Eds.)Revisioning Realities Through Literary Discourse. Selangor: Pearson Malaysia Sdn Bhd., 2007,pp [6] Retrieved from: /pers/fac/myers/historicism.html#e [9 June 2011] [7] Tyson, L., Critical Theory Today: A user- Friendly Guide. New York & London: Garland Publishing, Inc., [8] Felluga, D General Introduction to New Historicism." Introductory Guide to Critical Theory. lish/theory/newhistoricism/modules/introductio n.html [9 June 2011] [9] Retrieved from: [9 June 2011] [10] Retrieved from: ademic/engl/theory/newhistoricism/modules/int roduction.html [9 June 2011] [11] P. Barry, Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory 2 nd ed.manchester: Manchester University Press, [12] P. R. Webster, Creativity as Creative Thinking. Music Educaters Journal. Vol. 76, No.9, 1990, pp , Retrieved from: [2 August 2011] [13] Nasta, Susheila. (Ed.), Writing Across Worlds: Contemporary Writers Talk. London: Routledge, [14] Raihanah M.M., New Writings in Malaysia: Issues and Concerns. Gender, Multiculturalism and Re-visioning: Creating and Fostering Literary Communities. In Gender, Multiculturalism and Re-visioning. Edited by Raihanah M. M., RuzySulizaHashim, NorainiMdYusof, ZalinaMohdLazim. Serdang: UPM Press. Serdang: UPM Press, 2011, pp [15] RuzySulizaHashim, NorainiMdYusof, Raihanah M. M., Imran Ho-Abdullah, Literary realities of Malaysian women: views from Malaysian women short story writers writing in English. IEEE Proceeding of the ICSSH 2011 International Conference. ISBN: (Thomson ISI and EiCompendex), [16] NorainiMdYusof and RuzySulizaHashim, Contemporaneity of Historicity: Appropriation of Historical Identities in Malaysian Blogosphere. In Posthumanity: Merger & Embodiment. Edited by Adam W. Ruch and Ewan Kirkland. Oxford: Inter-Disciplinary Press. (ISBN: ), 2010, pp [17] A. N. Farish, The Other Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur: SilverfishBooks, [18] NorainiMd.Yusof&RuzySulizaHashim History into fiction. In Re-visioning realities through literary discourse. Edited by RuzyHashim, ismaznizamazyze, NorainiMdYusof and ZalinaMohdLazim. Petalingjaya, Selangor: Pearson Longman. [19] L. R. Roxas-Tope,(Un)framing Southeast Asia: nationalism and the post colonial text inenglish in Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines. Manila: Office of Research Coordination, University of the Philippines, [20] J. R. Gundersen, Re-Visioning the Past: Toward a More Inclusive Telling of History. The History Teacher, Vol. 20, No. 1, 1986, pp , Retrieved from: stable/493176[6 July 2011] [21] Muhammad Hj. Salleh Rowing down two rivers.bangi: Penerbit UKM. [22] SejarahMelayu. The Malay annals, Ms. Raffles No. 18. MBRAS (The Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society), [23] Retrieved from: [1 August 2011] [24] A Letter to You Retrieved from: [1 August 2011] [25] Victory Retrieved from: om/ [1 August 2011] [26] Barisan National. (undated). The Struggle for Independence. Retrieved from: [10 August 2011] [27] No World is Without Sacrifices Retrieved from: [1 August 2011] [28] Lazarus, N., The Postcolonial Unconscious. New York: Cambridge University Press, ISBN: