The Roots of Malayan Literature In English

Dudley De Souza

When a literature in English was in the process of emerging the

countries were under one political administration, most of the people
spoke in terms of a Malayan literature in English rather than Singapore
or Malaysian literature.
There have been a number of literary works published before the
forties which could be said to the part of the corpus of an emergent
local literature in English.
The emergence of this group coincided with the growth of a certain
nationalistic outlook, which the war years had indirectly produced.
The extent to which the war contributed to the development of a local
literature in English has still to be adequately recognized.
During war world period, literature reflecting the war hardly existed
except in the form expatriate writing on the region.
The development of a national consciousness- hastened as a
consequence of the war is certainly had implications for academia.
It was in 1949 that the first issue of a serious intellectual periodical
with a strong literary.
The offering showed an obvious dependence on English models in
terms of content and styles.
The development of local poetry in English (as with all new literatures
with no native traditions) may trace through its models influence.
There were two main ways by which the writers responded to the
dilemma of coming to terms with the Malayan context.1) reverted to a
more intense consciousness of their ethnic identities. These wrote in
their mother tongues even they had been educated away from their
communities.2) who used the English language with a high degree of
Sophistication.
There were two significant ways in which the new series differed from
the old literary did not comprise the main fare of the old series.
The new literature took in the minds of the local literati was the use of
malay and Chinese dialects in writing.
Poem were fairly commonplace in local journals that carried literary
offerings.
The development of clichd symbols culled from the local environment
represent to the term with local context.
Malay and Chinese nouns were relied upon as an easy means of
introducing.
In Singapore, English has strengthened its position as a link language
and the language of administration while in the case of Malaysia,

Bahasa Malaysia has steadily replaced English as the medium of

instruction and the language of the national.
In 1983, more prominent of Malaysians writing in English have
migrated.
The article from the pen of Wong Phui Nam had made a convincing
case for English as unifying language for the Malayan nation.
They were on the verge of the flowering of a new culture and what
they were doing was tantamount to ushering in that new age.
The poem the subtle recognition that the word is not quite part of the
English lexis adds legitimacy to the usage: the inverted commas are a
kind of tactful legitimizing act.
The other major problem that occupied the attention of writers at that
time and for some time after the war was the absence of a common
national mythology like that which underpinned Greek literature for
instance.
The ethnic pulls were very strongly present in the shape of Islamic,
Hindu, Buddhist and Confucianism mythologies.
For the Western-educated intellectual, the myths that came through
via English educated served as the basis for a shared culture.
After English of Malaya and Singapore consociate, policy changes,
language developments, and some influences, English poem is largely
derivative. In my view point, this was a good starting point for all
language learners. With the flow of time, English language become a
primary language in our world, speaking skills, writing skills or
understanding.
On the other hand, there has different styles and different cultures of
writer, the writers attempt to providing different minds and writing
styles to let us enrich different world cultures. And there has two types
of writers during the period, either use their mother tongue or use
English to write.
Some of the writers prefer to write their own experience or some
actual things in the real world during the time.