Home> Archive> 2011> Volume 1 Number 1 (May 2011)
IJSSH 2011 Vol.1(1): 61-66 ISSN:2010-3646
DOI: 10.7763/IJSSH.2011.V1.11

The Self and the Other: Re-visioning Melaka in Selected Literary Works

Noraini Md Yusof, Ruzy Suliza Hashim, and Tajul Arifin Muhamad

Abstract—This paper addresses from a New Historicist viewpoint the changing constructs of the identity of Melaka as evident in literary re-visionings of the 16 th century Melaka-Portuguese encounters. The deconstructive nature of New Historicism allows us to disclose that the diverse discourses present Melaka in duality; in some texts Melaka is a great empire while in others, a fallen state. Our findings focus on two re-visioning texts to reveal the agenda behind the writers’ constructions and the ways the state attempts to negotiate the freedom, as well as constraints, of the time and space it dwells in. By deconstructing each aspect of Melaka, we foreground the ideology that is operating in the construction of each. This page from the history of Malaysia remains significant today as it foreshadows the subordination of Melaka (and ultimately other parts of the Malay Peninsula) albeit in different time and space. The complexity of the issues implicated in the identity construction of a state and its nation, as reflected by the various images of Melaka in literature, is also prevalent in present-day Malaysia.

Index Terms—identity, Melaka, other, re-visioning, self,

Noraini Md. Yusof is with the School of Language Studies and Linguistics, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, UKM Bangi 43600, Selangor, Malaysia. (phone: +60193042616; fax: +6089254577; e-mail: animy@ukm.my).
Ruzy Suliza Hashim is with the School of Language Studies and Linguistics, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, UKM Bangi 43600, Selangor, Malaysia. (e-mail: ruzy@ukm.my).
Tajul Arifin Muhamad is with Faculty of Education, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, UKM Bangi 43600, Selangor, Malaysia. (e-mail: tajul.a@ukm.my)

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Cite: Noraini Md Yusof, Ruzy Suliza Hashim, and Tajul Arifin Muhamad, "The Self and the Other: Re-visioning Melaka in Selected Literary Works," International Journal of Social Science and Humanity vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 61-66, 2011.

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