City memory and saptial imagination in the Mahua fiction (1950-2003)
“City” is an important subject in the writing of Mahua fiction, literally means Malaysian Literature in Chinese language. “City” first appeared in the colonial era which emphasized the export mode of economic development. Since the independence of Malaya, the nation experienced three stages of c...
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| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2021
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/98753/1/FBMK%202021%2031%20-%20IR.pdf |
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| Summary: | “City” is an important subject in the writing of Mahua fiction, literally means
Malaysian Literature in Chinese language. “City” first appeared in the
colonial era which emphasized the export mode of economic development.
Since the independence of Malaya, the nation experienced three stages of
city development, that is post-colonial period (1950-1970), Bumiputraismnew
policies period and beyond (1971-1980), and the era of Barisan
Nasional-Mahathir regime (1981-2003). From the perspective of postcolonialism
and the concept of modern space, this research tries to analyze
how the Mahua authors portrayed the three stages mentioned above in their
writing. The first part of this research explored how Mahua fiction (re)present
the new emergent city in the colonial and post-colonial era. The second part
tried to review the bumiputraism-new policies implemented by the
government in the 1970s, as well as the emergence of modernization and
the cityscape portrayed in the fiction, by applying the concept of political
space which was proposed by Henri Lefebvre. Besides that, narrative of city
image and the sense of place proposed by Kevin Lynch and Yi-Fu Tuan
respectively will be applied in order to examine the writing juxtaposed to the
transformation of urban space due to the modernization-industrialization
process during the BN-Mahathir Regime, the transnational and trans-city
movement of the Chinese youth, and the city as a platform for the masses
to bring about social reform. Social issues in post-colonial period and
Bumiputraism-new policies period were mostly discussed in their realism
writings whereas the contents in the era of Mahathir regime emphasized
historical and political issues in the city space. City metaphor writings which
was well presented also appeard in this period. |
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