Malaysian%20Literature%20in%20English

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Malaysian Literature in English
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Achievements

• Active writers known internationally won
  international literary awards
• Shirley Lim
• Commonwealth Writers Prize (1980),
  American Book
• Award (1990, 1997)
• K.S. Maniam
• Raja Rao Award (2000)
• Wong Phui Nam Ee Thiang Hong
• Two of the best poets in the English
  language in ASEAN
• countries

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• Tash Aw
• Longlisted for 2005 Man Booker Prize
• Longlisted for 2007 International
  Impac Dublin
• Award and the Guardian First Book
  Prize
• Whitbread Book Awards First Novel
  Award (2005)
• Commonwealth Writers Prize for
  Best First Novel
• (2005)
• Longlisted for 2013 Man Booker
  Prize
• The Harmony Silk Factory
  translated into 20 languages
• Rani Manicka
• Commonwealth Writers Prize (2003)

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• Tan Twang Eng
• Longlisted for 2007 Man Booker Prize
• Shortlisted for 2012 Man Booker
  Prize
• Man Asia Booker Prize (2012)
• W alter Scott Price for Historical
  Fiction (2012)
• The Gift of Rain has been
  translated into Italian, Spanish,
• Greek, Romanian, Czech, Serbian
  and French.

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• 2. A revival of the English drama/theatre since
  the 90s
• The Actors Studio (1989)
• The Instant Café Theatre Company
  (1989)
• KLPAC (2005)
• PJ Live Arts (2009)
• Damansara PAC (recently)

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Challenges

• Before mid 1980s English language culture
  treated with contempt and skepticism
• English writing tradition complicated by the
  absence of tradition and the multicultural makeup
  no common source of collective imagery,
  symbols and myths (Maniam 2001)
• Closed political environment -lack of writerly
  freedom

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1. Tradition-bound yet modernizing
2. Declining interest in literature -
   commercialism, materialism, technology
3. Dearth of readership
4. Dearth of criticism

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Prospects Future

• Full of promise
• Change in the status of English
• Nationalism replaced by global, international and
  neo-universal world culture