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Monday, May 28, 2007

Malaysian Gothic?

One of the nice things about having this blog is that I have interesting people from across the world getting in touch to ask questions or share experiences.

Gina Wisker of Anglia Polytechnic University in Cambridge wrote to say that she's looking for Malaysian women writers, especially those who use post-colonial gothic in their work.

Now this had me stumped. I know what post-colonial means. I know what gothic means.

But post-colonial gothic?

Gina patiently filled in the gap in my ignorance. She reckons that the term was first coined by David Punter, and :.
.. it suggests that colonial and imperial spaces are haunted by silenced and returned ghosts of a hidden past. ... I also use it to look at how postcolonial writers use images of vampires, ghosts, zombies, werewolves etc etc, witches, myths, spider women and so on writing against the impacts of colonialism and imperialism through looking at power and so on which relate to ethnicity, cultural difference, gender. Usually the writers are using myths and images and writing about their own lives and hidden histories - examples would definitely be Beth Yahp's Crocodile Fury on which I've written a couple of times, and Tash Aw's The Harmony Silk Factory but also much of Catherine Lim's work ...
So the short question is does anyone know of Malaysian women writers who supernatural elements in their work?

12 comments:

  1. Very interesting post you got here. Just to let you know I enjoy reading them ... :)

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  2. sharon, if she also wants scritpwriter for films - there's shuhaimi baba who wrote all her pontianak movies - and now new one comig waris jari hantu.

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  3. she's writing an academic study but i guess the film references would inform the whole picture

    lydia - of course lah!

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  4. my bomoh story in iam ? :D

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  5. the Pontianak films are some of the worst local films ever made. that pontianak ain't scary. it looks more like an Insane Clown Posse member than a ghost.


    U Gno Hoo

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  6. maybe so ms d - but in fiction? your unpublished short stories have some weird things

    aye no hoo!

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  7. Oh Oh Oh...

    It so happens that my supervisor, Dr.Andrew Ng's research speciality is in the postcolonial gothic.

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  8. hee hee hoo hoo


    Hantu V

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  9. post-colonial gothic = the ghost of a man in a topee who steals your Dewar's every now and then.

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