Inside and Out: Malaysian and Non-Malaysian Tropes, the Comparative Approach and the Works of Tunku Halim and James Wan

Abstract

Intended as a showcase for contemporary achievements in literature, the University Core Module on Malaysian Literature in English examines Malaysian prose writing in terms of its social, cultural, political and religious contexts. The following paper examines the Comparative approach to literature – what Talvet defines as “the reading and study of literary works and phenomena in contexts transcending… a determined national-linguistic area of culture” (5) – and the benefits obtained by examining Malaysian tropes, themes and techniques by means of comparison with similar works from abroad. Popular fiction writer Tunku Halim Tunku Abdullah’s Dark Demon Rising (1997) is examined alongside James Wan’s American horror film The Conjuring (2013). The intention is not to hold Malaysian works against a perceived Western “norm” of excellence, the aspect of neocolonialism that Bhabha calls “cultural relativism” (expounded in Moore-Gilbert, Postcolonial theory: contexts, practices, politics. Verso, London. Print, p 125, 1997), but rather to highlight the benefits derived from expanding the material studied in Malaysian Literature in English to include works by foreign writers and artists. It is arguable that the Malaysian canon is, today, rich and diverse enough to fuel this practice of juxtaposition and comparison without recourse to foreign works; however, the author maintains that certain deconstructive advantages may be derived from a willingness to examine Malaysian literature in light of the global canon.