SOUTH AND SOUTHEAST ASIAN LITERATURE
1ST. MEETING
7.9.2014
 Dr. Manimangai Mani
 E-mail : manimangai.upm.edu.my
 Contact no: 016-5316715
 Room : No. 4, Makmal Siber 2, Muzium Warisan
Melayu.
Course outline
Week
Topics
Evaluation
1.
Introduction to historical and social background of
South and Southeast Asian Literature in English
2.
Recent trends and developments in the region’s
literature in English
-Sing to the Dawn (Minfong Ho)
3.
Treatment of women in selected texts in the region
- Her (Titis Basino)
4.
Treatment of natives in selected texts in the region by
the colonisers
-Guardian Knot (K.S. Maniam)
5.
Colonial and Postcolonial experiences in selected texts
- The Cat that Slept on the Altar (Vietnam)
Test 1
(10%)
Topics 1-4
Con’t
Week
Topics
6
The use of English as a tool for expressing Asian
sensibilities
Evening under Frangipani (Singapore)
7
Elements of hybridity in selected texts from the
region
8
Comparative treatment of themes in
representative texts from the region
- Celery, Tulips and Hummingbirds (Philippines)
9
Comparative treatment of themes in
representative texts from the region
- Comparing Her and Evening under Frangipani
Evaluation
Con’t
Week
Topics
10
Comparative Analysis of structure and style in selected
texts
- The Wait (India)
11
Comparative analysis of structure and style in selected
texts
12
Comparative analysis of structure and style in selected
texts
- Waiting (Bangladesh)
13
Comparing the concerns of the writers in selected short
stories
-Comparing The Wait and Waiting
14
The sense of ethical behaviour and communal
responsibility found in selected texts
- Sing to the Dawn (novel)
Evaluation
Test 2 (20%)
Topics 5-9
Evaluation
 Test 1 - 10%
 Test 2 -
20% (Quiz)
 Assignment – 30% (Must pass up by Week 10)
 Final Exam – 40%
South Asian Countries
South Asian Countries
 South Asia or Southern Asia is the southern region
of the Asian continent, which comprises the subHimalayan countries and, for some authorities, also
includes the adjoining countries to the west and the
east.
 Topographically, it is dominated by the Indian Plate,
which rises above sea level as the Indian subcontinent
south of the Himalayas and the Hindu Kush.
 South Asia is home to one fifth of the world's
population, making it both the most populous and
most densely populated geographical region in the
world.
 The countries in South Asia are Afghanistan,
Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan,
and Sri Lanka.
Southeast Asian countries
Southeast Asian Countries
 Southeast Asia or Southeastern Asia is a sub region
of Asia, consisting of the countries that are
geographically south of China, east of India, west of
New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on
the intersection of geological plate, with heavy seismic
and volcanic activity.
 Southeast Asia consists of two geographic regions:
Mainland Southeast Asia, also known as Indochina,
comprises Cambodia, Laos, Burma (Myanmar),
Thailand, Vietnam and Peninsular Malaysia, and
Maritime Southeast Asia comprises Brunei, East
Malaysia, East Timor, Indonesia, Philippines,
Christmas Island, and Singapore.
 The Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India are
geographically considered part of Southeast Asia.
 Eastern Bangladesh and the Seven Sister States of
India are culturally part of Southeast Asia and
sometimes considered both South Asian and
Southeast Asian.
 The rest of New Guinea is sometimes included so are
Palau, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands,
which were all part of the Spanish East Indies.
The Texts
 Novel
 1. Thailand – Sing to the Dawn from Min Fong Ho
Collection
Short stories
 1. Indonesia – Her by Titis Basino
 2. Malaysia – The Guardian Knot by K.S. Maniam in A Rainbow
Feast: New short stories edited by Mohammad A. Quayum. (156170).
 3. Vietnam – The Cat that Slept on the Altar by Truong Tiep
Truong in A Rainbow Feast: New short stories edited by
Mohammad A. Quayum. Marshall Cavendish Editions, 2010.
(Pages 313-318)
 4. Singapore – Evening Under Frangipani by Philip Jeyaretnam in
Blue Silk Girdle: Stories from Malaysia and Singapore edited
Mohammad A. Quayum. Marshall Cavendish Editions, 2010.
(Pages 190-218)
 5. Philippines – Celery, Tulips and Hummingbirds by Linda
Ty-Casper in A Rainbow Feast: New short stories edited by
Mohammad A. Quayum. Marshall Cavendish Editions,
2010. (Pages 319-328)
 6. India – The Wait by Vijay Lakshmi in A Rainbow Feast:
New short stories edited by Mohammad A. Quayum.
Marshall Cavendish Editions, 2010. (Pages 132-140)
 7. Bangladesh – Waiting by Farah Ghuznavi in A Rainbow
Feast: New short stories edited by Mohammad A. Quayum.
Marshall Cavendish Editions, 2010. (Pages 52-63)
The European Invasion Southeast
Asia
 Europeans first came to Southeast Asia in the 16th century.
It was the lure of trade that brought Europeans to
Southeast Asia while missionaries also tagged along the
ships as they hoped to spread Christianity into the region.
 Portugal was the first European power to establish a
bridgehead into the lucrative Southeast Asia trade route
with the conquest of the Sultanate of Malacca in 1511.
 The Netherlands and Spain followed and soon superseded
Portugal as the main European powers in the region. The
Dutch took over Malacca from the Portuguese in 1641.
 Britain, in the form of the British East India Company,
came relatively late onto the scene. Starting with Penang,
the British began to expand their Southeast Asian empire.
 They also temporarily possessed Dutch territories during
the Napoleonic Wars.
 In 1819 Stamford Raffles established Singapore as a key
trading post for Britain in their rivalry with the Dutch.
However, their rivalry cooled in 1824 when an Anglo-Dutch
treaty demarcated their respective interests in Southeast
Asia.
 From the 1850s onwards, the pace of colonization shifted to
a significantly higher gear.
 This phenomenon, denoted New Imperialism, saw the
conquest of nearly all Southeast Asian territories by
the colonial powers. The Dutch East India Company
and British East India Company were dissolved by
their respective governments, who took over the direct
administration of the colonies.
 Only Thailand was spared the experience of foreign
rule, although, Thailand itself was also greatly affected
by the power politics of the Western powers.
 By 1913, the British occupied Burma, Malaya and the
Borneo territories, the French controlled Indochina,
the Dutch ruled the Netherlands East Indies while
Portugal managed to hold on to Portuguese Timor.
 In the Philippines, Filipino revolutionaries declared
independence from Spain in 1898 but was handed over
to the United States despite protests as a result of the
Spanish-American War.
 Colonial rule had a profound effect on Southeast Asia.
While the colonial powers profited much from the
region's vast resources and large market, colonial rule
did develop the region to a varying extent.
 Commercial agriculture, mining and an export based
economy developed rapidly during this period.
 Increased labour demand resulted in mass
immigration, especially from British India and China,
which brought about massive demographic change.
 The institutions for a modern nation state like a state
bureaucracy, courts of law, print media and to a
smaller extent, modern education, sowed the seeds of
the fledgling nationalist movements in the colonial
territories.
 In the inter-war years, these nationalist movements
grew and often clashed with the colonial authorities
when they demanded self-determination.
 With the rejuvenated nationalist movements in wait,
the Europeans returned to a very different Southeast
Asia after World War II.
 Indonesia declared independence in 17 August 1945
and subsequently fought a bitter war against the
returning Dutch; the Philippines was granted
independence by the United States in 1946; Burma
secured their independence from Britain in 1948, and
the French were driven from Indochina in 1954 after a
bitterly fought war (the Indochina War) against the
Vietnamese nationalists.
 During the Cold War, countering the threat of
communism was a major theme in the decolonization
process.
 After suppressing the communist insurrection during
the Malayan Emergency from 1948 to 1960, Britain
granted independence to Malaya and later, Singapore,
Sabah and Sarawak in 1957 and 1963 respectively
within the framework of the Federation of Malaysia.
 English literature in Malaysia emerged after the 1940s.
 Its origin can be traced to the late 1940s, in the
activities of the Literary and Debating Society of the
King Edward VII Medical College Union which
published "The Cauldron", the first journal to publish
literary work in English in Malaya and Singapore.
 With the establishment of the University of Malaya in
1949, "The Cauldron" was transferred to the
university's Raffles Society and it took the name of
"The New Cauldron".
 Since then, Malaysian Literary works have been
published in many journals, both in local and foreign
universities and also by local and international
publishing houses.
 Writing in English in Malaysia has been kept alive
largely through the determination of an English
educated minority, both Malay and non Malay.
South Asia (Indian Sub-continent)
British in India
 British involvement in India during the 18th century
can be divided into two phases, one ending and the
other beginning at mid-century.
 In the first half of the century, the British were a
trading presence at certain points along the coast;
from the 1750s they began to wage war on land in
eastern and south-eastern India and to reap the
reward of successful warfare, which was the exercise of
political power, notably over the rich province of
Bengal.
 By the end of the century British rule had been
consolidated over the first conquests and it was being
extended up the Ganges valley to Delhi and over most
of the peninsula of southern India.
 By then the British had established a military
dominance that would enable them in the next fifty
years to subdue all the remaining Indian states of any
consequence, either conquering them or forcing their
rulers to become subordinate allies.
Influence of English Language in
India
 As a result of British colonial rule until Indian
independence in 1947, English is an official language of
India and is widely used in both spoken and literary
contexts.
 The rapid growth of India's economy towards the end
of the 20th century led to large-scale population
migration between regions of the Indian subcontinent
and the establishment of English as a common lingua
franca between those speaking diverse mother
tongues.
English Literature in Indian SubContinent
 English literature in India refers to the body of work
by writers in India who write in the English language
and whose native or co-native language could be one
of the numerous languages of India.
 It is also associated with the works of members of the
Indian diaspora, such as V. S. Naipaul, Kiran Desai,
Jhumpa Lahiri and Salman Rushdie, who are of Indian
descent.
 English Literature in the Indian subcontinent is only
one and a half centuries old.
 The first book written by an Indian in English was by
Sake Dean Mahomet, titled Travels of Dean Mahomet.
 Mahomet's travel narrative was published in 1793 in
England. In its early stages it was influenced by the
Western art form of the novel.
 Early Indian writers used English unadulterated by
Indian words to convey an experience which was
essentially Indian. Raja Rao's Kanthapura is Indian in
terms of its storytelling qualities.
 Rabindranath Tagore wrote in Bengali and English and was
responsible for the translations of his own work into
English.
 Dhan Gopal Mukerji was the first Indian author to win a
literary award in the United States.
 Nirad C. Chaudhuri, a writer of non-fiction, is best known
for his The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian where he
relates his life experiences and influences.
 P. Lal, a poet, translator, publisher and essayist, founded a
press in the 1950s for Indian English writing, known as
Writers Workshop.
 R.K. Narayan is a writer who contributed over many
decades and who continued to write till his death recently.
He was discovered by Graham Greene in the sense that the
latter helped him find a publisher in England.
 Graham Greene and Narayan remained close friends till the
end. Similar to Thomas Hardy's Wessex, Narayan created
the fictitious town of Malgudi where he set his novels.
 Some criticised Narayan for the parochial, detached and
closed world that he created in the face of the changing
conditions in India at the times in which the stories are set.
 Others, such as Graham Greene, however, feel that through
Malgudi they could vividly understand the Indian
experience.
 Narayan's evocation of small town life and its experiences
through the eyes of the endearing child protagonist
Swaminathan in Swami and Friends is a good sample of his
writing style.
 Simultaneous with Narayan's pastoral idylls, a very
different writer, Mulk Raj Anand, was similarly gaining
recognition for his writing set in rural India; but his stories
were harsher, and engaged, sometimes brutally, with
divisions of caste, class and religion.
References
 The Trading World of Asia and the English East India
Company 1600-1760 by K N Chaudhuri (Cambridge,
1978)
 The East India Company: A History by Philip Lawson
(London, 1993)
NOVEL
 SING TO THE DAWN by MINFONG HO
Minfong Ho
 Minfong Ho was born in Rangoon, Burma (now
Yangon, Myanmar), to an economist father and
chemist mother, who were both of Chinese descent.
 Ho was raised in Thailand, near Bangkok, enrolled in
Tunghai University in Taiwan and subsequently
transferred to Cornell University in the United States,
where she received her Bachelor's degree in
economics.
 Her father was a businessman and diplomat named Ho
Rih Hwa while her mother was a chemist and a
bilingual writer, Li Lienfung.
 It was at Cornell that she first began to write, as a way
to combat homesickness. She submitted a short story,
titled Sing to the Dawn, to the Council for Interracial
Books for Children for its annual short story contest.
 She won the award for the Asian American Division of
unpublished Third World Authors, and was
encouraged to expand the story into a novel.
 After graduating from Cornell University in 1973, Ho
returned to Asia and began working as a journalist for
The Straits Times in Singapore.
 She left two years later for Chiang Mai University in
Thailand, where she taught English. The three years
she spent in Chiang Mai had a deep impact on her.
 Together with her students and colleagues, Ho spent
several periods living and working in nearby villages,
as part of the ongoing student movement to alleviate
rural poverty.
 While the student leaders were preoccupied with
organizing the peasants into a political group in their
search for democracy, Ho became more aware of the
emotional world of the women and children there.
 Minfong Ho presents realistic depictions of her native
Southeast Asia. Her writings mainly focus on strong
female protagonists who interact with their families
and friends against the backdrop of real events.
 Ho is often recognized for the sensitivity and
understanding with which she treats the feelings of
her characters as well as for her depiction of Asian life
and locale.
Setting
 Rural village in Thailand
 Peasant homes
 Poor houses
Characters
 Dawan
 Kwai ( Dawan’s brother)
 The teacher
 Noi
 The grandmothar
 Dawan’s parents
 The monk
 Bao (Dawan’s new friend)
Issues in this novel
 The oppression of women
 Poverty among the peasants
 Love between siblings
Recent trends and developments in the
region’s literature - Indonesia
Dutch in Indonesia
 The Dutch came to Indonesia in the late 1590s, and
they remained a dominant political force there until
the advent of World War II in 1941. An interesting
consideration is the development of Islam and the
Dutch colonial presence.
 Once Indonesia declared her independence from
Holland on August 17, 1945, Islam was more evident in
Indonesian society. Today Indonesia has the world’s
largest Muslim population, with about 87 percent of
the people practicing Islam.
 The Dutch East Indies was a Dutch colony that became
modern Indonesia following World War II. It was formed
from the nationalised colonies of the Dutch East India
Company, which came under the administration of the
Dutch government in 1800.
 During the 19th century, Dutch possessions and hegemony
were expanded, reaching their greatest territorial extent in
the early 20th century.
 This colony which later formed modern-day Indonesia was
one of the most valuable European colonies under the
Dutch Empire's rule, and contributed to Dutch global
prominence in spice and cash crop trade in 19th to early
20th century.[
 The colonial social order was based on rigid racial and
social structures with a Dutch elite living separate but
linked to their native subjects.
 The term "Indonesia" came into use for the
geographical location after 1880.
 In the early 20th century, local intellectuals began
developing the concept of Indonesia as a nation state,
and set the stage for an independence movement.
 Japan’s World War 2 occupation dismantled much of the
Dutch colonial state and economy. Following the Japanese
surrender in August 1945, Indonesian nationalists declared
independence which they fought to secure during the
subsequent Indonesian National Revolution.
 The Netherlands formally recognized Indonesian
sovereignty at the 1949 Dutch–Indonesian Round Table
Conference with the exception of the Netherlands New
Guinea (Western New Guinea), which was ceded to
Indonesia in 1963 under the provisions of the New York
Agreement.
Dutch’s Contribution
 In 1898, the population of Java numbered 28 million
with another 7 million on Indonesia's outer islands.
 The first half of 20th century saw large-scale
immigration of Dutch and other Europeans to the
colony, where they worked in either the government or
private sectors.
 By 1930, there were more than 240,000 people with
European legal status in the colony, making up less
than 0.5% of the total population. Almost 75% of these
Europeans were in fact native Eurasians known as
Indo-Europeans.
Abolishment
 As the Dutch secured the islands they eliminated
slavery, widow burning, head-hunting, cannibalism,
piracy, and internecine wars.
 Railways, steamships, postal and telegraph services,
and various government agencies all served to
introduce a degree of new uniformity across the
colony.
 Immigration within the archipelago—particularly by
ethnic Chinese, Bataks, Javanese, and Bugis increased
dramatically.
Class System
 The Dutch colonialists formed a privileged upper
social class of soldiers, administrators, managers,
teachers and pioneers.
 They lived together with the "natives", but at the top of
a rigid social and racial caste system.
 The Dutch East Indies had two legal classes of citizens;
European and indigenous. A third class, Foreign
Easterners, was added in 1920.
Education
 The Dutch school system was extended to Indonesians
with the most prestigious schools admitting Dutch
children and those of the Indonesian upper class.
 A second tier of schooling was based on ethnicity with
separate schools for Indonesians, Arabs, and Chinese
being taught in Dutch and with a Dutch curriculum.
 Ordinary Indonesians were educated in Malay in
Roman alphabet with "link" schools preparing bright
Indonesian students for entry into the Dutch-language
schools.
 Vocational schools and programs were set up by the
Indies government to train indigenous Indonesians for
specific roles in the colonial economy.
 Chinese and Arabs, officially termed "foreign
orientals", could not enroll in either the vocational
schools or primary schools.
 Graduates of Dutch schools opened their own schools
modelled on the Dutch school system, as did Christian
missionaries, Theosophical Societies, and Indonesian
cultural associations.
 This proliferation of schools was further boosted by
new Muslim schools in the Western mould that also
offered secular subjects.
 According to the 1930 census, 6% of Indonesians were
literate, however, this figure recognised only graduates
from Western schools and those who could read and
write in a language in the Roman alphabet.
 It did not include graduates of non-Western schools or
those who could read but not write Arabic, Malay or
Dutch, or those who could write in non-Roman
alphabets such as Batak, Javanese, Chinese, or Arabic.
 Some of higher education institutions were also
established. In 1898 the Dutch East Indies government
established a school to train medical doctors, named
School tot Opleiding van Inlandsche Artsen (STOVIA).
 Many STOVIA graduates later played important roles
in Indonesia's national movement toward
independence as well in developing medical education
in Indonesia, such as Dr. Wahidin Soedirohoesodo
that established Budi Utomo political society
Literature in Indonesia
 Dutch language literature has been inspired by both
colonial and post-colonial Indies from the Dutch Golden
Age to the present day.
 It includes Dutch, Indo-European and Indonesian authors.
Its subject matter thematically revolves around the Dutch
colonial era, but also includes postcolonial discourse.
 Masterpieces of this genre include Multatuli’s Max
Havelaar: Or The Coffee Auctions of the Dutch Trading
Company, Louis Couperus’s Hidden Force, E. du Perron's
Country of Origin, and Maria Dermoût's The Ten Thousand
Things
 Most Dutch literature was written by Dutch and Indo-
European authors, however, in the first half of the
twentieth century under the Ethical Policy, indigenous
Indonesian authors and intellectuals came to the
Netherlands to study and work. They wrote Dutch
language literary works and published literature in
literary reviews such as Het Getij, De Gemeenschap,
Links Richten and Forum. By exploring new literary
themes and focusing on indigenous protagonists, they
drew attention to indigenous culture and the
indigenous plight
 . Examples include the Javanese prince and poet Noto
Soeroto, a writer and journalist, and the Dutch
language writings of Soewarsih Djojopoespito, Chairil
Anwar, Kartini, Sutan Sjahrir and Sukarno.
 Much of the postcolonial discourse in Dutch Indies
literature has been written by Indo-European authors
led by the "avant garde visionary" Tjalie Robinson, who
is the best read Dutch author in contemporary
Indonesia and second generation Indo-European
immigrants like Marion Bloem.
Polygamy
 Polygamy (from πολύς γάμος polys gamos, translated
literally in Late Greek as "many married") is a marriage
which includes more than two partners.
 When a man is married to more than one wife at a
time, the relationship is called polygyny, and there is
no marriage bond between the wives; and when a
woman is married to more than one husband at a
time, it is called polyandry, and there is no marriage
bond between the husbands.
Polygamy in Islam
 In Islam, polygamy is allowed, with the specific
limitation that a man can have up to four wives at any
one time.
 The Qur'an clearly states that men who choose this
route must deal with their wives justly. If the husband
fears that he cannot deal with his wives justly, then he
should only marry one.
Polygamy in Indonesia
 Polygamy is legal in Indonesia and a man may take
up to four wives, as allowed by Islam. Despite such
legality, polygamy has faced some of the most intense
opposition than any other nation with the majority
consisting of Muslims.
 Additionally, Indonesia has the largest Muslim
population in the world. Recent restrictions have
brought about harsher penalties for unlawfully
contracted polygamous unions and polygamy is said to
be on the decline.
 Indonesian civil servants and military personnel are
also prohibited from practicing from polygamy. A man
may take up to four wives as long as he treats them
equally and can financially support them all.
 A man may also take multiple wives if he can prove to
the government that his first wife is unable to carry out
her duties as a wife.
 On a separate note, a study found that polygamous
politicians are overwhelmingly more likely to gain
female votes than monogamous politicians.
 In late April 2008, a large rally of Indonesian women
led a protest against the nation's laws allowing for
polygamy and polygamous marriages; urging the
government to enact a complete ban over such
marriages.
 Male Indonesian politicians were found to be largely
opposed, and such a ban has yet to take place.
Raden Ajeng Kartini(1879-1904)
 Kartini was born in Mayong, Java on April 21, 1879.
 She was the daughter of a Javanese aristocrat. Her
father was the Bupati (head of a region), the highest
post an Indonesian could hold in the Dutch colonial
bureaucracy.
 Her privileged position allowed her to attend a Dutch
and she became fluent in Dutch.
Raden Ajeng Kartini
 At the age of 12, she had to give up her formal
education and prepare herself for marriage.
 However , she continued to educate herself and read
all the Dutch books. This made her realise how much
freedom the Dutch women had.
 She realised how little freedom the Indonesian women
had and campaigned for a better treatment.
 She also started campaigning for more education,
freedom and independence for women.
 She wanted Indonesian students to have rights to
Western education.
 She started school for little girls and also had
friendships with some of the sympathetic Dutch
people. From 1900, she kept a lively correspondence
with her Dutch friends.
 A selection of her letters was published in a book in
1911. it was later translated into English and published
as Letters of a Javanese Princess in 1921.
 In 1903, she married a senior Javanese official.
 She died less than a later, five days after the birth of
her only child, a boy.
 A Kartini fund was set up on her memory.
 Her birthday, April 21 is observed as Kartini Day in
Indonesia.
Titis Basino
Titis Basino
 Titis Basino was born in Magelang, Indonesia on
January 17, 1939. After completing secondary school,
she graduated from the University of Indonesia in
1962.
 In 1963 she was introduced to Indonesian readers
when one of her short stories was published in the
Indonesian literary magazine, Sastra.
 Ms. Basino continued to write, although family and
other personal demands on her time limited her
creative output until 1997.
 She is currently on the faculty of the University of
Indonesia and since 1998 has had three books
published.
 In 1999 the government of Malaysia awarded Titis
Basino the Mastra prize, a competitive literary award
that involved submissions from throughout Southeast
Asia.
 Although Ms. Basino writes on a variety of subjects,
she is best known for her stories concerning women
and deceptive relationships.
Her by Titis Basino




Characters
Nameless narrator – Mrs. Hamid
Husband – Mr. Hamid
The other woman – Mrs. Hamid 2
Johan – eldest of the ten children
Setting
 Urban Indonesia
 Modern setting - Jakarta
Mrs. Hamid- Narrator
 Dedicated to her family, strong, good mother,
intelligent, capable, responsible, unselfish, loyal,
devoted woman, traditional.
 She sacrificed her needs to ensure that her children
were taken care of; cared for her health because she
did not want her children to live with their father’s
new wife.
 She maintained harmony in the home without her
husband.
 She always got up and met her children at the kitchen
door.
 She also joined a woman’s club and behaved in a
mature manner when confronted by an uncomfortable
situation with the second Mrs. Hamid.
 Weak, irrational, dependent, insecure, overly devoted
to her husband. She felt pain but chose to put up a
facade; she "swallowed her pride with her rice“.
 She wanted to be an "ideal wife" and did not pursue
her own interests and worked hard to keep him happy.
 Despite that, she had five more children with her
husband after he had taken a second wife; was more of
a mother than a wife to her husband.
Mr. Hamid
 Selfish, inconsiderate, immature, cruel, ungrateful and
weak.
 He married another woman without telling his first
wife. He did not consider her feelings, or those of his
children in the matter. This embarrassed his wife and
children (Johan).
 He constantly spoke about his new wife to his first
wife without any guilt and left his first wife to see his
second wife whenever he wished.
 He did not spend much time with his children and had
five more children with his first wife.
 Mr. Hamid is strong, self-assured, confident, and a
devoted follower of Islam.
 He is successful, financially stable, active and
interesting.
 He had a right to take additional wives so long as he
could support his families.
 He made an effort to return to both wives and he
wanted his wife to have outside interests but she
refused.
 He supported his children financially and did not spoil




them.
He was active and involved with different
organizations.
He spared his first wife’s feelings by refusing to list
reasons why he married a new wife but promised to
care for his children.
He called her a "proverbial good woman" as a
compliment.
He was a well-respected high official.
 She sacrificed her own interests and suppressed her
feelings to "maintain this charade." Islam permeates
Indonesian culture and society, and a devout Muslim
adheres to its guidelines. Since polygamy is allowed for
Muslim males, Mr. Hamid was not breaking any law,
and in fact had every right to marry another person
without consent or permission from his wife.
 Others may perceive Mrs. Hamid as being the most
responsible because she maintained the household
independently, got up with her children every
morning, had home-cooked meals ready, and refused
to show her frustrations.
Short Story (Malaysia)
 Guardian Knot by K.S. MANIAM
Who is K.S. Maniam?
 Subramaniam Krishnan or K.S.Maniam, as he is known
through his writing, was born on 4th March 1942, in
Bedong, in the state of Kedah, in Malaysia.
 He spent a year in an estate Tamil school, then attended
school in English at the Ibrahim School, Sungai Petani,
from 1950 to 1960.
 He did a stint of temporary teaching at his alma mater,
before being selected, in 1963, for Brinsford Lodge, a
Malaysian teacher training college in the United Kingdom.
 He trained as a teacher at Brinsford Lodge,
Wolverhampton, UK (1963-64), and taught for several
years in Kedah before going to the University of
Malaya, where he graduated in 1973.
 While there, he read more extensively and
experimented with writing.
 He read the Lake District poets, Shakespeare, Stephen
Spender, W.H. Auden, W.B. Yeats and T.S. Eliot.
 He gained his MA in 1979 with his thesis, A Critical
History of Malaysian and Singaporean Poetry in
English.
 K. S. Maniam was awarded the Raja Rao Award in
2000 for his outstanding contribution to the
Literature of the South Asian Diaspora.
 For his graduation exercise he wrote 44 sonnets on the
grief he felt at the death of a close friend.
 This gave him the opportunity to find his way through
the discipline of condensation, suggestiveness, and
layering of meaning.
 On his return to Malaysia, in 1965, he taught in several
secondary schools in Kedah, before going up to the
University of Malaya. He read English Literature and
after graduation in 1973 till 1975 he was a tutor at the
Department of English.
 He also began his MA thesis on Malaysian and
Singaporean poetry in English. After teaching in a private
institution, he returned as a lecturer to the University of
Malaya, in 1980.
 In 1997, he retired from the University as Associate
Professor. The Creative Writing courses he established
continue to be taught there.
Maniam’s works
 Novels
 The Return (London: Skoob, 1981, 1993)
 In A Far Country (1993)
 Between Lives (2003)
 Plays
 The Cord (1983)
 The Sandpit: Womensis (1990)
Short Stories
 The Eagles (1976)
 Removal in Pasir Panjang (1981)
 The Pelanduk (1981)
 The Third Child (1981)
 The Dream of Vasantha (1981)
 Project: Graft Man (1983)
 We Make It To The Capital (1984)
 The Aborting (1986)
 Encounters (1989)
 Parablames (1989)
 Plot (1989)
 Haunting the Tiger (1990)
 Sensuous Horizons: The Stories & The Plays (1994)
 In Flight (written 1993, published 1995)
 Arriving ...and other stories (1995)
 Faced Out (2004)
 Guardian Knot
Gordian Knot
 The Gordian knot has become one of the most known
and most frequently used metaphors. It concerns an
issue which is apparently unsolvable, something which
requires a radical and brilliant solution.
 However, the less known aspect concerns the actual
origin of the whole legend and the evolution of its
perception in time.
 The story behind the Gordian knot supposedly took
place about 400 B.C.
 An oracle predicted that he who will ride up to the city
of Phrygia in a wagon will become the king of ancient
Greece.
 A man who went by the name of Gordius fulfilled the
prophecy and, as a tribute to Zeus, tied his cart to the
temple - but he didn't use just any type of knot.
 He used what later became known as the Gordian knot
- a brilliant employment given to a piece of rope with
apparently no end and no beginning.
 The (same or other) oracle foretold that whoever
would be able to untie it would rule all of Asia.
Needless to say, numerous brave men attempted the
deed - without success.
 All until Alexander the Great made his way to the
Gordian knot - and simply slashed it in half with his
sword.
 Throughout history, perceptions and perspectives
upon the Gordian knot have been diverse. It's been
labeled both as a cheap cheat and as an exquisite
example of revolutionary thinking.
 Suppositions have been many, but the highest
probability, as recently proven, was as it follows:
Gordius may have used a piece of a special kind of wet
rope which was later left to dry in the sun until it
tightened the Gordian knot.
 Alexander, on the other hand, had been a disciple of
Aristotle, so obviously riddles of all kinds couldn't have
been an ultimate mystery to him.
 So the possibility must be admitted that he simply
found there was no way of untying the knot.
 In any case, the practical course of events is most likely
less important than the mystical side of things. For
above all the mathematical suppositions and practical
speculations, the significant aspect about the Gordian
knot is not concerned with the material out of which it
might have been made, but it is rather concerned with
the concept.
 The idea of finding a solution like that brought awe;
the solving method was controversial but efficient;
though apparently thoughtless, some people see it
more like a spark of genius.
 It's a clear example of thinking outside the
box. When in front of a puzzle like the
Gordian knot, one must, ideally, exactly like
Alexander, be rid of pre-supposed rules. He
had not assumed any such complicated rule;
therefore he applied the simplest of
solutions.
 Sacred mathematical symbols such as the
Gordian knot are no longer inaccessible
concepts - or, at least they are not entirely
inaccessible. And that's because of the
overwhelming benefic effects they seem to
acquire, when worn as jewelry, upon their
possessors.
 Any symbol from the Tree of Life to the Gordian knot
has a specific influence on its owner.
 The widespread practice of wearing such symbols as
spiritual jewelry has been bringing overwhelming
effects for years now.
 From the better understanding of one's inner self to
good luck and success, any aspect of one's life can be
greatly improved under the protection of such
symbols.
Guardian Knot
 Written in the first person point of view
 Relates the story of an Indian boy who grew up in the
rubber plantation.
 The narrator is reminiscing his past under the wooden
shed while waiting for the rain to stop.
 It is a tin-roof shed in the rubber plantation which is
used as a collection point.
 The floor of this shed was a wooden platform and was
raised from the ground.
 The tapping lots nearby were called “punishment lots”.
 The tappers were sent there by lorries.
 “The women had pinched, fatalistic faces, the men
defiant scowls” (Maniam 158).
The Knot
 There was a knot on the platform.
 Its strange whorls stood out against the plain wood.
The more the narrator gazed at it, the more it felt like a
knot inside him.
 “The more I gazed at it, the more it felt like the knot
inside me. The more the inside knot became the outer,
wooden knot, the stronger I grew. I don’t know how
long I gazed at that knot. The sky was a fiery red when
I finally stirred out of myself. I smiled, pleased, as if I
too had come through a stormy darkness, made anew
(Maniam 160).
Characters
 The narrator
 The narrator’s family
- Father
- Mother
- Elder Sister
 The chief clerk cum accountant (CC)
 The CC’s son
 The couple (rubber tappers)
The issues
 The sufferings of the rubber tappers
 The harsh life on rubber plantations in Malaysia
 The social problem that exist among the Indians in the
plantations
Themes in Guardian Knot
 Determination
 Class system
 Oppression
 Suppression of women
Determination
 The narrator is a very determined person.
 He did not want the same fate to befall him.
 The narrator’s sister became brave after listening to
the narrator’s advise.
 Refer Pg. 162, Last Paragraph.
Class system
 The CC cheated on the workers’ salaries because they
were uneducated.
 He called them “you’re all from nameless parents!”.
 Refer Pg. 163.
Oppression
 The CC oppressed the workers.
 Refer Pg 157.
 The CC also ordered the narrator to clean his shoes.
 The narrator refuses to follow the CC’s son, the muscle
boy and he is humiliated.
 Refer Pg. 162, Paragraph 1 and 2.
Suppression of Women
 The narrator’s sister was forced to stop schooling.
 Refer Pg. 157, Paragraph 1.
 The narrator’s mother had a child every year.
 Refer Pg. 57, Paragraph 1.
The issues in Guardian Knot
 The sufferings of the rubber tappers
 The harsh life on rubber plantations in Malaysia
 The social problem that exist among the Indians in the
plantations
The sufferings
 The sufferings of the narrator’s mother on the pay day.
 Refer Pg. 159-160.
 “My mother clutched ….
 The narrator’s mother both dreaded and enjoyed the
deliveries … (Pg 157)
Revenge
 The upper class people often take revenge on the
workers.
 The narrator’s mother was sent to the punishing lots.
Refer Pg. 162
 Someone was sent to molest the narrator’s sister. Refer
Pg.162
 The CC cheats on the pay to take revenge
Give your opinion on the ending of
this story.
 The ritual I intended takes a different form. I had
wanted to saw out the knot from the platform. I had
brought a small saw. Then, I would take it back and
have it varnished and framed by some craftsman. I
don’t do that now. Instead, I jump on the platform
floor until the knot splinters and something else
builds up in its place. Rage!
The Cat that Slept on the Altar
Truong Tiep Truong
 Truong was born in 1973 in Ninh Hoa, Vietnam.
 He worked as sports writer and a copywriter.
 He became a formal author after co-authored the book
titled, The Truths About Advertising in 2004.
Vietnam
Timeline on Vietnam History
 China ruled northern Vietnam from
about 100 BC until 900 AD
 The next 900 years the Vietnamese
expanded their territory until the south,
the present day Vietnam.
 200 BC – a Chinese General Zhao Tuo
named it Nam Viet
 111BC – China conquered it and named it
Jiao Zhi
 679 AD – the Chinese changed its name to
Annam
 939 AD – a Vietnamese ruler named it Dai
Co Viet
 1009 AD – the Ly family came to power/
ruled for 200 years
 1225AD – the Tran family seized power
 1407 – 1427 – China regained control
 1427 to 1787 - The Le family regained
power and renamed it Nam Viet ***/
fought the Ming Chinese invaders
 1471 – Le Thanh Ton, strongest of the Le
rulers conquered Champa
 1500s – civil wars
-Two families were involved
-Trinh in the North
- Nguyen in the South
 1770s – three brothers (TaySon – named
after their village) from central Dai Viet led
a revolt against the Nguyen family
- They conquered the South and marched
against the Trinh family
 1787- they conquered north and the Le ruler
was removed
-The youngest of the TaySon brothers became the
ruler of the North and South
 1802- Nguyen Anh, a member of the defeated
Nguyen family gained control of Southern Nam
Viet.
- He declared himself Emperor Gin Long of all
Nam Viet. He renamed it Vietnam
- Members of the family remained the Emperors
of Vietnam until the end of World War 11 in
1945.
French colonization

-
1600s - Roman Catholic missionaries
from France began to arrive in Dai Viet.
They converted thousands of
Vietnamese to Catholicism.
1600- early 1800 – The rulers prosecuted
the missionaries.
-
-
1858 – The French army started to attack
the Southern Vietnam the name of
protecting the missionaries.
1861- the French seized Saigon
1883- The French forced the Nguyen ruler
to sign a treaty that gave France control of
all Vietnam.

The French divided Vietnam into three areas
i.
Co-chin china – southern Vietnam
ii. Annam - Central Vietnam
iii. Tonkin - Northern Vietnam
The Cat that Slept on the Altar
 The cat
- A black and white kitten
- Three months old
- Just another kitten that the narrator’s mother kept to
scare away the mice.
Style of writing
 First person point of view
 A teenager’s ramblings on whatever he sees
 Uses flash backs
 History of Vietnam is often related
 The tradition of the Vietnamese is highlighted
 Many fables are also included in the story
 By looking at the sleeping cat, the narrator links to
many other incidences in his life and the stories he
had heard from his elders.
 He describes the other inhabitants of the altar like the
spiders and lizards.
 He talks about the Vietnam War, where his great grand
father was killed.
 He recalls the story that was passed to his father by his
late grandmother – about the aunt who lived on a
single bean soup due to poverty. When her son ate the
bean she died and soon her son too died and became a
bird.
 He also talks about Tet, the lunar new year where his
mother prepares various meals for the ancestors.
 He also mentions his cruel grandfather who use to
beat his wife and son.
 He talks about the Cham people and their curse that
caused civil war.
The themes
 Relationship
- The narrator talks about his dead family members
- He also incorporates myths in his story
 The patriarchal society
- Male dominated society
- Children are not allowed to question certain things
 Tradition
- Worshipping of ancestors
- The belief in reincarnation
Evening Under Frangipani
Philip Jeyaretnam
(Singapore)
Philip Jeyaretnam
Philip Jeyaretnam (1964- )
 Philip Antony Jeyaretnam is a lawyer from
Singapore. He is a Senior Counsel and a former
President of the Law Society of Singapor..
 He is also well known as a fiction writer. He is the
younger son of the late-Singaporean opposition
politician, J.B. Jeyaretnam (who was the first
opposition politician to be elected to Parliament in
post-independence Singapore), and Margaret Walker.
 This makes Philip of Sri Lankan Tamil and English
descent.
 His older brother, Kenneth Jeyaretnam, is currently an
opposition politician in Singapore (leading the Reform
Party, which was founded by his father shortly before
his death in 2008).
 Philip received his early education at Raeburn Park
School and the United World College of South East
Asia in Singapore, and at the Charterhouse School in
Surrey, England.
 He then went on to Corpus Christi College at
Cambridge University, where he read Law and
graduated with First Class Honours in 1986.
 He was admitted to the Singapore Bar in 1987, and was
conferred the title of Senior Counsel in 2003.
 His fiction novel First Loves, published in Singapore in
1987, claimed record sales on Singapore's Sunday
Times bestseller book list.
 It won him the compliment as Singapore's "homegrown Maugham”. He was presented with the 'Young
Artist of the Year' award in 1993, and a South-East
Asian Write Award in 2003.
 In 1991, he was a Fulbright Fellowship visitor to the
University of Iowa International Writers' Program and
to the Harvard Law School.
 He was also an Adjunct Professor with the Department
of Building at the National University of Singapore
from July 2006 to June 2007.
 He is a member of the Singapore Public Service
Commission and of the SIAC Regional Panel of
Arbitrators.
 In July 2005, Jeyaretnam was appointed as a board
member of the Singapore National Kidney
Foundation.
 He is a former President of the Law Society of
Singapore, and was the Chairman of the Society of
Construction Law from 2002 to 2004.
His Works
 Campfire (1985)
 Evening Under Frangipani (1986)
 First Loves (1987)
 Raffles Place Ragtime (1988)
 Abraham's Promise (1995)
 Tigers in Paradise: The Collected Works of Philip
Jeyaretnam (2004)
Evening Under Frangipani
 In "Evening Under the Frangipani," Jeyaretnam shows
how insecurities about race and colour finally break up
a relationship which would otherwise have been
perfect.
 "Dignity is all a man has. Respect yourself and never
beg anyone for favours. Then you will be respected and
respected you will be happy.
Characters
 Elaine
- A feminist.
She fights for women's rights,
"...marriage has got nothing to do with the fulfillment of
woman as woman… unless you want to reduce us…
beings…? (Pg 192).”
- Dresses casually. (cotton slacks and a loose white T-shirt)
(Pg 193).
- Does not like conventional ideas.
- “day in day out..for his boiling frustration” (Pg 194)
 She is private
- Her home was in a private and quiet area.
- "their home was in a cul-de-sac lined with frangipani
trees: their fragrance sweet and cloying when in full
blossom: at other times their scent was more delicately
spiced” (Pg. 195)
 She has conscience
- She knows the suffering of the boys in Pakistan.
 She does not like to show off
- She finds people who show off as people who are
stupid and people who want attention.
- "...jostling with teenagers on parade, bright smart
clothes on their fresh young bodies but the sharp scent
of glue in their decaying minds“ (Pg 194-195)
Thoughtful
- thought of telling Prakash about her good
news. Add to his happiness if his interview
went well. Cheer him up if he was depressed
- "She had saved it to cheer him up if he was
depressed by an aggressive unsympathetic
interview and to add to his happiness if the
interview had gone more successfully“ (Pg 194)
 Prakash
 He is nervous
- During his job interview,
- "...his armpits were circled in sweat: his confident
starched white shirt betrayed by his body's sweat
glands"(Pg 190)
 • Motivated ( Pg 191)
 He is a good worker
- He was a National Service Officer in the army even though
he just had a Diploma (Pg 191).
 He is full of conscience
- He knows the suffering of the boys in Pakistan,
- “ …the long hours of concentration weaving the intricate
patterns on princely carpets that dulled the minds and eyes
of young boys in Pakistan; or the hours of toil in the
stifling darkness of coal pits and blinding brilliance of iron
boundaries in north-east China that were contained in the
bargain kitchenware -bought and sold in five minutes of
ritual haggling” (Pg 193).
 Imaginative and cynical
- He looks at Elaine and tries to figure out the looks that
she had inherited. (Pg 197).
- - He comments on Elaine’s father’s hands (Pg 201)
 Elaine's Mum (a successful lawyer)
• Sarcastic (Pg 199)
• Unfriendly.
• Racist
- Commented on Prakash not being able to drink soup
due to his religious tradition of using his hands to eat.
(Pg 199)
• Judgmental
- "considered Prakash slow and stupid..imagined him
physically aggressive..bully Elaine out of her depth."
 Elaine’s father
- He is passionate
- He loves insects,"...he had grown to resemble the loves
of his life; and with centipede eyebrows and
grasshopper noses playing through his mind”(Pg 200)
- - He seemed more interested in his collection of dead
insects than his family (Pg 196)
 Mike (Assistant Manager)
-known as Chendol-baby
- Elaine went out with him and Prakash saw them
Conflict in the story
 Internal
 Prakash
 -Prakash felt very scared and stressed if he was going to
perform well in the interview.("tried to appear intentive"
 External
 Prakash and Elaine
-Argued about women's rights. Elaine states that women
are worth more than just a housewife. “...marriage as got nothing to do with the fulfilment of
woman as woman...isn't it better to develop out full
potential as human being“.
 -They fought with each other over her father's hand
which Prakash said they looks like beetles.
 “...Don't get angry. It's your father. His hands. They're
like beetles...And so are mine. Is that right?..."
Themes
 Racial issues
 Career oriented Singaporeans
 Deceit
 False relationships
The End