The Southeast Asian Woman Writes Back: Gender, Identity and Nation in the Literatures of Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines

Description

This collection of essays examines how Southeast Asian women writers engage with the grand narratives of nationalism and the modern nation-state by exploring the representations of gender, identity and nation in the postcolonial literatures of Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and the Philippines. Bringing to light the selected works of overlooked local women writers and providing new analyses of those produced by internationally-known women authors and artists, the essays situate regional literary developments within historicized geopolitical landscapes to offer incisive analyses and readings on how women and the feminine are imagined, represented, and positioned in relation to the Southeast Asian nation.The book, which features both cross-country comparative analyses and country-specific investigations, also considers the ideas of the nation and the state by investigating related ideologies, rhetoric, apparatuses, and discourses, and the ways in which they affect women’s bodies, subjectivities, and lived realities in both historical and contemporary Southeast Asian contexts. By considering how these literary expressions critique, contest, or are complicit in nationalist projects and state-mandated agendas, the collection contributes to the overall regional and comparative discourses on gender, identity and nation in Southeast Asian studies. Front Matter ....Pages i-xi Introduction (Grace V. S. Chin, Kathrina Mohd Daud)....Pages 1-17 Writing Against Patriarchal Philippine Nationalism: Angela Manalang Gloria’s “Revolt from Hymen” (Amanda Solomon Amorao)....Pages 19-40 Articulating Female Citizenship in Norsiah Gapar’s Pengabdian (Kathrina Mohd Daud)....Pages 41-54 The New Malay Woman: The Rise of the Modern Female Subject and Transnational Encounters in Postcolonial Malay Literature ( Alicia Izharuddin)....Pages 55-70 Women and the Authoritarian State: The Southeast Asian Experience (Lily Rose Tope)....Pages 71-88 State Ibuism and One Happy Family: Polygamy and the “Good” Woman in Contemporary Indonesian Narratives (Grace V. S. Chin)....Pages 89-106 Women Writing Wayang in Post-reform Indonesia: A Comparative Study of Fictional Interventions in Mythology and National History (Meghan Downes)....Pages 107-127 Counter-Narratives of the Nation: Writing the Modern Brunei Malay Woman (Grace V. S. Chin)....Pages 129-148 Back Matter ....Pages 149-152