Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:
https://hdl.handle.net/10356/81524
Title: | Beyond the Color Line: Intersectional Considerations in Chuah Guat Eng's Fiction | Authors: | Sim, Wai Chew | Keywords: | Mechanical and organic solidarity (Durkheim) Biodiversity |
Issue Date: | 2014 | Source: | Sim, W. C. (2014). Beyond the Color Line: Intersectional Considerations in Chuah Guat Eng's Fiction. Kritika Kultura, 23, 33-46. | Series/Report no.: | Kritika Kultura | Abstract: | This essay argues that the work of Malaysian-Chinese author Chuah Guat Enggives pause to the culturalism that dominates literary analysis. Articulatedprimarily through identity politics (the politics of recognition), culturalism’s selfunderstandingkeeps at a distance other forms of social justice commitmentsincluding class struggle. However, Chuah spotlights their intersectionality inMalaysia and enjoins us to combine the two – to see the native population’s demandfor economic parity and rural development as coterminous in some respects withthe demands for recognition made by settler communities. In particular, Chuah’sEchoes of Silence (1994) points to the commensurability between socialist principlesthat underpinned the left-insurgent activities many Malaysian-Chinese joinedor supported during the war and immediate post-war, and the social protectionprinciples that underpin post-independence programmes aimed at alleviatingpoverty. Chuah’s second novel, Days of Change (2010), in turn suggests that sharedecological conservation ideals provide an arena for redistribution and recognitioninterests to come together in Malaysia, and this again counters the prevailingtendency to prioritize the claims of cultural otherness. To use terms provided byÉmile Durkheim, Chuah highlights organic solidarity and downplays mechanicalsolidarity. In this regard, her fiction rehearses the theoretical insights of NancyFraser, who argues cogently that the framing of redistribution and recognitioninterests as unrelated or dichotomous commitments is problematic. Like Fraser,Chuah urges an expanded interpretive paradigm unsettling that assumed dichotomy.To the extent that postcolonial literary studies lacks such a focus, a new conceptualvocabulary that extends its horizons is needed. | URI: | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/81524 http://hdl.handle.net/10220/40863 |
ISSN: | 1656-152X | Rights: | © 2014 Ateneo de Manila University. This paper was published in Kritika Kultura and is made available as an electronic reprint (preprint) with permission of Ateneo de Manila University. The published version is available at: [http://journals.ateneo.edu/ojs/kk/article/view/KK2014.02303]. One print or electronic copy may be made for personal use only. Systematic or multiple reproduction, distribution to multiple locations via electronic or other means, duplication of any material in this paper for a fee or for commercial purposes, or modification of the content of the paper is prohibited and is subject to penalties under law. | Fulltext Permission: | open | Fulltext Availability: | With Fulltext |
Appears in Collections: | HSS Journal Articles |
Files in This Item:
File | Description | Size | Format | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Beyond the Color Line Intersectional Considerations in Chuah Guat Engs Fiction.pdf | 330 kB | Adobe PDF | ![]() View/Open |
Page view(s)
256
Updated on Mar 1, 2021
Download(s)
159
Updated on Mar 1, 2021
Google ScholarTM
Check
Items in DR-NTU are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.