The Modern History of Southeast Asia through Fiction

Introduction

Introduction

Novels and short stories written or set in the past can capture a sense of time and place in ways that most types of historical primary sources, perhaps with the exception of autobiographies and memoirs, cannot. Through vivid descriptions, the skilful novelist can transport their readers back in time and to a different world. Through the use of narrative, meanwhile, they can provide deep insights into the human condition. Since the nineteenth century, there has been a wealth of fiction written that uses Southeast Asia as a setting and its myriad communities as a focus. Some of these novels, such as Joseph Conrad’s Lord Jim (1900) or Pramoedya Ananta Toer’s ‘Buru Quartet’ (1980-1988), are considered to be literary classics. Others were polemical in purpose and are credited with bringing about changes in some form or another, with José Rizal’s satire of life under Spanish rule in the Philippines in Noli Me Tangere (Touch Me Not) (1887) and Eduard Douwes Dekker’s critique of Dutch economic policy in Indonesia in Max Havelaar (1859) being the most outstanding examples. Regardless of their impact or literary quality, however, all deal with important contemporary issues such as the relationships between colonisers and colonised, take George Orwell’s Burmese Days (1934) for example, or the horrors of armed conflict, as in Bao Ninh’s account of life during and after the Vietnam war in The Sorrow of War (1994).

In this module, we will explore the modern history of Southeast Asia through the reading of such novels and short stories. We will use historical, sociological and literary approaches in order to consider the different ways in which fiction might be used to understand the past and, on a more philosophical level, the relationship between history and literature.

Module Organistation and Learning outcomes

Module Overview

This module will use a combination of lectures, student presentations and seminar-style discussions. In addition to in-class discussions, students will also be expected to pose questions and discuss issues raised in class in the LumiNUS forum.

After an overview of the historical development of modern literature in Southeast Asia and an introduction to methodological issues, the first half of the semester (Weeks 3-6) will focus on understanding different historical periods and events through literary works. The second half of the semester (Weeks 7-13) will then introduce various literary theories to interpret fictional accounts of the past. From Week 4 to Week 12, groups of students will lead classes by presenting the selected works of fiction and historical or theoretical secondary sources and posing questions for discussion.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this module, students will be able to:

  1. describe the major periods and events in the modern history of Southeast Asia (i.e. the nineteenth and twentieth centuries) and outline the development of the literary genres of the novel and short story during this time;
  2. place a literary text in its historical context and explain what it reveals or conceals about the events it covers and/or the time in which it was written;
  3. assess the benefits and limitations of using literary texts to understand a specific event (e.g. the Second World War), phenomenon (e.g. globalisation) and/or period (e.g. the time of decolonisation) in the modern history of Southeast Asia;
  4. apply an appropriate literary theory to a specific literary text in order to analyse what that text reveals about a specific issue (e.g. women’s rights or labour relations) in the modern history of Southeast Asia.

 

  

  

Assessment

Assessment

This module is based on Continuous Assessment (CA), consisting of 4 components:

  1. Class Participation (10%)

Students are expected to attend every class, read the assigned texts as required and participate in classroom activities and discussions, both in class and online.

  1. Group Presentations and Discussion Leadership (20%)

For the second class of Weeks 4 to 12, groups of 3-4 students will present and then lead a discussion on the assigned pieces of fiction and relevant supplementary texts. Each student in the group will be expected to read a different work of fiction from the reading list for that week, from which they will select extracts for the whole class to read, in consultation with the lecturer. To facilitate this, the lecturer will brief them on the topics at least two weeks in advance. Each group will submit their selected extracts for the other students to read one week ahead of their presentation. The presenters will also provide their fellow students with a handout or a copy of their presentation in class. This will be sent to the lecturer at least 48 hours before the class so that the presenters can get some feedback on their presentation. The group presentation will act as a springboard for the class discussion that follows, with the presenters posing questions on the texts and issues covered. To facilitate this and to encourage a cohesive presentation in which the group members identify similar themes and literary styles in their individual pieces of fiction, the group will receive a collective grade/mark. The group presentation will make up three-quarters of the total mark and the discussion leadership will make up the remaining quarter. These marks will be based partly on peer assessment.

  1. Midterm Paper (35%)

Students will write an essay (2,000 – 2,500 words) comparing and contrasting how two pieces of fiction (at least one of which must be a novel) can shed light on a particular event, process or period in the modern history of Southeast Asia as discussed in class from Weeks 3 to 6, in a way that conventional historical accounts do not. They will also assess the benefits and limitations of using these pieces of fiction in this way. Students that have presented on one of the topics from Weeks 4 to 6 are allowed to base their essay on their presentation. Subject to consultation with the lecturer, one of the pieces of fiction can be a text that does not appear on the reading list.

  1. Final Paper (35%)

Students will write an essay (2,000 – 2,500 words) in which they apply one of the literary theories covered in Weeks 7-12 to one piece of fiction in order to examine what that text reveals about a specific issue (e.g. women’s rights or labour relations) at the time in which it was written. Students that have presented on one of the topics from Weeks 7 to 12 are allowed to base their essay on their presentation. Subject to consultation with the lecturer, students may choose a piece of fiction that does not appear on the reading list.

Please note that the precise deadlines for each paper will be confirmed at the start of the semester.

Readings

Readings

The following list of readings is just an illustrative example of the type of texts that we will be examining in this module.

Novels and Short Stories

Bao Ninh. The Sorrow of War. Translated by Phan Thanh Hao and Frank Palmos. London: Martin Secker & Warburg, 1994 [1990].

Greene, Graham. The Quiet American. London: Heinemann, 1955.

Jeyaretnam, Philip. “Painting the Eye.” In Tigers in Paradise: The Collected Works of Philip Jeyaretnam. Singapore: Times Editions, 2004.

Ma Ma Lay. Not Out of Hate: A Novel of Burma. Translated by Maureen Aung-Thwin and edited by William H. Frederick. Athens: Ohio University Center for International Studies, 1991 [1955].

Mangunwijaya, Y. B. Durga/Umayi: A Novel. Translated by Ward Keeler. Seattle & Singapore: University of Washington Press & Singapore University Press, 2004 [1991].

Miao Hsiou. “Return.” In Voices of Southeast Asia: Essential Readings from Antiquity to the Present, edited by George E. Dutton. New York: M. E. Sharpe, 2014 [1950s].

Orwell, George. Burmese Days. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1934.

Rizal, José. Noli Me Tangere (Don’t Touch Me). London: Penguin Books, 2006 [1887].

Suon Surin. A New Sun Rises Over the Old Land: A Novel of Sihanouk’s Cambodia. Translated by Richard Nelson. Singapore: NUS Press, 2019 [1961].

Surangkhanang, K. The Prostitute. Translated by David Smyth. Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1994 [1937].

Historical and Theoretical Secondary Sources

Bernards, Brian. Writing the South Seas: Imagining the Nanyang in Chinese and Southeast Asian Postcolonial Literature. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2015.

Hutcheon, Linda. A Poetics of Postmodernism: History, Theory, Fiction. New York: Routledge, 1988.

Jameson, Frederic. The Political Unconscious: Narrative as Socially Symbolic Act. London: Methuen, 1981.

Osborne, Milton. Southeast Asia: An Introductory History. 12th ed. Crows Nest, NSW: Allen & Unwin, 2016.

Owen, Norman G. ed. The Emergence of Modern Southeast Asia. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2005.

Patke, Rajeev S., and Philip Holden. The Routledge Concise History of Southeast Asian Writing in English. London & New York: Routledge, 2010.

Smith Allen, James. “History and the Novel: Mentalité in Modern Popular Fiction.” History and Theory 22 no. 3 (October 1983): 233-252.

White, Hayden. “The Historical Text as Literary Artifact.” In Tropics of Discourse: Essays in Cultural Criticism. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1978.

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