“Writing Tribal in English”: Postcolonial Racial Modernity and Indigenous Knowledge in Malaysian Literature

Co-sponsored with the Asia Center

It is widely acknowledged that the indelible influence of Anglo-American modernism on postcolonial literatures in English is marked by “anxiety and ambivalence” given that modernity’s association with the West relies on the denial of “subjectivity, language and history” of colonized peoples (Gikandi 1992, 2). Yet, in rapidly developing postcolonial Asia, English is no longer viewed exclusively as a Western, imperial tongue but embraced as a global language. In Malaysia, this re-signification of English is sustained by framing the language as a utilitarian vehicle for economic modernization whilst emphasizing Malay’s importance as the national language to preserve cultural sovereignty.

This seminar examines the implicit idea that the cultural and economic functions of language can be separated as such in the production of Malaysian literature in English. We will consider the work of Golda Mowe, an Iban author from Sarawak, Malaysia, which grapples with the conundrum of what she calls “writing tribal in English,” namely, that fictional representations of Iban cultural knowledge tend to be made legible as fantastical and thus non-modern. Focusing on her novella Fairy Con (2020), we will explore how the work plays with the genre conventions of speculative fiction to frame Indigenous epistemologies as contemporaneous with the economic forces of modern life.