Self, Other and Other-Self: The Representation of Identity in Contemporary Sinophone Malaysian Fiction

The present dissertation deals with two interconnected issues within the realm of Sinitic-medium literature from Malaysia. The first issue, of a rather general nature, is constituted by contemporary Sinophone Malaysian fiction. The second, of a more restricted scope, is the Chinese Malaysian identity construction and its representation through intraethnic and interethnic interaction in contemporary Sinophone Malaysian fiction. The main goals that I aim to fulfill with my research are to investigate, systematize, critically analyze and partially translate (into English) a specific body of Sinitic-medium fictional writings. The literary corpus presented here has been personally built through a selection among a wider number of short stories (duanpian xiaoshuo 短篇小說) and novellas (zhongpian xiaoshuo 中篇小說) produced by Sinophone Malaysian writers. Through this process of scrutiny, systematization, analysis and translation, I wish to pinpoint a topic which although is less researched in Sinophone Malaysian literary studies, is very often explored by Sinophone Malaysian authors in their creative writings. Hence, I will explore how Chinese Malaysian identity is shaped through the literary representation of two main types of interaction. Firstly, I will examine the literary portrayal of the relationship between the Chinese Malaysian Self and ethnic Chinese people from other geographic locales such as mainland Chinese, Chinese Singaporeans, etc. Subsequently, I will investigate how Sinophone Malaysian writers represent the relationship between Chinese Malaysians and Malaysians of other ethnic heritages such as Malays, aboriginal people from the peninsula and natives of Sarawak.