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An Occasion for Collective Engagement: Shifting Political Hegemonies in Early Malay Epic Dramas
Author(s) -
Chung Simone ShuYeng
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
studies in ethnicity and nationalism
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.204
H-Index - 8
eISSN - 1754-9469
pISSN - 1473-8481
DOI - 10.1111/j.1754-9469.2012.01151.x
Subject(s) - malay , politics , epic , movie theater , tribe , media studies , plural , history , sociology , aesthetics , literature , gender studies , law , political science , art , anthropology , philosophy , linguistics
The article discusses how the intertextual relationship between film, performing arts, literature, and the liberal capitalist structure of the M alay film studio system was exploited by B ritish colonialists and M alay intellectuals alike to encourage the formation of nationalistic aspirations in the 1950s and 1960s. Although M alay epics were seen to portray a particularly M alay‐centric view of feudal societies, they imply a wider political objective when the production histories of three epic films – the legend of H ang T uah (1956), his nemesis H ang J ebat (1961), and the folktale R aja B ersiong (1968) – are reviewed. M alaysia's first P rime M inister's incorporation of plays in his political campaigns and forays into film suggests his belief that the media could be instrumental in projecting an indigenised national identity. Created for a wide cinematic audience, such films encouraged cinemas’ function as the space of convergence where members of M alaysia's plural society could participate in the undifferentiated cinematic experience.