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The ghosts of Islam and the unseen world in Bruneian horror stories
Author(s) -
MOHD DAUD KATHRINA
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
world englishes
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.6
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1467-971X
pISSN - 0883-2919
DOI - 10.1111/weng.12229
Subject(s) - islam , reading (process) , ideology , carving , poetry , literature , mode (computer interface) , buddhism , history , sociology , aesthetics , art , linguistics , philosophy , politics , political science , law , archaeology , computer science , operating system
One of the most dynamic and contemporary aspects of Bruneian literature today is the proliferation of bilingual short stories online. In a country in which fewer than a hundred local prose and poetry works are published annually, Mode Seram , a website in which readers are encouraged to send in stories, which updates itself daily and can boast over 40,000 readers since its inception in 2010, is one of the most‐read (albeit unofficial) disseminators of prose in the country. By performing a close reading of selected stories from the site, with particular attention to the ‘ imam ’ figure, this article suggests that the bi‐ and tri‐lingual stories of Mode Seram constitute an alternative reading of the national Islamic religious ideology, and challenge contemporary Anglophone Southeast Asian representations of the sacred and the supernatural, and represent an important step in the carving out of a unique national literature rooted firmly in the cultural and religious traditions of Southeast Asia.