Approaching Postcolonial and Psychoanalytic Criticism in Literary Studies: an Illustration of an Analysis of a Malaysian Novel

Copyright © 2014 by Subarna Sivapalan.

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Contents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION

THE LIFE AND WORK OF LEE KOK LIANG

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND & METHODOLOGY

NEGOTIATING CHALLENGES OF IDENTITY AND SENSE OF SELF UNDER TRANSCULTURAL CIRCUMSTANCES

CONCLUSION

BIBLIOGRAPHY

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to dedicate this book to Dr Ganakumaran Subramaniam, the President of the Malaysian English Language Teaching Association (MELTA) for instilling in me the passion and perseverance to take up the study on which this book has been based on. I am most thankful to him for supervising this study, and patiently reading through and approving every single word written. The birth of this book would not have been possible without his guidance.

This book is also dedicated to all undergraduate and postgraduate students aspiring to take on the challenges of research within the area of Language and Literary analysis. May your literary research journey be a fulfilling one.

To my parents, husband, sister and daughter, Yuvena, thank you so much for your support and patience.

PREFACE

T his book is a contribution to the growing body of work on language and literary studies in Malaysia. The book encompasses the analysis of a common theme found in many Malaysian novels, i.e. identity and sense of self. These themes are examined through postcolonial and psychoanalytical lenses. The book provides an illustration of the intricacies that go into literary analysis, namely in the manner in which literary research and analysis is conceptualized and carried out. As such, the book has been written in a format that reflects the way in which a literary analysis of a text is conducted. It is hoped that this book will provide Language and Literature undergraduate and postgraduate students with guidance on the manner in which literary and textual analysis of literary texts could be approached.

Appeals to the past are among the commonest of strategies in interpretations of the present. What animates such appeals is not only disagreement about what happened in the past and what the past was, but uncertainty about whether the past really is past, over and concluded, or whether it continues, albeit in different forms, perhaps.

(Said 1979: 85)

INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION

London, the lost city of Atlantis, under an ocean of fog; and I am one of its denizens, groping, and groping towards the pin-point punctures of the lamps opposite. Out from the misty closeness swam the dark ghouls in overcoats and hats—the limbs moving stiffly as if fighting their way against some treacherous currents.

(Lee Kok Liang, 1952)

This study is an analysis of the semi-autobiographical novel, London Does Not Belong to Me (LDNBTM), written by the legendary Malaysian Chinese writer Lee Kok Liang (1927-1992). Lee Kok Liang began LDNBTM on board a passenger ship, which took him back from England to Malaya in 1954. Published only in 2003, 11 years after his demise, the author’s first novel was enthused by his own experiences in London while he completed his law degree at Lincoln’s Inn.

LDNBTM is a postcolonial Malaysian novel which deals with the concept of transculturation in postcolonial individuals. Transculturation is a term which is used in postcolonial theory to refer to the manner in which subordinated or marginalized groups select and invent from materials transmitted to them by a dominant culture (Ashcroft, Griffiths & Tiffin 1998). The process of migration is a possible foundation of transculturation. The migratory process, which is often undertaken for the purpose of survival, education or career enhancement, leads these migrant individuals to experiment with the culture of this new society (host society) they come into contact with (Tajfel 1982). This contact produces transcultural tendencies in the individual.

However it must be emphasised at this point that not all transcultural tendencies are produced from the willingness of individuals to assimilate with the host society. These ‘transcultural productions, which are often projected through postcolonial undertones, result in a changed identity in the individual, creating new cultural experiences for these individuals (Tajfel & Turner 1986). These experiences differ from the experiences they encounter in their homeland’ (Sivapalan, 2007: 125).

This study will analyse the postcolonial individual’s search for identity and sense of self. Transcultural experiences of the protagonist were chosen over cross-cultural and intercultural experiences as transculturalism deals with the form of culture created not from within separate spheres, but in the holistic forms of diverse cultures. This form was also chosen based on the principle that a single culture, in and of itself, is incomplete and requires interaction and dialogue with other cultures. The intent of this study is also to investigate the effects of transcultural experiences on the protagonist’s identity and sense of self. The protagonist’s search for identity and sense of self will be analysed using psychoanalysis and the postcolonial theory.

NEGOTIATING IDENTITY

Transcultural circumstances allow the individual to select and invent from the culture of the new society they associate themselves with. According to Pratt (1992), the process of transcultural negotiation can cast the identity of the individual in a new light. This is because transcultural experiences can influence and affect the individual’s sense of self and identity of their homeland as well as alter it in the country they migrate to (Pratt 1992). As a result of these transcultural experiences, the individual could assimilate, reject or fight against the culture of the new society and the culture of his homeland.

The assimilating, rejecting or fighting phase is related closely to Frantz Fanon’s views of the postcolonial writer’s negotiation of identity. Fanon’s evolutionary schema advances three phases. These phases are the assimilation phase, the cultural nationalist phase and the nationalist phase. In the phase of assimilation, the ‘native intellectual gives proof that he has assimilated the culture of the occupying power’ (Fanon 1966: 178). The literary productions of the native at this phase bears resemblance to the literary traditions of the colonizing country. The native’s incorporation of the colonial context is projected and produced in his works. The second phase sees the native intellectual in recollection of his genuine identity. It is in this stage that the native resists endeavours to assimilate him. However, owing to his own cultural isolation, the native intellectual’s attempt at cultural reaffirmation ‘stop at romanticization of bygone days corrected by philosophical traditions and aesthetic conventions borrowed from the world of the colonizer’ (Amuta 1989). The nationalist phase is the phase in which the native man of culture ‘after having tried to lose himself in the people and with the people, will on the contrary shake the people’ (Fanon 1966 :179). This phase, according to Fanon, is also known as the fighting phase. In this phase, the revolutionary and nationalist phase in the literature of the colonized is seen, in which the exposure of more natives to the realities to a democratization of the force of literary expression is witnessed (Fanon 1966). According to Fanon, during this phase, many natives who would never have thought of producing literary work begin to feel the need to express themselves. The inclusion of Fanon’s evolutionary scheme is vital to the comprehension of the characters in the novel. This scheme is especially useful in the deciphering of the speech, thoughts and actions of the expatriate individuals in Lee Kok Liang’s work. It also promotes an enhanced comprehension of Lee Kok Liang’s own feelings regarding his identity as a postcolonial individual and writer.

The protagonist in LDNBTM faces a situation comparable to that described by Fanon. The protagonist is an immigrant Chinese Malaysian who migrates to Britain for a couple of years in pursue of education. Upon his arrival in Britain, the protagonist who seems to be rather westernised realises the need to select and invent from the culture of the host society (British society). The encounter he experiences compels him to negotiate his identity between memories of his Malayan homeland and the modifications to his identity under transcultural circumstances he experiences in London. This research therefore sees the need to explore the journey taken by the protagonist in the process of negotiating and reconciling his Malaysian Chinese immigrant identity with the modifications to his identity under transcultural conditions in London. This study will examine if the protagonist’s negotiation of identity is done in a conscious manner or is carried out unconsciously. It will examine what happens to the postcolonial individual who is in contact with transcultural experiences and the manner in which these experiences affect his identity and sense of self. This research will also attempt to identify if his transcultural experience in London prepares him to deal better with the environment when he returns to Malaya or leaves him feeling confused and lost.

As the analysis involves the need to examine the feelings, emotions and relationships of the protagonist and the characters he comes into contact with, the use of psychoanalysis is seen to be an important tool to the research.