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Malaysian Drama in English: Is there a Case for a Post-Mortem?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2009

Margaret Yong
Margaret Yong
Affiliation:
Lectures in the Department of English, University of Malaysia.
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Extract

Malaysian drama in English (MDE) is an inelegant name, but it describes exactly a curious breed of theatre in Malaysia: Englishlanguage drama, which seeks to be locally appropriate, in a country whose polycultural history has resulted in the presence of a diverse mixture of languages including Malay (the National Language), the major dialects of Chinese, Hindi, Tamil and other Indian languages, as well as English. Malaysian drama in English has existed for some twentyfive years – not a long history, even measured by the standards of the New Literatures of post-colonial nations. Its quarter century of life has been short and turbulent. MDE has followed a course marked by race riots, language demonstrations, defections from its fold, institutional indifference, censorship, and the gradual withering of the English language itself as a medium viable within the national context. Much of the history of MDE has been affected by the major socio-political changes of the nation. It is not possible, then, to see MDE as an autonomous, selfenclosed entity. Its life cannot be extricated from the national history out of which it grows, and its story is inseparable from the political fortunes of the English language in Malaysia.

Type
Articles
Information
Theatre Research International , Volume 8 , Issue 3 , Autumn 1983 , pp. 234 - 246
Copyright
Copyright © International Federation for Theatre Research 1983

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References

Notes

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2. Fernando mentions, for instance, the production of Christie, Agatha's Witness for the ProsecutionGoogle Scholar during this period.

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