On The Narrative Strategy Of Anti-hegemony And Opposing Nation-formation In Contemporary Malaysian English Literature

When other post-colonial writers tried to explore cultural roots in their works, Tash Aw went further to look for the psychological and social factors on identity-construction, make inquiries on the alienation in the name of unity and patriot and proposed the possibility to esteem the values of cultural diversity.This thesis expounds the narrative strategies of Anti-colonial and anti-hegemony and rethinks the nation-formation through The Harmony Silk Factory and Map of the Invisible World. The main aims of this thesis are as follows:First, explore the issues with which the emerging Malaysian English writers try to deal. Second, from what dimensions and how Tash Aw explored some issues such as identity-construction and nation-building and, third, an excavation of human concern beyond the political issues in the works. The thesis consists of three parts according to the discourse context. From the view of deconstruction the central power discourse, part one will mainly analyze the multi-dimensional writing strategy in The Harmony Silk Factory in order to collapse the central power discourse. Then, from the perspective of social sciences and national psychology, Map of the Invisible World explores the origin and process of nation-building, concludes that the national institutions elaborate the alienation of the people with the purpose of building and maintaining identity-illusion. Finally, combining the metaphor of these two works, the thesis reveals the human concern under the veil of political interest.