Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-s22k5 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-12T13:07:10.053Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Thoughts on Writing Literary History: The Case of the Sri Lankan Malays

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 October 2020

Ronit Ricci
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Literary Histories Have All Too Often Been Written with the Borders of Nation-States in Mind, Projecting Back in Time a political unity and standard use of language that only gradually, and sometimes recently, emerged. This approach has been criticized and increasingly replaced by an acknowledgment that literary histories must consider many variables that do not neatly map onto the story of single, powerful, and supposedly unified political entities and that these histories' artificial boundaries of inquiry must expand to encompass the movement of people, ideas, and texts. Although potentially more representative of the plurality of particular societies or cultures, a literary history that does not depend on the illusion of a stable state structure and the state's prioritized language is challenging to write, especially when basic questions regarding the location, religious affiliation, and linguistic preferences of the community producing a literature loom large. I present some thoughts and questions on one such challenging example—writing a literary history of the Sri Lankan Malays—in the hope that these reflections will resonate with those exploring other places, languages, and periods as we critically engage with old and new ways of understanding the diverse nature and roles of literature.

Type
theories and methodologies
Information
PMLA , Volume 131 , Issue 5: Special Topic: Literature in the World , October 2016 , pp. 1444 - 1451
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 2016

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Works Cited

Adelaar, K. A. “Some Notes on the Origins of Sri Lanka Malay.” Papers in Austronesian Linguistics, edited by H. Steinhauer, vol. 1, Australian National U, 1991, pp. 1–22. Pacific Linguistics, series A, no. 81.Google Scholar
Alamat Langkapuri. 1869-70, Department of National Archives, Colombo, Sri Lanka.Google Scholar
Anthonisz, R. G. Digest of Resolutions of the Dutch Political Council Colombo, 1644-1796. 2012, Department of National Archives, Colombo, Sri Lanka.Google Scholar
Charney, Michael W. “Literary Culture on the Burma-Manipur Frontier in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries.” Literary Cultures at the Frontiers: Literature and Identity in the Early Modern World, special issue of The Medieval History Journal, edited by Sumit Guha, vol. 14, no. 2, 2011, pp. 159–81, doi:10.1177/097194581101400202.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Enriquez, Colin M. Ceylon Past and Present. 1927. Asian Educational Services, 1999.Google Scholar
Fang, Liaw Yock. A History of Classical Malay Literature. Translated by Bahari, Razif and Aveling, Harry, ISEAS Publishing, 2013.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Green, Nile. Islam and the Army in Colonial India: Sepoy Religion and the Service of Empire. Cambridge UP, 2009.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hamid, Ismail. Kesusataraan Melayu lama dari warisan peradaban Islam. Penerbit Fajar Bakti, 1983.Google Scholar
Hussainmiya, B. A. “Baba Ounus Saldin: An Account of a Malay Literary Savant of Sri Lanka, 1832-1906.” Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. 64, no. 2, 1991, pp. 102–34.Google Scholar
Hussainmiya, B. A. Lost Cousins: The Malays of Sri Lanka. U Kebangsaan Malaysia, 1987.Google Scholar
Hussainmiya, B. A. Orang Rejimen: The Malays of the Ceylon Rifle Regiment. U Kebangsaan Malaysia, 1990.Google Scholar
Hussainmiya, B. A. “Syair Kisahnya Khabar Orang Wolenter Benggali: A Sri Lankan Malay Syair, Introduction and Text.” Sari, vol. 5, 1987, pp. 17–49.Google Scholar
Maier, Hendrik M. J. We Are Playing Relatives. KITLV Press, 2004.Google Scholar
Mat Piah, Harun. “Tradisi kesusastraan Melayu Sri Lanka dalam konteks kesusastraan Melayu tradisional nusantara: Satu tinjauan ringkas.” Sari, vol. 4, no. 2, 1986, pp. 63–82.Google Scholar
Mat Piah, Harun, et al. Traditional Malay Literature. Translated by Aveling, Harry, Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 2002.Google Scholar
Nordhoff, Sebastian. A Grammar of Upcountry Sri Lanka Malay. LOT, 2009.Google Scholar
Orsini, Francesca. “How to Do Multilingual Literary History? Lessons from Fifteenth- and Sixteenth-Century North India.” The Indian Economic and Social History Review, vol. 49, no. 2, 2012, pp. 225–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peterson, Indira Viswanathan. “Multilingual Dramas at the Tanjavur Maratha Court and Literary Cultures in Early Modern South India.” Literary Cultures at the Frontiers: Literature and Identity in the Early Modern World, special issue of The Medieval History Journal, edited by Sumit Guha, vol. 14, no. 2, 2011, pp. 285–321, doi:10.1177/097194581101400207.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pollock, Sheldon. Introduction. Literary Cultures in History: Reconstructions from South Asia, edited by Pollock, , U of California P, 2003, pp. 1–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
RAS Misc., Royal Asiatic Society Library, London, MS 1.Google Scholar
Rassool, Romola. “Issues of Power and Privilege in the Maintenance of Sri Lanka Malay: A Sociolinguistic Analysis.” The Genesis of Sri Lanka Malay: A Case of Extreme Language Contact, edited by Nordhoff, Sebastian, Brill, 2012, pp. 121–45.Google Scholar
Ricci, Ronit. “Asian and Islamic Crossing: Malay Writing in Nineteenth-Century Sri Lanka.” South Asian History and Culture, vol. 5, no. 2, 2014, pp. 179–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ricci, Ronit. “The Discovery of Javanese Writing in a Sri Lankan Malay Manuscript.” Bijdragen tot de taal-, land-, en volkenkunde, vol. 168, no. 4, 2012, pp. 511–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ricci, Ronit. “The Malay World, Expanded.” Indonesia and the Malay World, vol. 41, no. 120, 2013, pp. 168–82, doi:10 .1080/13639811.2013.794527.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ricci, Ronit. “Perfect Wedding, Penniless Life: Ali and Fatima in a Sri Lankan Malay Text.” South Asian History and Culture, vol. 4, no. 2, 2013, pp. 266–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ricci, Ronit. “Story, Sentence, Single Word: Translation Paradigms in Javanese and Malay Islamic Literature.” A Companion to Translation Studies, edited by Bermann, Sandra and Porter, Catherine, Wiley Blackwell, 2014, pp. 543–56.Google Scholar
Saldin, Baba Ounus. Syair faid al-abad. Alamat Langkapuri, 1904–05.Google Scholar
Windstedt, Richard O. A History of Classical Malay Literature. 1940. Oxford UP, 1969.Google Scholar