Papers by Wan Roselezam Wan Yahya Wan Yahya
Herman Melville's novel, Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life, is said to depict common travel writin... more Herman Melville's novel, Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life, is said to depict common travel writing themes such as confusion, discomfort, discovery and natural beauty. However, a more careful examination of the text reveals that there are strong social critiques of racism and imperialism and a struggle with what makes humans civilized beings or savages. The issue of cannibalism haunts the story, as do the abusive practices of colonial and whaling-ship officers, which provides the necessary suspense to carry the reader through the story to its end. Cannibalism as a cultural practice is explained according to the social and political context of contact with European aggression and devastation. By analysing the text using the concepts of hegemony and binary opposition, it is clear that Melville challenges the narrative that South Pacific natives were savage cannibals inferior to civilized Europeans. He shows that the apparent savage aggressiveness of the Typees and other South Pacific islanders, was not inherent to their culture but was provoked by attacks from outsiders, particularly Europeans and Americans.
The goal of a disciplinary society, according to Michel Foucault (1979), is to make citizens more... more The goal of a disciplinary society, according to Michel Foucault (1979), is to make citizens more profitable and productive, and less individual, through mental and physical conditioning in order to turn people into compliant subjects. Foucault identifies the emergence of such disciplinary power as a gradual process in which the subjected body becomes submissive when the mind has been manipulated to believe in the correctness of the functioning of the body. This notion of discipline is known as 'biopower' (literally it means control over human bodies). This form of power is illustrated in Aldous Huxley's novel Brave New World, which depicts a dystopian future set in London where science progresses to perfection and creates new technologies that affect humanity and banish individuality from the face of the world. In this study, Foucault's idea of biopower as a means of control is used to comprehend the manipulation of human beings through the systematic control of thought and behaviour in various ways, such as through genetic engineering, various forms of conditioning and a predetermined route through life from birth to death. In the novel, Huxley warns of dehumanization through a disciplinary system which turns people into docile bodies that are enslaved, both mentally and physically. Huxley also attempts to challenge his readers and asks them to think about the extent to which technology should determine our social structure and cultural values.
At the intersection of psychological and literary studies and acknowledging dialogical aspects of... more At the intersection of psychological and literary studies and acknowledging dialogical aspects of the self in Herman's Dialogical Self Theory (DST), we coined the concept of " Virtual Fictional/Factual Positioning " (VFP), which is also guided by Bakhtin's discussion on the author-hero relation. VFP evaluates the possible dialogical coalition of the author's positions as " I-as-artist/novelist " and " I-as-the-hero-of-my-story, " amongst other positions in literary narratives. Evaluation of the existing literature on DST and the few adaptations of this theory for literary purposes highlights the insufficient consideration paid to the dialogical possibilities of the self in literary studies. To develop our argument based on our new model, we present a textual analysis of Paul Auster's Man in the Dark and examine the protagonist's narratives and his relation with his hero in the story within the story. Furthermore, we address the question of whether this protagonist/author's self consists of polyphonized dialogical voices or merely a cacophony of various thoughts with fewer logical and no dialogical qualities.
No one would reject the fact that human has been always completely depending on nature for all hi... more No one would reject the fact that human has been always completely depending on nature for all his needs. However in modern days, when industry has spread its influence on human life, human gradually became alienated from nature. This alienation was felt so threatening by scholars that they have started an attempt to revive human's connection to nature. To cooperate with these attempts, this paper is going to have a precise look at human/nature relationship. It tries to elucidates the history of this relationship, shed light on the reason of human's alienation with nature, and discusses the attempts for a reconciliation between human and nature. The paper concludes its discussion by having a subtle and deeper look at human's relationship with nature in order to illuminate the positive psychological aspect of human/nature relationship hence to make human aware about the importance and benefits of an intimate connection with nature.
Bokononism is a fictional religion Vonnegut brings into his narrative, Cat's Cradle (1963), to cr... more Bokononism is a fictional religion Vonnegut brings into his narrative, Cat's Cradle (1963), to create a self-conscious novel known as metafiction. This innovative mode of writing narratives, along with providing a critique of their own methods of construction, deals with the external real world to examine some established structures of the human society like religion. By exposing the fundamental structures of narrative fiction, Vonnegut's novel gives readers an opportunity to think about the possible fictionality of the world structures outside the literary fictional text. The novel tries to reorder the world perception of readers through rearranging the values and conventions of the fiction he produced. Vonnegut's fourth novel, Cat's Cradle, is the first mature work which, in its use of metafiction, presents ideas about the nature of truth, dealing as it does with science and religion as its main topics. A novel telling the story of its writing shifts its metafictional focus on writing process to social concern of the novelist by means of those very metafictional strategies. What the study refers to as metareligion is an ideological product of metafictional writing which Vonnegut introduces in his novel. The same as metafiction that " self-consciously and systematically draws attention to its status as an artefact " , Vonnegut's metareligion exposes the metaphor of its own duplicity and simulacrum not pretend any longer to pass for the reality of what human being keep as a sacred religion. As a metafictional novel, Cat's Cradle aims at leading readers to question whether the world systems in general and religion in particular could be as constructed as the novels they are reading.
Reader-response theory has long been a growing infl uence in the literature classroom. The theory... more Reader-response theory has long been a growing infl uence in the literature classroom. The theory largely emphasizes the active and communicative role of the reader. Instead of looking at the meaning from within the text, the reader discovers meaning from within themselves, thus negotiates meaning from outside the text. Reader-response theory has evolved in the literature classroom through many practical applications such as role-play, drama, letter writing and literary journals. literary journals are normally adopted in the classroom with the aim of encouraging students to interact with the text and to draw individual responses from it thus moving steadily towards critical appreciation of the text. This study examined the use of literary journals in advancing literary responses among 65 undergraduate students taking English Literature courses at the Faculty of Modern Languages and Communication, Universiti Putra Malaysia. It relied on two types of analyses. Students' responses were coded and categorised using specifi c response categories to identify the kinds of responses elicited from the students' journals. To fi nd out students' opinion regarding the use of literary journals in improving their responses to and understanding of literary texts, a structured, Likert-scale questionnaire was administered. Findings indicated that literary journals elicited a variety of literary responses from the students. In addition, students' positive feedback confi rmed the viability of literary journals as a practical application tool in the literature classroom.
While the growing body of research on Tan Twan Eng’s The Gift of Rain (2009) focuses on the prota... more While the growing body of research on Tan Twan Eng’s The Gift of Rain (2009) focuses on the protagonist, Philip Hutton’s traumatic condition, his Chinese identity, and his ambiguous identity, this study devotes particular attention to the complexity of interactions between various cultures practised by Philip. This study aims to address this gap by applying the concept of transculturalism to analyse the processes of acquiring a foreign culture and incorporating the foreign culture into traditional cultures experienced by Philip. In other words, this study employs the concept of transculturalism to examine multicultural depictions in the novel. Scholars, such as Khan, Tiwari, Sheoran and Tan C. S. who have examined multicultural depictions in various literary texts, have found that multicultural circumstances cause certain ethnic groups to lose their cultures and identities. Hence, the multicultural circumstances depicted are perceived as negative phenomena. However, this study has found that by examining the interactions between various cultures, rather than focusing on the end products such as portrayals of hybridity, the positive sides of multicultural depictions could be revealed. The transculturation process experienced by Philip shows that the new cultural practices he has created are made up of both his traditional cultures and the foreign culture he has acquired. This means that Philip does not totally lose his traditional cultures and identities. Therefore, this study concludes that multicultural depictions in The Gift of Rain could be read positively, provided that the interactions between various cultures, which resulted in the incorporation of a foreign culture into traditional cultures, are examined.
Doris Lessing's The Golden Notebook adopts a complex profile to present its characters' complex l... more Doris Lessing's The Golden Notebook adopts a complex profile to present its characters' complex lives. However, of all existing novel's themes it is women's oppression and subjugation that come under scrutiny here. The world this novel pictures is a patriarchal capitalist world highly unfavorable to women, and the society it portrays is marked by male-dominance and gender-based discrimination; a society in which – no matter how capable women are – their identity is defined by men and male-defined relations. Accordingly, this paper is looking at this novel from a socialist feminist point of view to identify the facets of sexual oppression and to show how the female characters resist, fight back and rely on their self-defined identity to subvert the oppressive structure they are living in. Based on the findings of this paper we argue that in the novel's world sexuality, motherhood and mothering are outstanding facets of oppression through which women are overwhelmingly oppressed and exploited by the male-dominated society that discriminates against women as a secondary inferior class. To our understanding, while female characters of the novel have to deal with a lot of pressure imposed by society's institutions (family and family-like circles) they are capable enough to shrewdly rely on their power and self-defined identity to fight back and subvert the patriarchal capitalist systems that intrude women's lives in a variety of ways. As we conclude Lessing confirms socialist feminism's argument that mothering and motherhood are facets of women's oppression, but she also believes that these two aspects of feminine life can be a part of feminine power to subvert the oppressive systems that are designed to define and enfeeble women's genuine identity.
She has over 25 years of teaching experience. She is currently attached to a secondary school in ... more She has over 25 years of teaching experience. She is currently attached to a secondary school in Kuching. Her areas of interest are literature and social issues concerning women, children, education and the natives of her homeland.
This paper examines how the society shapes and redefines women’s identity through capitalist patr... more This paper examines how the society shapes and redefines women’s identity through capitalist patriarchal economy in Doris Lessing’s novel The Grass Is Singing. Being aware of women’s
sufferings and problems under a patriarchal domination organized in the context of capitalism has consciousness-raising as its outcome. As a result, shared problems and oppressions come to the surface and planning to make a ‘change’ becomes possible. It is making a ‘change’ that stands as the ultimate aim of socialist feminists as well as others who are related to feminism(s) in one way or another. This novel relates the story of Mary who lost her economic independence and her status as a successful young woman after her marriage to Dick. The finding shows that Mary’s identity goes under a new definition according to the patriarchal capitalist ideology. Another finding suggests that in order to understand the society that Lessing depicts and the way that this society determines the life of the people, one has to look at it from two angles: capitalism and patriarchy.
This study investigates Alice Walker’s fictions by focusing on gender representation portrayed in... more This study investigates Alice Walker’s fictions by focusing on gender representation portrayed in her three novels The Color Purple, The Third Life of Grange Copeland and Possessing the Secret of Joy to find out whether gender is culturally or physically centered; whether gender establishers such as tradition and racism contribute towards gender differentiation; and whether gender is a rigid belief with stable or changeable nature. The projection of Walker’s characters reveals that gender is psychologically and culturally determined rather than physically. It varies from one ethnic or race to another. Gender is found to be a form of rigid belief of unstable nature which causes women’s identities to be reconstructed in an oppressive manner. The practice of genital mutilation by the Olinkan tradition seeks to enforce gender differentiation through drawing distinctive lines between genders and defines them in their own terms rejecting the biological nature of gender construction. Overexploited, inhumanely treated, and dispossessed from their lands by the white masters, Black men such as Mr_, Grange, and Brownfield exercise power and redefine themselves by reduplicating the same oppression on their women and create imaginary illusory identities for themselves. Black women such as Celie, Squeak, Mem and Tashi are rendered as helpless and emaciated through their husband’s atrocities. These suppressed, silent, and dependent women are the ideal characteristics dictated by the tradition, where as, transgressive women are labeled as a whore like Josie and Shug or crazy like Sofia. These ideal images absorbed as a result of Celie’s and Squeak’s ignorance; Mem’s excessive affection and sympathy; and Tashi’s blind honor to her tribe are all shattered as soon as they recognized their idealized status as nothing but a plot against them.
Many writers had already elaborated upon matters of truth and honesty, when Albert Camus characte... more Many writers had already elaborated upon matters of truth and honesty, when Albert Camus characterized Meursault, the protagonist of his best selling novel The Outsider, as an honest man who 'refuses to lie…for the sake of truth'. At that time, Camus had an international fame in the world of literature, and he explained the novel and his absurd hero, Meursault, in a preface to an English language edition of L'Etranger. Yet, some commentators and critics found Camus's explanation strange and reacted against his commentaries. Chief among them is Conor Cruise O'Brien who believes that Meursault of the actual novel is not the same that Camus characterized in the explanation of the novel. O'Brien points out that Meursualt of the story lies, and he is indifferent to truth. This paper is a critical examination of O'Brien's and other critics' commentaries which stand for and against Camus's own commentaries on his absurd character, Meursault, to lead us to the heart of the matter of Camus's understanding of terms such as honesty and truth. In doing so, despite the fact that Camus is the creator of Meursault, his commentary on Meursault is analysed next to other critics' commentaries, and not as a dominant one.
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Papers by Wan Roselezam Wan Yahya Wan Yahya
sufferings and problems under a patriarchal domination organized in the context of capitalism has consciousness-raising as its outcome. As a result, shared problems and oppressions come to the surface and planning to make a ‘change’ becomes possible. It is making a ‘change’ that stands as the ultimate aim of socialist feminists as well as others who are related to feminism(s) in one way or another. This novel relates the story of Mary who lost her economic independence and her status as a successful young woman after her marriage to Dick. The finding shows that Mary’s identity goes under a new definition according to the patriarchal capitalist ideology. Another finding suggests that in order to understand the society that Lessing depicts and the way that this society determines the life of the people, one has to look at it from two angles: capitalism and patriarchy.