An Anthology of Traditional Malay Literature

An Anthology of Traditional Malay Literature

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This anthology of traditional and classical works is a collection of poetry and fiction, lega digest, epistles and religous treaties, narrated, sung or written in the Malay language, in the Malay Archipelago. This language was and is widespread in the Malay Peninsula, Singapore, Sabah, Sarawak, Brunei in Kalimantan, (Indonesian Borneo), including Pontianak, Ketapang, Sintang, Banjarmasin, Kutai and Samarinda. It was the lingua franca for most of Insular Southeast Asia and even parts of Continental Southeast Asia, and to be found in Southern Thailand, in the provinces of Satun, Patani, Nakorn Si Thammarat, and some islands in Southern Philippines.

This time-span of traditional Malay literature covers a period from the earliest beginnings of oral works, through the inscriptions on stone and metal, and through further developments in oral stroytelling, the advent of writing. In the decades, of the 18th and 19th centuries a collision with western colonial powers and their cultures has resulted in a literature that reflected this traumatic confrontation and also, the so-called 'modern' elements. Along with this too, we noticed the rise of the new genres of the report, the travelogue, the autobiography and biography, which interestingly are prominent antecendents of modern literature.
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Prof. Dr. Muhammad Haji Salleh has published more than 70 books of poetry, criticism travelogue, autobiography, translation and transcriptions from Jawi manuscripts. As a poet, he has received many national and international awards, and his endeavour in translating Malay literature to readers into English has brought Malaysian literature to readers across Asia, Europe and America. He has also taught and received fellowships in universities in Malaysia, the United States, Brunell, Germany and the Netherlands.

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