An endless identity dilemma: the liminal westernised Muslim malays in the enemy in the blanket by Anthony Burgess
The second installment of The Malayan Trilogy (1964), The Enemy in the Blanket (1958), an English literary text by Anthony Burgess (1917-1993), is written with the colliding of cultures and clashes of religions as the central themes. Set in pre-independence Malaya, Burgess is part of a group of West...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Australian International Academic Centre
2019
|
| Online Access: | http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/80592/1/MUSLIM.pdf |
| _version_ | 1796980789193211904 |
|---|---|
| author | Bahar, Ida Baizura Kamarudin, Kamariah Maming, Pabiyah Abd Razak, Farahanna |
| author_facet | Bahar, Ida Baizura Kamarudin, Kamariah Maming, Pabiyah Abd Razak, Farahanna |
| author_sort | Bahar, Ida Baizura |
| collection | UPM |
| description | The second installment of The Malayan Trilogy (1964), The Enemy in the Blanket (1958), an English literary text by Anthony Burgess (1917-1993), is written with the colliding of cultures and clashes of religions as the central themes. Set in pre-independence Malaya, Burgess is part of a group of Western writers who had actually lived in their fictional settings where the literary continuation of this group of writers has been ignored for a long time and has not appeared in anthologies in the academic context. As scholarship on the Muslim Malay characters in Burgess’ novel is still overlooked in terms of scholarly value as well as its Islamic and Malay ethnicity discourses, we argue that Burgess has addressed a conundrum still faced by current Muslim Malay society: the pre-independence Muslim Malay characters in The Enemy in the Blanket are conflicted; trapped in a state of betwixt and between being a Muslim, and of a Westernised lifestyle which, more often than not, oppose each other. Thus, we examine Burgess’ portrayals of the Muslim Malay characters that adopt a Westernised lifestyle and appear to be in a quandary with regards to their Islamic beliefs and practices. As methodology, we utilised Victor Turner’s concept of liminality (1967) to analyse scenes in the novels which depict such binary opposition. Findings demonstrate that the Muslim Malay characters have to negotiate their identity issues in order to either feel more socially acceptable through the preference of a Westernised lifestyle or struggle to become ethically and morally truthful to their religious faith. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-06T10:28:13Z |
| format | Article |
| id | upm.eprints-80592 |
| institution | Universiti Putra Malaysia |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-06T10:28:13Z |
| publishDate | 2019 |
| publisher | Australian International Academic Centre |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | upm.eprints-805922020-11-04T20:24:40Z http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/80592/ An endless identity dilemma: the liminal westernised Muslim malays in the enemy in the blanket by Anthony Burgess Bahar, Ida Baizura Kamarudin, Kamariah Maming, Pabiyah Abd Razak, Farahanna The second installment of The Malayan Trilogy (1964), The Enemy in the Blanket (1958), an English literary text by Anthony Burgess (1917-1993), is written with the colliding of cultures and clashes of religions as the central themes. Set in pre-independence Malaya, Burgess is part of a group of Western writers who had actually lived in their fictional settings where the literary continuation of this group of writers has been ignored for a long time and has not appeared in anthologies in the academic context. As scholarship on the Muslim Malay characters in Burgess’ novel is still overlooked in terms of scholarly value as well as its Islamic and Malay ethnicity discourses, we argue that Burgess has addressed a conundrum still faced by current Muslim Malay society: the pre-independence Muslim Malay characters in The Enemy in the Blanket are conflicted; trapped in a state of betwixt and between being a Muslim, and of a Westernised lifestyle which, more often than not, oppose each other. Thus, we examine Burgess’ portrayals of the Muslim Malay characters that adopt a Westernised lifestyle and appear to be in a quandary with regards to their Islamic beliefs and practices. As methodology, we utilised Victor Turner’s concept of liminality (1967) to analyse scenes in the novels which depict such binary opposition. Findings demonstrate that the Muslim Malay characters have to negotiate their identity issues in order to either feel more socially acceptable through the preference of a Westernised lifestyle or struggle to become ethically and morally truthful to their religious faith. Australian International Academic Centre 2019 Article PeerReviewed text en http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/80592/1/MUSLIM.pdf Bahar, Ida Baizura and Kamarudin, Kamariah and Maming, Pabiyah and Abd Razak, Farahanna (2019) An endless identity dilemma: the liminal westernised Muslim malays in the enemy in the blanket by Anthony Burgess. International Journal Of Applied Linguistics and English Literature, 8 (1). pp. 212-223. ISSN 2200-3592; ESSN: 2200-3452 http://www.journals.aiac.org.au/index.php/IJALEL/article/view/5265/3867 10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.8n.1p.212 |
| spellingShingle | Bahar, Ida Baizura Kamarudin, Kamariah Maming, Pabiyah Abd Razak, Farahanna An endless identity dilemma: the liminal westernised Muslim malays in the enemy in the blanket by Anthony Burgess |
| title | An endless identity dilemma: the liminal westernised Muslim malays in the enemy in the blanket by Anthony Burgess |
| title_full | An endless identity dilemma: the liminal westernised Muslim malays in the enemy in the blanket by Anthony Burgess |
| title_fullStr | An endless identity dilemma: the liminal westernised Muslim malays in the enemy in the blanket by Anthony Burgess |
| title_full_unstemmed | An endless identity dilemma: the liminal westernised Muslim malays in the enemy in the blanket by Anthony Burgess |
| title_short | An endless identity dilemma: the liminal westernised Muslim malays in the enemy in the blanket by Anthony Burgess |
| title_sort | endless identity dilemma the liminal westernised muslim malays in the enemy in the blanket by anthony burgess |
| url | http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/80592/1/MUSLIM.pdf |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT baharidabaizura anendlessidentitydilemmatheliminalwesternisedmuslimmalaysintheenemyintheblanketbyanthonyburgess AT kamarudinkamariah anendlessidentitydilemmatheliminalwesternisedmuslimmalaysintheenemyintheblanketbyanthonyburgess AT mamingpabiyah anendlessidentitydilemmatheliminalwesternisedmuslimmalaysintheenemyintheblanketbyanthonyburgess AT abdrazakfarahanna anendlessidentitydilemmatheliminalwesternisedmuslimmalaysintheenemyintheblanketbyanthonyburgess AT baharidabaizura endlessidentitydilemmatheliminalwesternisedmuslimmalaysintheenemyintheblanketbyanthonyburgess AT kamarudinkamariah endlessidentitydilemmatheliminalwesternisedmuslimmalaysintheenemyintheblanketbyanthonyburgess AT mamingpabiyah endlessidentitydilemmatheliminalwesternisedmuslimmalaysintheenemyintheblanketbyanthonyburgess AT abdrazakfarahanna endlessidentitydilemmatheliminalwesternisedmuslimmalaysintheenemyintheblanketbyanthonyburgess |