Reading Daerah Zeni: Navigating along the Literary Spaces in/of a Malay(sian) Novel

Abstract

How do we read the Malay novel in the postcolonial, postmodern context of Malay/Malaysian literature? Daerah Zeni, a 1985 novel written by National Laureate A. Samad Said and an example of Malay historical fiction, tells an embattled story of an author writing about a nationalist fighter during the late period of colonisation, portraying the reality of the literary production of the novel itself. As a historico-literary mise-en-abyme of sorts, the novel offers opportunities for infinite readings of national history, literary history within the nation, literary spatiality, and how the authorial figure acts as a reflective link between/of the novel and the nation.