Alam Pantun Melayu


Book Description







The Comparative Study of Traditional Asian Literatures


Book Description

This book represents the first ever published introduction to the comparative study of traditional Asian literatures, embracing three vast literary zones: Arab-Islamic, Indo-South East Asian and Sino-Far Eastern. The aim of the book is to outline the main properties of Asian literatures in the period of 'reflective traditionalism' (the early centuries CE to the first half of the 19th century), when the creation of a vast body of aesthetically significant works was coupled with the emergence of literary self-awareness: when the nature of the creative process, the poetics and functions of the literary works, and the ways of their influence on the reader were thoroughly comprehended and committed to writing for the first time. The book is intended for specialists in Asian literatures, comparative literature, and literary theory, and for students of these topics.




A Critical Survey of Studies on Malay and Bahasa Indonesia


Book Description

In this book I have aimed at completeness in the sense that all publications known to me, which are wholly or partly devoted to Malay and Bahasa Indonesia (B.I.), or are important for the study of these languages, have been included. Popular publications in non-professional periodicals have been included only exceptionally. All the publications mentioned in the text are incorporated in the Bibliography (p. 91-157). The countless articles in four post-war, semi-professional periodicals in :'1alaya and Indonesia, Dewan Bahasa, Pembina Bahasa Indonesia. 11:1 edan Bahasa, Bahasa dan Budaja, are not mentioned separately in the Bibliography, but sections 33 to 36 contain a survey, as complete and systematic as possible, of the contents of these periodicals in so far as they pertain to the Malay language; nor have I discussed in the text or incorporated in the Bibliography several hundreds of titles of practical textbooks or school-books of Malay or B.I. which are of no importance to the scientific study of these language. These titles have been entered in a separate Appendix (p. 158--171). The fact that completeness was aimed at certainly does not mean that it has been achieved. Especially various recent writings from Indonesia and Malaya may have escaped my attention. Experience has also proved that publications on Malay sometimes appear in the most unexpected places. The qualification above: "publications ... devoted to ... , or impor tant for the study of" Malay and B.I. has been taken in a wide sense.




The Heritage of Traditional Malay Literature


Book Description

Traditional literature, or 'the deed of the reed pen' as it was called by its creators, is not only the most valuable part of the cultural heritage of the Malay people, but also a shared legacy of Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Brunei. Malay culture during its heyday saw the entire Universe as a piece of literature written by the Creator with the Sublime Pen on the Guarded Tablet. Literature was not just the creation of a scribe, but a scribe himself, imprinting words on the 'sheet of memory' and thus shaping human personality. This book, the first comprehensive survey of traditional Malay literature in English since 1939, embraces more than a millennium of Malay letters from the vague data of the seventh century up to the early beginnings of the modern literatures in the late nineteenth century. The long path trodden by traditional Malay literature is viewed in historical and theoretical perspectives as a development of integral system, caused by cultural and religious changes, primarily by gradual Islamization. This changing system considered in the entirety of its genres and works, is seen both externally and internally: from the point of view of modern scholarship and through the examination of indigenous concepts of literary creativity, poetics and aesthetics. The book not only repesents an original study based on a specific historico-theoretical approach, but it is also a complete reference-work and an indispensable manual for students.




Oral Traditions in Insular Southeast Asia


Book Description

Insular Southeast Asia is made up of six nations, which are characterised by an extraordinary diversity of cultures and languages. Consequently, oral tradition in the region is similarly heterogeneous and may be performed in poetry, storytelling, singing or a combination of all three. Its study may be perceived from various academic angles. The present edition contains eleven contributions which discuss oral tradition from different perspectives, covering ecocriticism, poetics, semiotics, linguistics, folkloristics and politics. This volume explores expressions of oral folklore from different corners of Insular Southeast Asia and exemplifies diverse and alternative approaches to oral poetry and storytelling.




An Exaltation of Forms


Book Description

Fifty poets examine the architecture of poems--from the haiku to rap music--and trace their history