K.S. Maniam’s bestiary: Reading animality and identity in selected stories
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-2021
Abstract
This essay scrutinises K.S. Maniam’s fictional animals by going beyond the confines of metaphor to interrogate the concept of animality and how animality impinges on diasporic identity. I examine the writer’s impulse to animalise the notion of national belonging especially though the strategic deployment of the animal mask which reveals the shared domination of migrant and animal. I argue that Maniam’s critique of animality not only suggests that migrant and animal lives are interlinked but also informs his re-envisioning of the diasporic self. I posit that Maniam’s “new diaspora” advances the notion of diasporic self as ‘becoming-animal.’. © 2021, University of Malaya. All rights reserved.
Keywords
Animality, Identity, Diaspora, Domination, Animal mask, Becoming-animal
Divisions
arts
Publication Title
SARE: Southeast Asian Review of English
Volume
58
Issue
2
Publisher
Department of English, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Malaya