Locating Diasporic Interspaces of Local Modernities: Malaysian Migrant Poetry Competition and Voices of the Displaced

• Published in: Sic
• Main Author: Dalal S.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: University of Zadar 2021
• Online Access: https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85122624463&doi=10.15291%2fSIC%2f1.12.LC.7&partnerID=40&md5=7a0a9578867c7ed0dc501e49b307baf9

In this paper, I will refer to the Malaysian Migrant Worker and Refugee Poetry Competition and the subsequent collection of the selected entries entitled Voices of the Displaced. I will contend that this opportunity of showcasing the literary and cultural agency of traditionally peripheral migration in Malaysia is effectively instrumental in generating an alternative perspective in addressing the existing discourse of migration and diaspora. Therefore, I will propose that the notion of "local modernities," as professed by Bill Ashcroft, is an appropriate articulation in order to locate this contemporary cultural contingency. Consequently, I will attempt to argue that the emerging diasporic interspaces of local modernities in Malaysia are capable of not only creating shifting spaces and practices where participatory negotiation of sameness and difference can be sustained, but also of initiating a polylogue that represents the distinctive divergences. © 2021 University of Zadar. All Rights Reserved.