Issue Details: First known date: 2021... 2021 Hyphenational Poetics in Omar Musa’s Parang and Millefiori
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'This article examines two poetry collections by Omar Musa (b. 1984) and his hyphenated identity as a Malaysian Australian. Extending Jahan Ramazani’s concept of transnational poetics, it draws on Omar’s comments about the importance of the hyphen in his personal and artistic self-fashioning to argue for the presence of a “hyphenational poetics” in his work. This poetics functions as both hyphen and parang (machete), enabling transnational connections and sociopolitical critique. It is evident in the mixture of Malay language and Malaysian cultural details, African American hip-hop rhythms and aesthetics of spoken-word or slam poetry in Musa’s anglophone poems. His poetry performs a simultaneous critique of the sociopolitical status quo of both his ancestral homeland of Malaysia and his country of birth and citizenship, Australia. His hyphenational poetics offers one way of thinking beyond the national–sectional division in Malaysian literature, focusing instead on in-betweenness and cross-cultural borrowings and exchanges.' (Publication abstract)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Journal of Postcolonial Writing Special Issue : Malaysian Literature in English vol. 57 no. 5 2021 23649138 2021 periodical issue 2021 pg. 650-664
Last amended 6 Jan 2022 09:36:33
650-664 Hyphenational Poetics in Omar Musa’s Parang and Millefiorismall AustLit logo Journal of Postcolonial Writing
Subjects:
  • Parang Omar Musa , 2013 selected work poetry
  • Millefiori Omar Musa , 2017 selected work poetry
  • Malay language
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