Within the British colonial administrator Hugh Clifford’s collection of short stories such as In Court and Kampung (1897) and The Further Side of Silence (1916), Clifford’s careful renderings of the Malayan landscape encompass its sweltering heat, immersive nature as he makes his way across the country, as well as his occasional realisations on the unchanged natural landscape. Within this expanse of unconquered land, Clifford’s contemplations reign in his short stories regarding the environment’s effect upon the Malayan subject: much like the languid unchanged surroundings, Clifford hypothesizes within his stories that the Malayan subject is naturally a product of his surroundings. According to Timothy Harper, Malayan bodies, when facing "external homogenizing forces" (142) resorted to “switch codes and styles" (146), instead of being defined by a singular generalised identity, a reality which Clifford recognises in his stories. Within his stories, the Malayan subjects are illustrated to be innately different from the British and Europeaners themselves, encompassing varied identities simultaneously. Lees posits that Clifford’s authorial “choice to write about a rural, exotic, archaic Malaya allowed him to ignore the colony's urban, transnational population who had claimed a British identity and learned its cultural forms and vocabulary” (97). Building upon Lees’ point, I further posit that it is through consistent bodily depictions of the Malayans in Clifford’s stories which nativize and normalise certain aspects of the Malayan subject to the European reader, while abjecting other unfavourable qualities.

Authors:
Tejash Kumar Singh, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

About the Presenter(s)
His hobbies include dreaming of travelling, occasionally watching football, and weightlifting. An animal-lover, Tejash has set up an animal charity which donates regularly to needy animals worldwide. He is also currently owned by his cat, Maya."

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