SILENCE THAT SPEAKS-A FEMINIST DIALOGICS APPROACH IN KEE THUAN CHYE’S PLAYS

ERDA WATI BAKAR, NORAINI MD YUSOF & RAVICHANDRAN VENGADASAMYPUSAT PENGAJIAN BAHASA DAN LINGUISTIKFAKULTI SAINS SOSIAL DAN KEMANUSIAAN

UNIVERSITI KEBANGSAAN MALAYSIA 

INTRODUCTION• Kee Thuan Chye’s plays – The Big Purge & Swordfish, then The Concubine.

• Central themes – Manipulation of power, Race relations, corruptions and freedom of expression.

• Kee considers himself as an 'honest‘ playwright who is obliged to express what he feels is right. • Within his central themes, Keep has consistently included the voices of his female characters as

part of his voices of reason– to deliver his forceful and provocative messages.• Kee’s women are appropriated and positioned as opiniated beings who question the patriarchal

shackles that bound them. • Such portrayal is consistent to a revisionist’s effort who aims to reclaim the voice and history of

these previously muted women.

INTRODUCTION• This effort is also consistent with the feminist dialogics theory that wishes to

alter society’s stereotypical images of women and demystify the patriarchal values that embody them.

• Feminist dialogics as established by Dale Bauer (1988) has borrowed some selected concepts of Bakhtinianism and appropriates it within the context of feminist readings of a text.

• These women are centralised in order to serve two purposes; to resist their subordination against the authorial power and to be engaged in a dialogue with the society in order to alter their pre-conceived notions on women simultaneously acknowledging their strength and abilities.

• The women who are in focus Mawiza from The Big Purge & Nurhalisa and Tun Dara in Swordfish, then the Concubine.

BAKHTIN’S DIALOGISM AND FEMINIST DIALOGIST

• Dialogic feminism is not merely revolving on the competing issues of equality and differences, but it urges on the importance of listening and respecting diverse and variant voices.

• It is their conviction that transformation of gender can be achieved through the act of solidarity of a unified effort.

• Dialogism is coined from the term dialogue that involves the act of exchange of utterances between two or more individuals. Self and Other are the prevailing concepts in dialogism in which the Self is an independent entity with one’s own territory.

• Communication remains a war and struggle as it is based on the opposition between the self and other as mutual counterparts (Yamada 2008). This war of communication is realised in the struggle and fight for different utterances and voices to be heard.

BAKHTIN’S DIALOGISM AND FEMINIST DIALOGIST

• Novels consist of multi-voiced characters that are involved in infinite interaction of dialogism.

• Displaced and dominant voices are negotiated and crossing path to accommodate the equilibrium of these two voices.

• Bakhtin also establishes the concept of carnival which aids feminism with the agency to resist order and establishment.

• Carnival acts as a centrifugal force that helps these women to struggle against the centripetal force to overturn the dominant order of society or subvert the authority.

• Feminist dialogics does not aim to be “agonistic and oppositional” instead it proposes for open, flexible and ongoing identity. Any sign of resistance is an act of dialogic voice celebration that are multivocals within the web of culture (Bauer and McKinstry 1991: 2-4).

RESISTING TRADITION-NURHALISA

• The daughter of the Treasure Keeper who was forced to give up his daughter as Sultan Iskandar’s concubine.

• She merely obeys out of respect for her father and she is incapable to deny the request of her Sultan.

• She is fearless in expressing her aspirations for the ruling government to allow the subjects to speak without worrying that it would be too “sensitive”.

• She shares a close relationship with Iskandar and the palace Officials find her to be intimidating and threatening.

• She was falsely accused of plotting to overturn the government and conspiring to assassinate the Royal Consort, Tune Dara.

RESISTING TRADITION-NURHALISA

• She was found guilty for both charges as she was placed in a biased trial. Iskandar sentenced her to death and her death symbolises the death of her radical ideals and voice. • Feminist dialogic perceived her voice as heard from a vacuum, ergo

it neither carries any merit nor worthy to be acknowledged (Bauer 1988).• Even Nurhalisa's resistance proves to be fatal, however her refusal

to be forcefully silent has renewed the view on female strength and power.

MOTHERHOOD/ THE BETRAYED WIFE- TUN DARA

• Tune Dara is the antagonist who manipulates and exploits her power as the Royal Consort to satisfy her vendetta against Nurhalisa.

• Her betrothal was arranged and she was forced to stay in a loveless marriage.• Iskandar openly displays her contempt towards Tun Dara and deprived her from motherhood as

she remained as a virginal wife. • This become part of her motive to devise a conspiracy that destabilises Singapura and tearing

Iskandar away from his concubine. • Cheah (1993) claims that women in Malay court although may appear harmless on the surface

as their activities are “subtle” and “sophisticated” to which they are dismissed as mere onlookers.

• They literally have neither roles to play nor influence to the court officials. On the contrary, these harmless beings are capable of “guile, manipulation and ruthlessness” (2) in spreading slander and causing scandal with terrifyingly deathly result.

MOTHERHOOD/ THE BETRAYED WIFE- TUN DARA

• Her status as the royal consort awards her with privileges, wealth and power that are able to manipulate any of her subordinates. Unlike Nurhalisa who fights for the freedom of expression, Tun Dara merely fights for the love of her husband.

• Her unobtrusive display of power and manipulative nature affirms the notions of carnival in which she has subverted and inverted the display of power without “smashing social frameworks” instead “reinscribes them by being contained within them” (Hohne & Wussow 1994: xii).

• The display of her carnivalesque nature signifies her repressed anger and deprivation of love and affection from her husband, the Sultan. Instead of fighting to break the common patriarchal and male dominance, Tun Dara relentlessly perseveres in attempting to break into the heart of her husband.

THE LIBERAL-MAWIZA• Mawiza is intimately connected with the central male characters, but her character is

not entirely dependent or defined by her male encounters. • She is actively involved in determining the directions of the play as she exploits her

intelligence and sexuality in liberating themselves not only from the stigma of stringent patriarchal society but also audaciously defies the social, moral and religious dictations as well as values.

• Her passion in her job reflects her intention of breaking the stereotypes of the Malays who are commonly or perhaps unfairly perceived as complacent, indolent and dependant on the ‘crutches’ that are continuously provided by the government.

• This deliberate act of defiance against the stereotypes towards her race is consistent with the Bakhtinian dialogic utterance as a form of an individual’s consciousness, psyche and ideological stand that are imprinted in one’s way of thinking and speaking by subverting any hierarchies or authority into dialogic words (Morson 1983).

THE LIBERAL-MAWIZA• Being a liberal, Mawiza is accustomed to rule-breaking and non-compliance

to the norms. Despite having to “put up with the nationalist extremist, the racial extremists, the religious extremists” but those do not break their spirits as they continue to “carry on as we think we should” (79)

• Mawiza’s insistence to continue living the way she sees fit is in line with feminist dialogics perspective that justifies for dissonant voices to be orchestrated in order to “cohere with a central, dominant ideological stance” (Ruzy Suliza Hashim 2003: 59)

CONCLUSION• His women are not featured to merely function as fillers without any justified

significance, instead his women are featured to deliver his ideological believe and stand.

• Kee’s carnivalesque women subverted authority and suspended “all hierarchical rank, norms, and prohibitions, distinctions and barriers among people” (Morris 2009: 199).

• Kee does not allow the voices of his women to be lost among other competing sounds as he places his utter confidence in them to be part of his ideological tools.

• The liberated and unmuted voices of these women signify Kee’s prevailing themes in his play such as freedom of expression and to fight off unjust authorial power.

• They have unrepressed themselves and transformed the barricades into the decisive driving factor that inspires them to continue their perseverance in unlocking their shackles and rise as dialogical engaging and vocal individuals.