Current Interest in Literature

Avant Garde Literary Studies at the School of Language Studies and Linguistics

Literary studies at the School of Language Studies and Linguistics has always had a reputation of being avant garde. In the mid nineties, when most other English Departments in Malaysia were still focusing on works of the canon and centering Occidental perspectives, the Literature committee at what was then the Faculty of Language Studies, announced its intent to offer a Masters Programme in Postcolonial Literatures in English. At that time, it was the only programme of such nature within the country. The premise for the setting up of such a pioneering course of study was based on the passion and exuberance of the Literature committee to tear away the veils of tradition and stride out of the quagmires of the tried and tested pathways of canonical narrative history. Their mission was to redraw the boundaries of literary scholarship by centering Other perspectives, with Malaysian Literature in English at its core, and conferred its very own and individual place within the spectrum of courses offered within the programme. At that time, Malaysian literature was subsumed within the category of Commonwealth Literatures or World Literatures in most other English departments within the nation.

The courses offered in this first ever Literary Graduate Programme revealed the identity of the place, one that centred the heterogeneity of the various narrative histories of the world, drawing them out of the homogeneity of World Literatures or Commonwealth literatures. Yet, at the same time, standards were not compromised as all courses were based on critically informed theoretical foundations. The following were the original line up of courses offered under the first phase of the Masters Programme in Postcolonial Literatures in English :

*Critical Theory	*Postcolonial Theory and Issues	*Malaysian Literature in English	*Literatures from Postcolonial Societies	*Nation and Narration: Asia
*Postcolonial Readings of Canonical Works	*Occidental Perspectives on Malaysia	*Diasporic Writings	*Parameters in Comparative Literature	*Malaysian Literature in Translation