AN EXPLORATION OF MALAYNESS IN MARONG MAHAWANGSA (THE KEDAH ANNALS) EKSPLORASI KEMELAYUAN DALAM TEKS MARONG MAHAWANGSA (THE KEDAH ANNALS)

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Munirah Munawar Ali
Ida Baizura Bahar

Abstract

The paradigm of Malayness in Malaysian literature is generally understood to refer to a situation where a person is defined under the element of ethnicity. Yet, it is hypothesised that there are still many elements which need to be included before it can be acknowledged and accepted that the paradigm of Malayness focuses on ethnicity only. This paper therefore attempts to explore the paradigm of Malayness in Marong Mahawangsa (The Kedah Annals) – a traditional Malay literary text translated by James Low (1849)– by focussing on six conceptual elements of Malayness, namely the Malay language, Islam, the Malay rulers, adat/culture, ethnicity and identity (Ida B. B., 2010). The objectives of this paper are to examine the portrayals of the Malay rulers centring on ethnicity and identity and to explore the depictions of Islam and the Malay rulers, in particular to the paradigm of Malayness. To achieve this, a textual analysis is undertaken as the methodology by extracting all the excerpts in the text in relation to the paradigm of Malayness, which is used as the conceptual framework. The findings show that Islam, the Malay rulers and identity play a more important role in the text compared to the other elements. It is suggested then that the outcomes from this study could open up further discussions on the aesthetic values as well as the usefulness of translated literary texts and can contribute to the scholarship on traditional Malay literary texts to be studied as part of the syllabus in Malaysian literature.



Keywords: Malayness, Islam, the Malay rulers, identity.


Paradigma kemelayuan di dalam kesusasteraan Malaysia secara amnya diketahui umum merujuk kepada situasi di mana seseorang itu diertikan
di bawah rumpun etnik. Namun begitu, terdapat beberapa hipotesis yang perlu diambil kira sebelum ianya boleh diterima pakai dan diakui
bahawa paradigma kemelayuan hanyalah merujuk pada rumpun etnik semata-mata. Oleh itu, kajian ini merujuk kepada eksplorasi paradigma
Kemelayuan dalam teks Marong Mahawangsa (The Kedah Annals) – sebuah teks Melayu tradisional yang telah dialih bahasa oleh James
Low (1849) – dengan memberi tumpuan kepada enam konsep elemen kemelayuan iaitu bahasa Melayu, Islam, para pemimpin Melayu, adat,
etnik dan identiti (Ida B. B., 2010). Objektif kajian ini ialah untuk mengkaji deskripsi Islam dan juga para pemimpin Melayu; khususnya
dalam konteks paradigma kemelayuan. Untuk mencapai matlamat ini, analisis tekstual telah dijalankan sebagai metodologi dengan
mengekstrak petikan-petikan teks yang berkaitan dengan paradigma kemelayuan yang digunakan sebagai konsep rangka kerja. Hasil
daripada kajian ini mendapati bahawa Islam, raja-raja Melayu serta identiti memainkan peranan yang lebih penting di dalam teks
berbanding elemen lain yang dinyatakan di atas. Secara kesimpulannya, hasil daripada kajian ini memberi nafas baru pada perbincangan serta
dapat menerapkan nilai estetik dan juga mampu menerapkan faedah penggunaan teks literasi yang telah dialih bahasa. Selain itu, ianya juga
mampu memberi idea baru pada pengajian teks Melayu traditional untuk dijadikan sebahagian daripada silibus kesusasteraan Malaysia.


Kata kunci: Kemelayuan, Islam, raja-raja Melayu, identiti.

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How to Cite
Munawar Ali, M., & Bahar, I. B. (2014). AN EXPLORATION OF MALAYNESS IN MARONG MAHAWANGSA (THE KEDAH ANNALS): EKSPLORASI KEMELAYUAN DALAM TEKS MARONG MAHAWANGSA (THE KEDAH ANNALS). Jurnal Pengajian Melayu (JOMAS), 25(1), 117–129. Retrieved from http://adum.um.edu.my/index.php/JPM/article/view/9762
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