Reading Globalization from the Margin: The Case of Abdullah Munshi
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Date
2007-06
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Authors
Krishnan, Sanjay
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OA Version
Citation
Krishnan, Sanjay. “Reading Globalization from the Margin.” Representations 99:1 (Summer 2007): 40-73.
Abstract
In this essay I argue that the global perspective, established in the era of modernEuropean imperialism, is given institutional expression as a way of seeing that is engaged—both by ruler and ruled— as the frame of adequate representation. Briefly outlining how this frame operates in historical and cultural studies today, I examine its deployment in mid-nineteenth-century Melaka and Singapore through a reading of the Hikayat Abdullah, a seminal Malay-language text composed by Abdullah bin Abdul Kadir. Although Abdullah self-consciously sets about reproducing the global perspective, I show how this mode of thematization is interrupted and displaced as it brings about an encounter between the diverse and uneven contexts of the native and European worlds.
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Published as Krishnan, Sanjay. “Reading Globalization from the Margin.” Representations 99:1 (Summer 2007): 40-73. © 2007 by the Regents of the University of California. Copying and permissions notice: Authorization to copy this content beyond fair use (as specified in Sections 107 and 108 of the U. S. Copyright Law) for internal or personal use, or the internal or personal use of specific clients, is granted by the Regents of the University of California for libraries and other users, provided that they are registered with and pay the specified fee via Rightslink® on JSTOR (http://www.jstor.org/r/ucal) or directly with the Copyright Clearance Center, http://www.copyright.com.