An Analysis of Religious Practices using Paradigm of Malayness in Burgess’ Beds in the East

Abstract

Burgess’ (1917-1993) trilogy of novels, The Malayan Trilogy (1964), is probably one of the most underestimated English literary texts on the Malay World. It has been suggested that the third novel of the trilogy, Beds in the East (1959), depicts the everyday practices of the Muslim Malay characters that go against their religion, Islam, through their conversations with other Muslim Malay characters and nonMuslim characters in the novel. In this study, I utilise one of the elements under the paradigm of Malayness in literature as proposed by Ida, which is Islam. According to this concept, the paradigm of Malayness consists of everyday-defined social realities, or the six elements, the Malay language, Islam, the Malay rulers, adat /culture, ethnicity and identity. From a close textual reading of the novel, my findings show that the Malay characters in the trilogy are portrayed as wayward Muslims in their beliefs and practices. It is hoped that these findings will contribute to the on-going study on Malay Muslims, discourse and the paradigm of Malayness in literature. These findings could also be utilised by foreign students in studying the Malay culture and the Malay language.