The Southeast Asian woman writes back : [electronic resource] gender, identity and nation in the literatures of Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines / Edited by Grace V. S. Chin and Kathrina Mohd Daud.

Table of Contents PrefaceAcknowledgementsIntroductionPostcolonial Southeast Asian Literary Femininities: An OverviewSection 1: Resistance and TransformationChapter 1: Love, Penetration and the Nation: Angela Manalang Gloria's "Revolt for the Hymen"Chapter 2: Women Writing Wayang: A Comparative Study of Fictional Interventions in Mythology and National History in Post-Reform IndonesiaChapter 3: Women in Urban Spaces in Singapore: Cisgender and Transgender Women in the works of Suchen Christine Lim and Alfian Sa'atChapter 4: State Motherhood and the United Family: Polygamous Bodies and the Patriarchal Nation in Contemporary Indonesian LiteratureChapter 5: Female Subjectivities in the Time of Authoritarian RuleChapter 6: Women writing from the fringe: An emerging Bruneian minor literature in EnglishSection 2: Transnational and Hybridized IdentitiesChapter 7: Transnational Connections and Malay Femininity in the Early Postcolonial Short Stories of Hamsiah HamidChapter 8: Palatable Experiences: The 'Halo Halo' (Mix Mix) GenerationChapter 9: The Representation of Femininity in Leila S. Chudori's 9 dari Nadira and Pulang Chapter 10: The Weakest Link: Love Triangles as National Agenda in Claire Tham's Skimming and Catherine Lim's Following the Wrong God HomeChapter 11: Educated in the West: Defining Bruneian-ness in Norsiah Haji Gapar's womenConclusionIndex

This collection of essays examines how Southeast Asian women writers engage with the grand narratives of nationalism and the modern nation-state by exploring the representations of gender, identity and nation in the postcolonial literatures of Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and the Philippines. Bringing to light the selected works of overlooked local women writers and providing new analyses of those produced by internationally-known women authors and artists, the essays situate regional literary developments within historicized geopolitical landscapes to offer incisive analyses and readings on how women and the feminine are imagined, represented, and positioned in relation to the Southeast Asian nation. The book, which features both cross-country comparative analyses and country-specific investigations, also considers the ideas of the nation and the state by investigating related ideologies, rhetoric, apparatuses, and discourses, and the ways in which they affect women's bodies, subjectivities, and lived realities in both historical and contemporary Southeast Asian contexts. By considering how these literary expressions critique, contest, or are complicit in nationalist projects and state-mandated agendas, the collection contributes to the overall regional and comparative discourses on gender, identity and nation in Southeast Asian studies.