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Silent the Sea, Writing the Shores – Traveling over the South China Sea
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Abstract:
How to map the sea? ‘Silent the sea, writing the shores’ presents a series of reflections on the problems of maps and mapping, narrative and narration, as the background to a discussion of how older Malay writing dealt with the Sea, including the South China Sea – it is an entity beyond human understanding and beyond description. Given the historical fact that the South China Sea had been sailed by Malay – speaking mariners for centuries, it seems probable that they discussed the Sea in their conversations, mapping it out in words rather than in pictures. It is important to realize that the 17th century author Hamzah Pansuri makes explicit mention of the ‘China Sea’ in his poetry, a rare reference to the South China Sea that may have hung as a silent shadow over later Malay writing. Mapping an ever-moving space may be an impossible exercise, even in our human imagination.
Description:
Date:
2017
Authors:
Hendrik M.J. Maier
Publisher:
Institute of Asian Studies, Universiti Brunei Darussalam
