A reimagining of history based on the Novel The Harmony Silk Factory by Tash Aw
This article analyses the text, The Harmony Silk Factory, by Tash Aw and employs the novel to negate the idea of history as scientific and stable depiction of reality. The text specifically focuses on the central character, Johnny Lim, and utilises the character as an analogy to the act of histori...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
2016
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| Online Access: | http://journalarticle.ukm.my/10701/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/10701/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/10701/1/12091-39666-1-PB.pdf |
| Summary: | This article analyses the text, The Harmony Silk Factory, by Tash Aw and employs the novel to negate the idea
of history as scientific and stable depiction of reality. The text specifically focuses on the central character,
Johnny Lim, and utilises the character as an analogy to the act of historical writing. The article hypothesises
that historical writing is an intellectual production with strong fictional elements embedded into it. The article
also frames its argument based on ideas elucidated by Beverly Southgate about the fictional nature of history
and the historical nature of fiction. The frame of argument presupposes that historical narration has more
similarity to fictional writing than previously assumed. By analysing the central character in the novel and
utilising him to symbolise our conception of history, the research strives to demystify the idea of history as
scientific and objective narrative of our historical reality. The research concludes that the novel by Tash Aw
can be considered as metaphorical allusions to the idea of history. The implication of the research allows us to
view historical texts much more critically due to the inability of historians to write objectively and authentically
about history/reality. |
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