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A Librarian's World | "I invented Malaya": the Malayan Tropics in French Literature
About the event
“I invented Malaya,” claims Lescale, the narrator of Henri Fauconnier’s 1930 novel Malaisie, a Frenchman who conjures his own vision of the tropics before he even sets foot there. Malaya may not be the first place that comes to mind when speaking of French presence in Southeast Asia: unlike Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam – formerly Indochina – it was never under French control. Yet, scattered throughout the early twentieth century were a small number of French novels set in the Malayan tropics, often by writers who knew little of the region. What did this unfamiliar setting allow them to achieve? Through a selection of French novels from the National Library’s collection, discover how the Malayan tropics – variously imagined, exoticised, and orientalised – served as fertile ground for a curious set of literary experiments.
About the Speaker
Caleb Leow is an Associate Librarian with the Singapore and Southeast Asia team at the National Library Singapore. He enjoys reading and working with texts across languages – mainly English, Mandarin, and French – and across literary traditions. His interest in colonial imaginings of the region led him to the small but fascinating body of French novels set in the Malayan tropics, some of which are held in the National Library's collection.
