Monodrama in Malaysian National Dramaturgy: a Retrospective of the Emergence of the Genre

Abstract

The article focuses on the well-known Malaysian dramatic texts, created in the last third of the twentieth century, the generic features of monodrama in these plays being the main research subject. The purpose of the analysis is to demonstrate monodramatic nature of the works and to establish the time of the birth of Malay monodrama, as well as the reasons why the genre for a long time was not denominated as such. The analysis involves historical-cultural, analytical and comparative methods. Historical and cultural method allows to scrutinize the genre under study in the context of the post-realistic theater of Malaysia, which was born as a reaction to the tragic events of the second half of the twentieth century in the country. Analytical method is used to identify the essential generic features of the studied texts, whereas with the help of comparative method, the artistic features of these texts are matched with the genre characteristics of monodrama. Today, the Malay monodrama is undeservedly deprived of the attention of specialists, although its role on the stage of the country is quite noticeable. This determines the novelty and relevance of the work. The performed research shows that Malay monodrama is much older than is commonly believed, and has existed for almost half a century. The study of the plays "Lazri Meon" by Abdul Samad Said and "Not Suicide" by Dinsman made it possible to identify the most important monodramatic features in them (the subject of representation, the dramatic plot and the conflict), thereby pushing the lower timeframe of existence of this genre in Malay playwriting first until the 1990s, and then - the 1970s. The appearance of a non-classical genre less than a quarter of a century after the birth of Malay drama also allows us to acknowledge the accelerated development of this type of literature in Malaysia.