Visions of eco-apocalypse in selected Malaysian poetry in English: Cecil Rajendra and Muhammad Haji Salleh

• Main Author: Agnes, Y.S.K.
• Format: Conference or Workshop Item
• Language: English
• Published: 2008
• Subjects: PL Languages and literatures of Eastern Asia, Africa, Oceania
• Online Access: http://eprints.um.edu.my/9240/1/All.pdf; http://eprints.um.edu.my/9240/

This essay examines the apocalyptic visions of two Malaysian poets writing in English, Cecil Rajendra and Muhammad Haji Salleh with special emphasis on ecological catastrophe and environmental wastelands. Rajendra's vision highlight human accountability and the ethical aspects of environmental destruction while underlying Muhammad's vision of a fragmented earth is the gradual loss of the Malay's unique ecological consciousness and inheritance. Clearly, although each poet may approach the notion of world's end from different perspectives, both express grave concerns about the environmental and cultural impact of a rapidly changing Malaysian landscape.