By Alissya Nazir
Edited by Nadya R.
According to Samuel Kalman in Colonial Violence, symbolic violence is the exertion of the coloniser’s cultural customs and practices on colonised people, often committed during the colonial era to convey power and supremacy. This concept can then be found in the colonial novel Time for a Tiger, written by a British, Anthony Burgess, in 1956.
Interestingly, one of the ways that Burgess has committed symbolic violence is through the act of local place-naming in his novel because he has a pattern of creating inappropriate local names to represent the places in what was known as Peninsular Malaya back in the day. Hence, name corruption is violent since it contributes to erasing the natives’ identity from the cultural map, as quoted in The Naming of the Yarra River as an Act of Colonialism.
An example can be seen in his introduction of the river, being referred to as “the river Lanchap gives the state its name,” which gives the impression that the Muslim-majority town natives indulge themselves in immoral activities. The fact that masturbation is considered indecent in European society also shows that Burgess wants to portray the Malays as destructive and hypocritical against moral beliefs. Thus, the locals are presented negatively.
Another absurd name Burgess has given to one of the towns is Tahi Panas, which means warm stool or can be understood as diarrhoea. It could be said that he does so to humour the readers, especially from the metropolitan centre, about the foreign-sounding words. However, it cannot be dismissed that Burgess, as the coloniser, imposes subtle control over the native land by manipulating the place name. This is because “Tahi Panas” draws an image of the town being dirty and gross, which is offensive to the nature-filled and picturesque Peninsular Malaya. In the long run, these literary images of dirtiness can become stereotypes associated with Peninsular Malaya, which can be spread through other colonial texts. As a result, the colonised may start to internalise them and contribute to the development of colonial discourse, as discussed by Zahra and Jadoon in their article Under Western Eyes: A Critical Consideration of Fictitious Muslim Stereotyping in English Fiction.
In addition, another secluded town is known as “Gila” in the novel. Again, it portrays the tendency for Burgess to use the native language, in this case, Bahasa Melayu, for comedic effect but in an inappropriate manner. As studied by Mitchell and Alderman in A Street Named for a King: The Politics of Place-Naming, the act of place-naming can provide an insight into the history and social power relations in a particular place (123). However, the word “Gila” does not reflect any remarkable history of Peninsular Malaya, but rather it is related to the stereotypical representation of native people being 'amok’. The meaning of ‘amok’ is a cultural habit found in the East and leads to a perilous outburst from a person, typically an insulted man. This is discussed in great detail in Seng and Chandran’s Madness of the East: Demystifying the Colonialist Perspective on Frank Swettenham and Hugh Clifford's Amok. Instead of creating ‘amok’ characters, Burgess names a place ‘crazy’, symbolising that the native land is associated with madness. Thus, the town is presented as secluded with insanity, aligning with the image of amok in Malay people.
Ultimately, Beth Williamson shares in Historical Geographies of Place Naming: Colonial Practices and Beyond, that in colonial discourse, the act of naming or renaming a place can be part of imperial control over physical and human environments. This can be seen in Anthony Burgess as a colonial writer who makes ridiculous place names using the native language, which erases the cultural aspect of Peninsular Malaya.
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