Speaking and Writing the Anthropocene : In Conversation with Cecil Rajendra

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Broken Homes by Juhikadevi Bhanjdeo
Speaking and Writing the Anthropocene: In Conversation with Cecil Rajendra
Published: Jun 30, 2024
Keywords:
Anthropocene Environmentalism Environmental poetry Cecil Rajendra

Main Article Content

Zainor Izat Zainal
Universiti Putra Malaysia
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5071-4181
Mr. Muhammad Syaukat
Universiti Putra Malaysia
Noritah Omar
Universiti Putra Malaysia

Abstract

Cecil Rajendra, nicknamed “The Lawyer-Poet”, is one of Malaysia’s most prominent literary writers. A lawyer by profession and a poet with over 20 published collections,  his literary contributions were recognized with a nomination for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2005. His poems have been featured in multiple media forms including magazines, journals, newspapers, BBC educational programs and textbooks all over the world. He has been expressing concerns about the destruction of nature long before it became a mainstream concern. Most of his environmental poems are found in Dove on Fire: Poems of Peace, Justice and Ecology (1987) and Rags & Ragas (2000), while some of his recent ones include Limericks & Lyrics from a Lockdown (2021), and “Half-Past Doomsday Hour” published in the Sunday Star in 2022. We find it important to interview him, having contributed so much to the local literary scene as well as many legal cases related to the environment. The present interview revolves around his literary career, the relationship between his works and the environment, his motivations and his views on the Anthropocene.

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Article Details

Issue
Vol. 61 No. 1 (2024): Faces of Precarity: Restructuring Care-mentality in Asia
Section
Interview
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Author Biographies

Zainor Izat Zainal, Universiti Putra Malaysia

Zainor Izat Zainal is senior lecturer at Universiti Putra Malaysia, where she teaches Malaysian literature in English, creative writing and miscellaneous other subjects related to world literature. Currently, she is Vice President of the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment ASEAN (ASLE-ASEAN) and Co-Chief Editor of Journal of Southeast Asian Ecocriticism. Her research interests include postcolonial ecocriticism and teaching literature in the Malaysian ESL context. She has been actively involved in producing student play productions in Universiti Putra Malaysia such as Atomic Jaya (2017), Toast! (2019) and The Girl and The Ghost (2023), and When The Sun Sits On The Branches Of That Jambu Tree (2024).

Mr. Muhammad Syaukat, Universiti Putra Malaysia

Muhammad Syaukat Mustafa Kamal is pursuing a PhD in English Literature at Universiti Putra Malaysia. His areas of interest are Malaysian literature, ecocriticism, affect theory, and narrative empathy. He is currently working at International Islamic University Malaysia, teaching English language proficiency.

Noritah Omar, Universiti Putra Malaysia

Noritah Omar received her Ph.D. from Indiana University, Bloomington, USA, in
1999. She is an associate professor with the English Department at Universiti
Putra Malaysia, where she teaches Literary Theory, Malaysian Literature in
English, and Feminism and Social Change. Her research interests include
postcolonial literature and theory, the culture and politics of Islam in modern
Malaysia, the history of Malaysian literary criticism, and the transformation of
popular culture in Malaysia. She has published articles and book chapters on
gender and Islam, Malaysian and Singapore Literature, Islam and modern Malay
literature, and Islam and contemporary popular culture. She has also conducted
research on issues in higher education and research methodology and ethics.
Her current work focuses on new forms of intellectualism and its trajectories in
literature, and addresses questions of literature’s intellectual place in the world.

References

Paine, Ed Jeffery. The Poetry of Our World: An International Anthology of Contemporary Poetry. HarperCollins. 2001.

Rajendra, Cecil. by Trial ‘n Terror. Bogle-L’Ouverture Press. 2004.

---. Dove on Fire: Poems of Peace, Justice and Ecology. WCC Publications. 1987.

---. “Half-Past Doomsday Hour.” Sunday Star, 9 Jan. 2022, p. 6.

---. Hour of Assassins. Bogle-L’Ouverture Press. 1983.

---. Limericks & Lyrics from a Lockdown. Georgetown Printers. 2022.

---. Literature and Human Rights - The Poet as “The Equalizer” in the 21st Century. The Washington Times Foundation International Cultural Foundation, 1997.

---. Papa Moose’s Nursery Rhymes For Our Times. Bogle-L’Ouverture Press. 1991.

---. Shrapnel Silence & Sand. Bogle-L’Ouverture Press. 1999.

---. “The Animal and Insect Act”. Refugees and Other Despairs. Choice Books Pte. Ltd. 1980.