THEMES OF RECOGNITION AND REIFICATION IN K. S. MANIAM S NOVELS

In the novels of the Malaysian Indian K. S. Maniam, the contestation of recognition and reification forms the central tension in the protagonists identity development as members of a minority community in the multi-ethnic landscape of Malaya/Malaysia. Each central character s conflict lies in his/her ability/disability to balance accepting ethno-cultural recognition on the one hand and contesting the reification that the Indian ethnic group subjects him/her to on the other (subsequently championing what Michael Sandel coins an unencumbered sense of self – a self that is free and independent from the sanctions of custom and tradition). This paper discusses Maniam s three novels, The return, In a far country and Between lives, to ascertain the extent to which recognition and reification are important themes in the award-winning novelist s corpus. Using the conceptualisation of recognition, reification and the unencumbered self, the paper investigates how Maniam s three Indian Malaysian protagonists, Ravi, Rajan and Sumitra, like most members of minority communities who are faced with the challenges of a multi-ethnic social landscape, challenge the ethno-cultural imposition that their own ethnic community subjects them to while realising the significance of culture towards a healthy sense of selves.