From heartbroken wives to working mothers : the Malay melodrama of the early 1980s / Norman Yusoff

This essay examines the Malay melodrama produced in the early 1980s by focusing upon the representation and (re)construction of gender and its extent to which the genre subverts its conventionality in relation to the gender subjectivity and relativity. Since cinematic texts, as forms of representati...

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Main Author:	Yusoff, Norman
Format:	Article
Language:	English
Published:	UPENA 2006
Subjects:	Malay drama Malaysia
Online Access:	http://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/11605/ http://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/11605/1/AJ_NORMAN%20YUSOFF%20JSM%2006%201.pdf

id	uitm-11605
recordtype	eprints
spelling	uitm-116052016-06-07T04:40:03Z http://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/11605/ From heartbroken wives to working mothers : the Malay melodrama of the early 1980s / Norman Yusoff Yusoff, Norman Malay drama Malaysia This essay examines the Malay melodrama produced in the early 1980s by focusing upon the representation and (re)construction of gender and its extent to which the genre subverts its conventionality in relation to the gender subjectivity and relativity. Since cinematic texts, as forms of representation, are polysemic, my argument is that the depiction of women in the melodramas does not perpetuate them as "commodified" and stereotyped into the binary images of "good" and "bad" due to the films' renegotiation of the ambiguities of representation. On the other hand, the portrayal of men, which seems negative, resonates in ways that contest and question their masculinity. My analysis will go on to trace the social, economic and political implications in Malaysia during the early 1980s as the country was on the verge of modernization and how they reflect and shape the defining features of the Malay melodrama of the early 1980s. In a way, the essay aims to map and frame the notion of genres "as a form of collective cultural expression" (Schatz, 1981), by underlining the socio-cultural and ideological functions which the Malay melodrama of the early 1980s performs. UPENA 2006 Article PeerReviewed text en http://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/11605/1/AJ_NORMAN%20YUSOFF%20JSM%2006%201.pdf Yusoff, Norman (2006) From heartbroken wives to working mothers : the Malay melodrama of the early 1980s / Norman Yusoff. Jurnal Skrin Malaysia, 3. pp. 55-102. ISSN 1823-1020
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Local University
institution	Universiti Teknologi MARA
building	UiTM Institutional Repository
collection	Online Access
language	English
topic	Malay drama Malaysia
spellingShingle	Malay drama Malaysia Yusoff, Norman From heartbroken wives to working mothers : the Malay melodrama of the early 1980s / Norman Yusoff
description	This essay examines the Malay melodrama produced in the early 1980s by focusing upon the representation and (re)construction of gender and its extent to which the genre subverts its conventionality in relation to the gender subjectivity and relativity. Since cinematic texts, as forms of representation, are polysemic, my argument is that the depiction of women in the melodramas does not perpetuate them as "commodified" and stereotyped into the binary images of "good" and "bad" due to the films' renegotiation of the ambiguities of representation. On the other hand, the portrayal of men, which seems negative, resonates in ways that contest and question their masculinity. My analysis will go on to trace the social, economic and political implications in Malaysia during the early 1980s as the country was on the verge of modernization and how they reflect and shape the defining features of the Malay melodrama of the early 1980s. In a way, the essay aims to map and frame the notion of genres "as a form of collective cultural expression" (Schatz, 1981), by underlining the socio-cultural and ideological functions which the Malay melodrama of the early 1980s performs.
format	Article
author	Yusoff, Norman
author_facet	Yusoff, Norman
author_sort	Yusoff, Norman
title	From heartbroken wives to working mothers : the Malay melodrama of the early 1980s / Norman Yusoff
title_short	From heartbroken wives to working mothers : the Malay melodrama of the early 1980s / Norman Yusoff
title_full	From heartbroken wives to working mothers : the Malay melodrama of the early 1980s / Norman Yusoff
title_fullStr	From heartbroken wives to working mothers : the Malay melodrama of the early 1980s / Norman Yusoff
title_full_unstemmed	From heartbroken wives to working mothers : the Malay melodrama of the early 1980s / Norman Yusoff
title_sort	from heartbroken wives to working mothers : the malay melodrama of the early 1980s / norman yusoff
publisher	UPENA
publishDate	2006
url	http://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/11605/ http://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/11605/1/AJ_NORMAN%20YUSOFF%20JSM%2006%201.pdf
first_indexed	2023-09-18T22:48:15Z
last_indexed	2023-09-18T22:48:15Z
_version_	1777417370629832704

From heartbroken wives to working mothers : the Malay melodrama of the early 1980s / Norman Yusoff

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