Proceedings of the Critical Island Studies 2023 Conference (CISC 2023)

Unraveling Seaspace: Decoding Environmental Knowledge in a Classical Malay Literary Corpus

Authors
Leon Woltermann1, *, Ramayda Akmal2
1University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
2Gadjah Mada University, Yogakarta, Indonesia
*Corresponding author. Email: leon.woltermann@gmx.de
Corresponding Author
Leon Woltermann
Available Online 11 January 2024.
DOI
10.2991/978-2-38476-186-9_2How to use a DOI?
Keywords
sea; environmental knowledge; Classical Malay; corpus; concordance analysis
ABSTRACT

This study approaches Classical Malay literature from an environmental perspective, focusing on diverging contexts and meanings across different spatial categories in the portrayal of the sea. Our primary data source was the Classical Malay literary corpus of the Malay Concordance Project. By employing a mixed-methods approach, combining distant reading techniques with thorough close reading, we were able to analyze a more extensive selection of texts compared to previous studies. As a result of this approach, we introduce three nuanced seaspaces, each symbolizing distinct spatial dimensions of the sea and connected to different symbols, contexts, and motifs. These seaspaces encompass (1) the sea’s mystic underwaters, (2) its human-centered shore, and (3) its connective midst. Through these seaspaces, we aim to demonstrate the sea’s wide range of meanings in Classical Malay literature, all of which are rooted in its heterogenous and multidimensional space. We consider these seaspaces to represent maritime environmental knowledge encoded and concealed in the large body of Malay literature which this study attempts to decode.

Copyright
© 2023 The Author(s)
Open Access
Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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Volume Title
Proceedings of the Critical Island Studies 2023 Conference (CISC 2023)
Series
Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research
Publication Date
11 January 2024
ISBN
978-2-38476-186-9
ISSN
2352-5398
DOI
10.2991/978-2-38476-186-9_2How to use a DOI?
Copyright
© 2023 The Author(s)
Open Access
Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

Cite this article

TY  - CONF
AU  - Leon Woltermann
AU  - Ramayda Akmal
PY  - 2024
DA  - 2024/01/11
TI  - Unraveling Seaspace: Decoding Environmental Knowledge in a Classical Malay Literary Corpus
BT  - Proceedings of the Critical Island Studies 2023 Conference (CISC 2023)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 4
EP  - 12
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-186-9_2
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-186-9_2
ID  - Woltermann2024
ER  -