CONTEMPORARY MADRASA MOBILITY, FRAGMENTARY LITERARY GEOGRAPHY
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.55197/qjssh.v7i5.1435Keywords:
literary geography, madrassas, memory, mobilities, narrativesAbstract
This paper explores the role of the Malaysian madrasa as a fertile example incorporating both a physical site and a conceptual locus where, seen in one way, regional migration narratives intersect with literary geography. Positioned within Southeast Asia’s historic maritime networks, Malaysian Islamic madrassas have long functioned as central points for transnational Muslim scholars, student mobility, and diaspora communities across Southeast Asia, specifically the Malay world. By examining literary representations and to a certain extent the madrasa’s inhabitants and visitors’ oral stories surrounding a madrasa, this paper elaborates how madrasa could reconsider spatial identity and collective memory as pertinent to building a memory of madrasa as a possible site where literary geography narratives and mobility intersects. It demonstrates how peaceful social and cultural Muslim centers could generate a sacred geography production that transcends postcolonial state borders, transforming local educational spaces into dynamic hubs of transregional culture. By focusing on said madrasa, the paper argues that integrating literary geography with migration narratives reframes the Malaysian madrasa not merely as a traditional institution of faith, but as a liminal space where spatial mobility and identities belonging continuously negotiate and redefine one another.
References
[1] Abd Ghani, A.R., Hashim, A. (2018): Persepsi guru tahfiz al-quran terhadap kemudahan infrastruktur institusi tahfiz persendirian di negeri Selangor. – Jurnal Kemanusiaan 16(1): 1-6.
[2] Ahmad Othman, A.M., Anas, N. (2020): The evolution of private tahfiz governance in Malaysia. – Jurnal Islam dan Masyarakat Kontemporari 21(2): 127-133.
[3] Alexander, N., Cooper, D. (Eds.) (2024): The Routledge handbook of literary geographies. – Routledge 462p.
[4] Brosseau, M. (2024): Reading literature, reading geography. – In: Alexander, N., Cooper, D. (Eds.) The Routledge handbook of literary geographies. Routledge 10p.
[5] Cooper, D. (2020): Contemporary British place writing: Towards a definition. – In: Edensor, T., Kalandides, A., Kothari, U. (Eds.) The Routledge Handbook of Place, Routledge 9p.
[6] Dasca, M. (2018): Representing the land in current Iberian literature. – In: Fournier, M. (Ed.) Rural Writing: Geographical Imaginary and Expression of a New Regionality, Cambridge Scholars Publishing 15p.
[7] Holloway, P. (2021): Walking in imaginary shoes: Psychogeographic approaches for fiction writing. – Writing in Practice 7: 74-89.
[8] Hones, S. (2022): Literary geography. – Routledge 200p.
[9] Idrus, M.M., Hashim, R.S., Mohd Mydin, R. (2020): Postcolonial civic identity and youth (dis)organizing the environment: A growth into citizenship analysis. – GEMA Online Journal of Language Studies 20(2): 133-147.
[10] Idrus, M.M., Ahmad Mahir, N., Ismail, H., Jaafar, N. (2024): Tahfiz psychogeography of the marginals: Reimagining self and place through narratives. – 3L: The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies 30(4): 60-73.
[11] Idrus, M.M., Ahmad Mahir, N., Ismail, H., Massari, N. (2025a): Reimagining de-urbanised madrasa and self-place interaction through the lens of psychogeography. – Humanities and Social Sciences Communications 12: 14p.
[12] Idrus, M.M., Ahmad Mahir, N., Ismail, H., Massari, N. (2025b): Discursivities of empowerment, marginal women’s agency, and psychogeography of madrasa. – Rotura – Revista de Comunicação, Cultura e Artes 5(2): 16p.
[13] Krishnan, M., Cartwright, P. (2024): Postcolonial literary geographies. – In: Alexander, N., Cooper, D. (Eds.) The Routledge Handbook of Literary Geographies, Routledge 9p.
[14] Link, A. (2016): Psychogeography’s legacy in From Hell and Watchmen. – European Comic Art 9(2): 79-99.
[15] Löffler, C. (2017): Walking in the city: Urban experience and literary psychogeography in eighteenth-century London. – J.B. Metzler, Wiesbaden 357p.
[16] Mandal, S.K. (2017): Becoming Arab: Creole histories and modern identity in the Malay world. – Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 280p.
[17] Marengo, M. (2018): From the rural “terroir” to the “neorural” novel: The contradictions and complementarities between popular and high literature in contemporary France. – In: Fournier, M. (Ed.) Rural writing: Geographical Imaginary and Expression of a New Regionality, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle upon Tyne 14p.
[18] McNamara, C. (2009): General guidelines for conducting interviews. – Management Help Official Portal 1p.
[19] Ministry of Higher Education (2017): Pelan induk Pendidikan Islam sepanjang hayat (2017-2025). – Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia 115p.
[20] Minkkinen, P. (2022): Ethnography in motion, or walking with W.G. Sebald. – Social and Legal Studies 31(3): 347-364.
[21] Ollerenshaw, J.A., Creswell, J.W. (2002): Narrative research: A comparison of two restorying data analysis approaches. – Qualitative Inquiry 8(3): 329-347.
[22] Peterle, G. (2024): Comics. – In: Alexander, N., Cooper, D. (Eds.) The Routledge Handbook of Literary Geographies, Routledge 10p.
[23] Raihanah, M.M., Idrus, M.M. (2024): Rewriting cultural identity, cosmopolitanism, and Malaysian fiction. – Comparative Literature: East & West 8(1): 75-88.
[24] Ryan, M.L. (2018): Narrative mapping as cognitive activity and as active participation in storyworlds. – Frontiers of Narrative Studies 4(2): 232-247.
[25] Sanders, J. (2024): Geographies of early modern English literatures and the place of the stage. – In: Alexander, N., Cooper, D. (Eds.) The Routledge Handbook of Literary Geographies, Routledge 11p.
[26] Sapiro, G. (2014): La sociologie de la littérature. – La Découverte, Paris 125p.
[27] Sidaway, J.D. (2022): Psychogeography: Walking through strategy, nature and narrative. – Progress in Human Geography 46(2): 549-574.
[28] Traer, R. (2020): Doing environmental ethics. – Routledge, New York 394p.
[29] Tso, A. (2020): The literary psychogeography of London: Otherworlds of Alan Moore, Peter Ackroyd, and Iain Sinclair. – Palgrave Macmillan, Cham 116p.
[30] Westaway, J. (2024): Mountains. – In: Alexander, N., Cooper, D. (Eds.) The Routledge Handbook of Literary Geographies, Routledge 10p.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 MOHD MUZHAFAR IDRUS, NORMAZLA AHMAD MAHIR, NORHAILI MASSARI
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
