Contents -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- I - Colony: British Malaya -- 1 - Amok and Arrogation: Frank Swettenham's 'Real Malay' -- 2 - Discourses of Difference: Isabella Bird, Emily Innes, and Florence Caddy -- 3 - The Exhaustion of Colonial Romance: W. Somerset Maugham and Anthony Burgess -- II - Nations: Malaya, Singapore, and Malaysia -- 4 - 'There is no way out but through': Lee Kok Liang and the Malayan Nation -- 5 - Nationalism and Literature: Two Poems Concerning the Merlion and Karim Raslan's "Heroes" -- 6 - Irresponsibility and Commitment: Philip Jeyaretnam's Abraham's Promise and Gopal Baratham's A Candle or the Sun -- III - Globalisation: Home is Elsewhere -- 7 - The Post-Diasporic Imagination: The Novels of K. S. Maniam -- 8 - Two Singaporeans in America: Hwee Hwee Tan's 'Mammon Inc.' and Simon Tay's 'Alien Asian' -- 9 - Writing Back Home:Tash Aw's 'The Harmony Silk Factory', Vyvyane Loh's ' Breaking the Tongue', and Lau Siew Mei's 'Playing Madame Mao' -- Conclusion -- Works Cited -- Index.