Lost Times and Untold Tales from the Malay World

Editor: Jan van der Putten and Mary Kilcline Cody

Publisher: NUS Press

ISBN: 9789971694548

Weight: 0.605kg

Year: 2009

Page: 296pp

Price : RM55

How did the Komodo dragon influence Hollywood? What do Wanted posters reveal about the Wild Wild East? Was the hapless explorer a martyr to science or a gaseous windbag? Why were colonial officials secret pill poppers? Did bicycles really promote Women's Lib? Who went looking for love in all the wrong places? What do you do at the Get-Rich-Quick-Tree? The answers to these and many other questions are found in the witty, useful, informative, amusing and sometimes amazing stories that make up this collection.

Inspired by the wry yet deeply scholarly prespectives of Australian philologist Ian Proudfoot, the editors of Lost Times and Untold Tales from the Malay World bring together a distinguished group of international scholars who look at calendars and time, royal myths, colonial expeditions, printing, propaganda, theatre, art, Islamic manuscripts, erotic literature, and many other topics from wholly unexpected angles. The book demonstrates the spectacular diversity of scholarship on the Malay World, and shows that offbeat texts can produce fascinating new insights into the past.

"In conclusion, this ia a wonderful book in order to gain some insights about what is"out there"in Malay studies. It covers literature, religion, history, sociology, and other disciplines and is thus a welcome addition to the literature about the area. The authors stay well within the confines of sound scholarship but were able to adopt a free style of writing which makes the book readable and enjoyable. In short, do not miss it!" - Dick van der Meij