Redha tu Ikhlas

The Social-Textual Significance of Islamic Virtue in Malay Forced Marriage Narratives

Datos Bibliográficos

ID3579159
AutoresAlicia Izharuddin (0009-0002-3796-5554, University of Malaya, autor de correspondencia)
Año2021
Volumen12
Número5
Páginas310
Fecha de publicación2021-04-28
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaReligions (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 2077-1444 • E-ISSN: 2077-1444
EditorialMDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT)
DOI10.3390/rel12050310
OpenAlexW3158583304
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas5
Referencias citadas30

What accounts for the endurance of forced marriage (kahwin paksa) narratives in Malaysian public culture? How does one explain the ways popular fascination with forced marriage relate to assumptions about heteronormative institutions and practices? In a society where most who enter into marriages do so based on individual choice, the enduring popularity of forced marriage as a melodramatic trope in fictional love stories suggests an ambivalence about modernity and egalitarianism. This ambivalence is further excavated by illuminating the intertextual engagement by readers, publishers and booksellers of Malay romantic fiction with a mediated discourse on intimacy and cultural practices. This article finds that forced marriage in the intimate publics of Malay romance is delivered as a kind of melodramatic mode, a storytelling strategy to solve practical problems of experience. Intertextual narratives of pain and struggle cast light on 'redha' (submission to God's will) and 'sabar' (patience), emotional virtues that are mobilised during personal hardship and the challenge of maintaining successful marital relations. I argue that 'redha' and 'sabar' serve as important linchpins for the reproduction of heteronormative institutions and wifely obedience (taat). This article also demonstrates the ways texts are interwoven in the narratives about gender roles, intimacy, and marital success (or lack thereof) and how they relate to the modes of romantic melodrama

Aesthetics · Ambivalence · Art · Forced marriage · Literature · Narrative · Romance · Sociology · Asian Studies and History · Gender and Women's Rights · Gender Studies · Marriage and Sexual Relationships · Psychology · Social Psychology