Contemporary issues on popular TV fiction: cultural identities and unconscious Malay psyche

• Main Author: Mohd Muzhafar Idrus
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2016
• Subjects: Group identity > Malaysia; Fiction television programs > Malaysia
• Online Access: http://ddms.usim.edu.my:80/jspui/handle/123456789/12831
• Institution: Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia

In this article, we explore how television fiction viewers (TV fiction viewers) relate to popular TV fiction Julia, On Dhia, and Adam & Hawa. Through interviews and personal narratives, we examine how these TV fiction permit viewers to negotiate against complex Malay cultural issues. We contend that as viewers engage with complex, Western-imposed globalization issues as illustrated in Julia, On Dhia, and Adam & Hawa, these TV fiction allow the return to familiar, cultural, local Malay spaces. We propose to understand this engagement with globalization and return to local, cultural routes as unconscious Malay psyche through which these voices (re)configure cultural identities, in some cases, by not simply combining global and local values. Through their stories, we show the participation of some Malay subjects in social and cultural spaces.