Foregrounding Ideology in Occidental discourse on Malaysia: Intervention Measures on Re-reading Images in Texts

Travel writing in this region is a construct of a land that is imagined, owned and domesticated. A re-reading of Western representations of Malaya/Malaysia will disclose the ways colonialist discourse perpetuates and sustains colonialist ideology. Many students encounter problems reading and discerning the ideology operating in the discourse. An intervention is thus needed to facilitate students’ reading and interpretation of the issues raised by Western perspectives on Malaya/Malaysia. This paper examines the intervention measures undertaken to enable students to become critical readers by introducing Spivak's concept of Worlding, Foucault's notions of power and knowledge as well as Bhabha's ambiguity.