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Burma through the Prism of Western Novels

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 April 2011

Josef Silverstein
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Extract

“If you want to write a real Burmese story”, U Nu once told an audience of Burmese writers, you “must know the real Burmese background”. It is advice that applies to foreign as well as indigenous writers and, in most cases, non-Burmese writers have followed it. The recommendation is important because fiction provides a popular entryway for the “average” reader to reach beyond his normal range of knowledge and imagination; it is more likely that he will have read a novel or short story rather than a history or a scholarly work and it is from this source that he will have formed his ideas and adopted his stereotypes. Thus, it is necessary that the available literature is good, that it is accurate in its descriptions of the locale and the behaviour of the people, that it catches the nuance of local speech and expression, that it reflects the psychology of the subjects when it discusses them rather than imputing alien speech, values, and attitudes.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Southeast Asian Studies , Volume 16 , Issue 1 , March 1985 , pp. 129 - 140
Copyright
Copyright © The National University of Singapore 1985

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References

A Brief Annotated Bibliography

1.Bates, H.E., The Jacaranda Tree (London: Penguin Books, 1977), 250 pp. (available only in England). The story of escape from the Japanese invasion of Burma by a small party of Europeans and Burmese.Google Scholar
2.Bates, H. E., The Purple Plain (London: Penguin Books, 1977), 233 pp. (available only i n England). The story of war heroism as a small party of downed fliers make their way to safety. This novel was made into a film.Google Scholar
3.Collis, Maurice, She Was A Queen (London: Faber and Faber Limited, 1952), 248 pp. (out of print). A historical novel of the last years of the Pagan dynasty. Follows the rise of a peasant girl to chief queen and life at court.Google Scholar
4.Collis, Maurice, Sanda Mala (New York: Carrick and Evans, Inc., 1940), 328 pp. Also published in England by Faber and Faber Limited (out of print). A love story between a European painter and a Burmese girl, and life in lower Burma in the 1920s.Google Scholar
5.Chamales, Tom T., Never So Few (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1957) (out of print). An outstanding war story about American special forces fighting alongside Kachins in Northern Burma. This novel was made into a film.Google Scholar
6.Cruttwell, Patrick, A Kind of Fighting (New York: Macmillan Company, 1960), 272 pp. (out of print). A thinly disguised story of Burma's nationalist leader, Aung San.Google Scholar
7.Marshall, Harry I., Naw Su (Portland, Maine: Falmouth Publishing House, 1947), 351 pp. (out of print). A simple story of a young Karen girl who leaves her village and lives with American Baptists as she adopts Christianity and later imparts it to her peopleGoogle Scholar
8.Jesse, F. Tennyson, The Lacquer Lady (New York: Macmillan Company, 1930), 441 pp. (available in new paperback edition). A historical novel of courtlife and intrigue during the reign of Burma's last monarch, Thibaw.Google Scholar
9.Leslie, Cecilie, The Golden Stairs (Garden City: Doublday and Company, Inc., 1968), 286 pp. (out of print). A haunting and sensitive story of escape from the Japanese invaders by a group of Europeans and Asians who eventually reach India.Google Scholar
10.Orwell, George, Burmese Days (London: Penguin Books, 1969), 272 pp. The best known novel of Burma. The story of a small group of Europeans living in upper Burma who are corrupted by the colonial system they serve.Google Scholar
11.Mannin, Ethel, The Living Lotus (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1956), 255 pp. (out of print). The story of an Anglo-Burman girl who is raised by a Burman family during World War II; later she is lured to England by her father who tries to make her a Christian and English and fails on both counts.Google Scholar
12.Shute, Nevil, The Chequer Board (New York: William Morrow and Company, 1947) (out of print). Only a portion of the novel deals with Burma; it provides the background of a subplot about an English pilot who is shot down during the war and finds love and happiness amongst the Burmese.Google Scholar
13.Slimming, John, The Pass (New York: Harper Bros., 1962), 256 pp. A novel set in post-independent Burma, which takes place in the border region of the Kachin State where Kachins, against difficult odds, seek to escape from China.Google Scholar
14.Takeyama, Michio, Harp of Burma (Rutland, Vermont; Charles E. Tuttle Co., 1968), 132 pp. (translated by Howard Hibbett). The unique story of Burma's impact upon a defeated company of Japanese soldiers who await repatriation home.Google Scholar