The 'Forgotten Hemingway' of Sarawak's Literary Borderlands: Rediscovering the Prolific Literart Oeuvre of Ranee Sylvia Brooke

THE SARAWAK MUSEUM JOURNAL
VOL LXXX NO.101 DECEMBER 2018

Title :
The 'Forgotten Hemingway' of Sarawak's Literary Borderlands: Rediscovering the Prolific Literart Oeuvre of Ranee Sylvia Brooke

Author :
Barry Scott Zellen

Abstract:

In recent years, while conducting research on the role of crossborder indigenous homelands in world politics – the topic of a multiyear research project funded by the Kone Foundation of Helsinki in 2016 and 2017, and the topic of my other paper presented at this year’s BRC conference – I’ve become intrigued, and later fascinated, and for a time completely obsessed, by the largely-forgotten literary contributions of Sarawak’s second and final Ranee, Lady Sylvia Brooke (née Brett), who occupied a unique vantage point in the literary borderland of British Southeast Asia with her dual role as a member of Sarawak’s ruling dynasty while at the same time serving as a vocal champion of those marginalised and dispossessed by British colonialism.

DOI:
https://doi.org/10.61507/smj22-2018-LSD8-03

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How to cite:
Barry Scott Zellen (2018). The ‘Forgetten Hemingway’ of Sarawak’s Literary Borderlands: Rediscovering The Prolific Literary Oeuvre of Ranee Sylvia Brooke. Sarawak Museum Journal, LXXX (101): 55-70 https://doi.org/10.61507/smj22-2018-LSD8-03

References

Eade Philip. Sylvia, Queen of the Headhunters: An Outrageous Englishwoman and Her Lost Kingdom (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2007) and Sylvia, Queen of the Headhunters: An Eccentric Englishwoman and Her Lost Kingdom (London: Picador, 2014).
Ibid., 95. Eade notes Sylvia’s brother described her as a “female Iago.”
Alan L. McLeod, “Sylvia Brooke, Pioneer Malaysian Feminist Writer,” Commonwealth 22-1, 55–63.
WorldCat is a union catalogue that itemises the collections of 72,000 libraries in 170 countries and territories that participate in the Online Computer Library Center global cooperative, and is at https://www.worldcat.org/.
Eade, Op. Cit.
Khairie Hisyam Aliman, “Did Sarawakians Fly a Colonial Flag on July 22?”, Malay Mail, July 31, 2015, https://www.malaymail.com/s/942943/did-sarawakiansfly- a-colonial-flag-on-july-22; the official S4S Facebook page is at: https://www. facebook.com/SarawakForSarawakianOfficial/. For a darker perspective, see Sanib Said, “Brookes in Sarawak: One Hundred Years of Tribal Killings,” SanibSaid.com, https://www.sanibsaid.com/brooke-rule-in-sarawak-one-hundred-years-of-tribalkillings/.
See Brooke, Sylvia. Queen of the Head Hunters: The Autobiography of H.H. the Hon. Sylvia Lady Brooke, Ranee of Sarawak (London: Sidgwik and Jackson, 1970) in addition to Eade, Op. Cit.
Brooke, Sylvia. Toys (London: John Murray, 1923).
Her plays include The Heels of Pleasure (1932), The Merry Matrons (1935) and Persecuted Parents (1935); novels of the English aristocracy include: The Darlingtons (1950) and Headwind House (1953).