K. S. Maniam’s Bestiary: Reading Animality and Identity in Selected Stories

This essay scrutinises the fictional animals appearing in texts by the Malaysian writer K. S. Maniam, by going beyond the confines of metaphor to interrogate the concept of animality itself, and how such animality impinges upon diasporic identity. I examine the writer’s impulse to animalise the notion of national belonging, especially through the strategic deployment of the animal mask, which reveals the shared domination of migrants and animals alike. I argue that Maniam’s critique of animality not only suggests that migrant and animal lives are interlinked but also informs his re-envisioning of the diasporic self. Thus, I posit that Maniam’s “new diaspora” advances the notion of the diasporic self as “becoming-animal”.