Adrift on the Ocean: a study of K.S. Maniam’s displaced characters

This paper analyses two plays by Malaysian Indian author K.S. Maniam, examining his ideas about the necessity to rearticulate state-authored, essentialising notions of cultural and ethnic identity towards the creation of a more hybrid and inclusive identity which does not demand allegiance to a single, rigidly defined culture. Maniam’s main concerns in this context will be examined through a close analysis of his plays The Cord and The Sandpit: Womensis. My analysis of these two plays will be framed by the ideas articulated in Maniam’s 2001 paper “The New Diaspora”.