Unpacking the souvenirs in Muhammad Haji Salleh's poems : a psychogeographical reading of the poet as a flaneur

Abstract

This thesis examines Muhammad Haji Salleh’s collection of travel poems and his position as a flâneur in establishing the relationship between the self and the place. Using psychogeography, a theory proposed by Guy Debord that involves observation of urban life, as the main approach in this research, the poems are analysed in terms of the spatial surroundings and how they affect the mind and behaviour of Muhammad in his journey of travels. Previous studies on Muhammad Haji Salleh have portrayed the literary figure to possess strong nationhood, identity, and an environmentalist that can be evidently traced in his poetry. This investigation departs from previous research by focusing on exploring Muhammad Haji Salleh as a flâneur, a term Debord uses to identify an observer of modern life. This thesis is driven by these objectives to: analyse the spatial place and its impacts in Muhammad’s poetry, investigate the sense of self and its connection to the spatial place, and examine the relationship between the place and the sense of self in affecting the writer’s mind and behaviour as projected in his poems. The conceptual framework constructed for this study involves two major concepts – psychogeography and place attachment. The methodology of this research comprises tracing the characteristics of Muhammad as a flâneur in his travels and how the places have impacted his way of thinking and behaviour before, during, and after his travel experiences. The findings of the study show that Muhammad exhibits a sense of closeness with his spatial surroundings that not only surpasses the common landscape of the place, but rather, has become a part of himself. The implication of this study adds another layer to the richness of Muhammad’s poetry as not just a traveller who is constantly departing from and arriving at various places, but he noticeably builds bridges that connect personal attributes and values to form meaningful souvenirs with many lessons learnt during his sojourns.