Imej Melayu Melalui Perspektif Timur dan Barat dalam Almayer's Folly (1895) dan Lord Jim (1900) Karya Joseph Conrad

Image of Malays and native communities in Sarawak have been recorded in books of adventure by many Western sailors and colonialisation in Borneo-Kalimantan. This genre of colonial writings from travellers’ account has attracted a fictional writer and sailor named Joseph Conrad to popularise the East in the West, not only for money but also to show the images of Malays in Sarawak through Eastern and Western perspectives. This textual study on Almayer's Folly (1895) and Lord Jim (1900) analyses the dichotomy of eastern and western images using contrapuntal reading for three (3) characteristic key words, namely: altruism, women and obedience. The Malays’ image through eastern and western perspectives is evaluated based on combination of critical postcolonial reading on both novels. Re-viewing the novels through ambivalence, mimicry and hibridity elements have therefore uncovered the hidden messages in his literary works. The finding shows that the Malays are altruistic while the West acts in hypocracy. The West does not possess the value of the obedience towards the Malay leaders or affairs. Pure Malay and ‘half-caste’ women are underestimated by the West, but then by the end of the novels, the West succumbs to its own by strength as these women choose to ‘be Malays’