THE LONGER VERSION OF TENGKU SAID S HIKAYAT MELAYU @ MALAY ANNALS: A HISTORICAL LITERARY TEXT STUDY

The renowned Hikayat Melayu is a nineteenth-century literary works and by far still commands presence as a canonical, historical literary text based on its traditional sources. For the purpose of this study, a longer version of Tengku Said s Hikayat Melayu is referenced to examine the rules of Malay authorship during the 19th century. From sociological perspective, a comprehensive literary work is considered as a social product. This study takes into form based on the questions by Ken Plummer (1997) in Studying Culture: An Introductory Reader. Among the questions devised is the nature of stories, which observes types and purposes of the theme, and significance of Hikayat Melayu written by the author. For the second question, the making of stories is designed to be in parallel with context of study and socio-cultural in exploring the reason of its narration, its outcome in shaping society and to verify the supremacy of Malay kings, in defence or against the institution.