Diffractive spaces: An analysis of Malaysian cyberpunk

The impact of new information technologies on Malaysian spatiality today is complicated by the ongoing processes of colonialism, which have violently disrupted old attachments to the land, leading to the imbrication of racial divisions and global capitalism. Malaysian cyberpunk, an emergent literature, "maps" these new spaces of global informational capitalism. While theories of hybridity and syncretism have been used to explain the assimilation and negotiation of culture in Malaysia, this article proposes an alternative approach. It reads the nation's fundamentally polyvalent nature through the concept of diffraction, arguing that reading diffractively allows us to be attentive to how spaces connected to diverse ontologies impede, pass through, or interfere with one another, with differences being upheld rather than reduced. Analysing a selection of Malaysian cyberpunk short stories, this article shows how diffractive entanglements are constitutive of Malaysia's complex spatial identity, offering an alternative spatial imaginary.