Literary Tourism and Waterscapes in the Short Stories by Siti Zainon Ismail

Siti Zainon Ismail is a literary scholar, writer, and Malaysian cultural figure who has embarked on various journeys – both physical and imaginative. The intersection of literature with these journeys is particularly fascinating within the realm of “travel literature”, a subfield of literary tourism studies. This paper examines her connection to waterscapes, whether it is the external settings she has visited or the local regions she has depicted in her works, which subsequently result in a collision of ideas amongst her characters. This article references several short stories by Siti Zainon Ismail published through Galeri Melora, namely Kampung Paya Kami (1998), Nyanyian Orang Laut (2000), and Piazza Di Spagna (2005). Several other short stories later take readers on her journeys through the Riau Islands in Indonesia and Rome, Europe. Siti Zainon Ismail extensively discusses human nature, the surrounding environmental conflicts, heritage, and love stories through the backdrop of these waterscapes. This study employs the framework of literary tourism and the literary path within the context of psycho geography – how the author is engaged in the folds and lines of the map of the narrative’s watery locales, marked by literary signposts. Siti Zainon Ismail invites her audience to trace the contours of this “new map” to encounter fictional characters, settings, roads, structures, or even meet the author herself. Through Siti Zainon Ismail’s short stories, the readers are portrayed as pilgrims in the realm of literary tourism, and they also contribute a unique impact associated with waterscapes.