ANIKE..ANTIGONE....

When I was introduced to the text of Anike, I was very overwhelmed to be informed that it was the first of its kind to be published. Still it is the original text, with little things had been changed by the author from the actual written ones. I was informed that Wong Phui Nam is still waiting fro any responses in order to upgrade his story.
But when it comes to discern deeply into the contents, it was not much different with Antigone! Even the name of the characters - Ismene became Yasmine, Creon is called Maniaka and of course, Antigone is Anike.., only the syllables and alphabets are changed but not the whole characteristics, concepts and themes of the story. So my overwhelming of having an originality became doubt – is it an original copy or a clon from the Antogone play by Sophocoles?
Nevertheless my doubts is cleared by the explanation of Dr. Edwin, for actually Anike is the local version of Antigone. Yes, the main ideas of the story are same but not the setting and also concept of the story background. One special part of Anike is the cause of the crisis was taken from the history of Malacca’s warriors, namely Tuah and Jebat. In Anike’s version, their names were are changed into Sirat and Wira. The other differences in which Wong Phui Nam had decided to implement is the used of many local jargons and words, such as belukar, tosai, nenek moyang so that the Antigone readers would trace the differences or local literature lovers who just crushed into this masterpiece did not feel alienated from the local setting.
But, honestly, when I compared between Anike and Antigone, I would prefer the latter much, much more! Maybe because of the length, it is must shorter than Anike. ( I was told that our version of Antigone was the simplified one!).