To what extent do anglophone Malaysian literatures retain their capacity for representation, when they are written, marketed, and sold outside Malaysian borders? How do we ascertain their authenticity as Malaysian text? This paper demonstrates how the conceptualization of the “Global Malaysian Novel” is a shift that responds to and problematizes traditional postmodern and postcolonial modes of reading that have not yet transcended the nation as a frame of reference. While a critique of their complicity in global literary markets centered in the UK and US is often reduced to an ad hominem attack, there remains much to be said about the effects of their increasingly transnational material production upon their more formally understood aesthetic and literary qualities. As such, I explore the discursive effects of the “Global Malaysian Novel” through the debates on national literature and literary tradition. In doing so, I chart how literary scholars have approached contemporary Asian literatures and attempted to situate them critically within realms of the national, within postcolonial Southeast Asia, and within World Literature frameworks. In particular, I bring the critical work of Malaysian scholars like Lloyd Fernando and Wong Phui Nam into productive dialogue with the broader field.