Singapore Literature and Culture: Current Directions in Local and Global Contexts / Edition 1

by Angelia Poon, Angus Whitehead

Overview

Since the nation-state sprang into being in 1965, Singapore literature in English has blossomed energetically, and yet there have been few books focusing on contextualizing and analyzing Singapore literature despite the increasing international attention garnered by Singaporean writers. This volume brings Anglophone Singapore literature to a wider global audience for the first time, embedding it more closely within literary developments worldwide. Drawing upon postcolonial studies, Singapore studies, and critical discussions in transnationalism and globalization, essays unearth and introduce neglected writers, cast new light on established writers, and examine texts in relation to their specific Singaporean local-historical contexts while also engaging with contemporary issues in Singapore society. Singaporean writers are producing work informed by debates and trends in queer studies, feminism, multiculturalism and social justice — work which urgently calls for scholarly engagement. This groundbreaking collection of essays aims to set new directions for further scholarship in this exciting and various body of writing from a place that, despite being just a small ‘red dot’ on the global map, has much to say to scholars and students worldwide interested in issues of nationalism, diaspora, cosmopolitanism, neoliberalism, immigration, urban space, as well as literary form and content. This book brings Singapore literature and literary criticism into greater global legibility and charts pathways for future developments.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780367884932
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	12/10/2019
Series:	Routledge Studies in Twentieth-Century Literature
Pages:	310
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Angelia Poon is Associate Professor of English Literature and Deputy Head of the English Language and Literature Academic Group at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

Angus Whitehead is Assistant Professor in the department of English Language & Literature at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii

Introduction: Singapore Literature in English Angelia Poon Angus Whitehead 1

Section I

1 We who have no country but our century: Wong May, Singapore-Stateless Poet Angus Whitehead 21

2 'A Kind of Pursuit': On Boey Kim Cheng's Poetry Shirley Chew 44

3 A Luxury We Cannot Afford: The Poetry of Yong Shu Hoong, Toh Hsien Min, and Boey Kim Cheng Eddie Tay 62

4 A City Without a Nation: Personal and Collective Memory in the Fiction of Gopal Baratham Steve Clark 82

Section II

5 The Social Life of Genres: Short Stories as a Singapore Form Philip Holden 99

6 Of Language and Beyond: Enoch Ng Kwang Cheng, firstfruits, and Singapore Literature E.K. Tan 114

7 Singaporean Literature and Global Modernism: Wang Gungwu, Lloyd Fernando, Lydia Kwa Weihsin Gui 135

8 'Leeet lor': Singapore Plays as Drama Paul Rae 153

Section III

9 Super-Diversity and Its Implications in Two Singapore Texts Wai-Chew Sim 181

10 Strangers, Surrogates, Lovers: Foreign Domestic Workers in Contemporary Singapore Texts Joanne Leow 198

11 In Praise of Failed Men (and the Woman Writer): Gender Politics in the Singapore Novel Angelia Poon 217

12 Singapore as Strategic Location: Setting and Positionality in Goh Poh Seng's If We Dream Too Long and Lydia Kwa's Pulse Cheryl Narumi Naruse 237

13 Burning in Your Hands: Singapore's Queer Literary Tradition Yi-Sheng Ng 256

Notes on Contributors 285

Index 289