Literature of Singapore
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The literature of Singapore comprises a collection of literary works by Singaporeans in any of the country's four main languages: English, Chinese, Malay and Tamil.
While Singaporean literary works may be considered as also belonging to the literature of their specific languages, the literature of Singapore is viewed as a distinct body of literature portraying various aspects of Singapore society and forms a significant part of the culture of Singapore. A number of Singaporean writers such as Tan Swie Hian and Kuo Pao Kun have contributed work in more than one language. However, this cross-linguistic fertilisation is becoming increasingly rare and it is now increasingly thought that Singapore has four sub-literatures instead of one.
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[edit] Literature in English
[edit] Poetry
Singaporean literature in English started with the Straits-born Chinese community in the colonial era; it is unclear which was the first work of literature in English published in Singapore, but there is evidence of Singapore literature published as early as the 1830s. The first notable Singaporean work of poetry in English is possibly F.M.S.R., a pastiche of T. S. Eliot by Francis P. Ng, published in London in 1935. This was followed by Wang Gungwu's Pulse in 1950.
With the independence of Singapore in 1965, a new wave of Singapore writing emerged, led by Edwin Thumboo, Arthur Yap, Robert Yeo, Goh Poh Seng, Lee Tzu Pheng and Chandran Nair. It is telling that many critical essays on Singapore literature name Thumboo's generation, rightly or wrongly, as the first generation of Singapore writers. Poetry is the predominant mode of expression; it has a small but respectable following since independence, and most published works of Singapore writing in English have been in poetry.
There were varying levels of activity in succeeding decades until the late 1990s when poetry in English in Singapore found a new momentum with a whole new generation of poets born around or after 1965 now actively writing and publishing, not only in Singapore but also internationally. Since the late-1990s, local small presses such as Firstfruits and Ethos Books have been actively promoting the works of this new wave of poets. Some of the more notable include Boey Kim Cheng, Yong Shu Hoong, Alvin Pang, Cyril Wong, Felix Cheong and Alfian bin Sa'at (also a playwright). The poetry of this younger generation is often politically aware, transnational and cosmopolitan, yet frequently presents their intensely focused, self-questioning and highly individualised perspectives of Singaporean life, society and culture. Some poets have been labeled Confessional for their personalised writing, often dealing with intimate issues such as sexuality.
[edit] Drama
Drama in English found expression in Goh Poh Seng, who was also a notable poet and novelist, in Robert Yeo, author of 6 plays, and in Kuo Pao Kun, who also wrote in Chinese, sometimes translating his works into English. The late Kuo was a vital force in the local theatre renaissance in the 1980s and 1990s. He was the artistic director of Substation for many years. Some of his plays, like The Coffin is Too Big for the Hole (1984) and Lao Jiu (1990), have been now considered classics. Stella Kon gained international fame with her now-famous play Emily of Emerald Hill: a monologue. About an ageing Peranakan matriarch, it has been produced in Scotland, Malaysia and Australia. The sole character has been played by men as well as women.
[edit] Fiction
Fiction writing in English did not start in earnest until after independence. Short stories flourished as a literary form, the novel arrived much later. Goh Poh Seng remains a pioneer in writing novels well before many of the later generation, with titles like If We Dream Too Long (1972) – widely recognised as the first true Singaporean novel – and A Dance of Moths (1995).
Although she began as a short story writer, Penang-born Catherine Lim has been Singapore's most widely read author, thanks partly to her first two books of short stories, Little Ironies: Stories of Singapore (1978) and Or Else, The Lightning God and Other Stories (1980). These two books were incorporated as texts for the GCE 'O' Levels. Lim's themes of Asian male chauvinistic gender-dominance mark her as a distant cousin to Asian-American writers such as Amy Tan. She has also been writing novels, such as The Bondmaid (1998) and Following the Wrong God Home (2001), and publishing them to an international audience since the late 1990s.
Han May is the pseudonym of Joan Hon who is better known for her non-fiction books. Her science-fiction romance Star Sapphire (1985) won a High Commendation Award from the Book Development Council of Singapore in 1986, the same year when she was also awarded a Commendation prize for her better-known book Relatively Speaking on her family and childhood memories.
Rex Shelley hails from an earlier colonial generation, although he began publishing only in the early 1990s. A Eurasian, his first novel The Shrimp People (1991) examines the regional Eurasian community and their experience in Singapore. The book won a National Book Prize. He has won the S.E.A. Write Award in 2007.
Su-Chen Christine Lim's works consider themes surrounding issues of gender. In 1993, her novel, Fistful of Colours, was awarded the first Singapore Literature Prize. Her other novels take up the relationship between the Malays and Chinese immigrants in colonial Malaya, and the issue of land.
Gopal Baratham, a neurosurgeon, started as a short story writer and later wrote politically-charged works like A Candle or the Sun (1991) and Sayang (1991), which courted some controversy when they were first published.
Augustine Goh Sin Tub who began his writing career writing in Malay, burst on the literary scene after his retirement with more than a dozen books of short stories, most of which were founded on his own personal history, thus making them part fiction and part non-fiction. Works like One Singapore and its two sequels One Singapore 2 and One Singapore 3 have found fans among the different strata of Singapore society and well acclaimed by all.
Around this time, younger writers emerged. Claire Tham and Ovidia Yu wrote short stories, while playwright Stella Kon put forth her lesser-known science-fiction novel, Eston (1995). Of the younger generation, Philip Jeyaretnam has shown promise but has not published a new novel since Abraham's Promise (1995). His first two books, First Loves (1987) and Raffles Place Ragtime (1988), were bestsellers in Singapore.
Kelvin Tan, a musician and playwright, has been sporadically in sight, publishing the works All Broken Up and Dancing (1992) and the Nethe(r);R (2001). Colin Cheong can perhaps lay claim to being one of Singapore's most prolific contemporary authors, releasing three novels, one novella, two short story collections, and dozens of non-fictional works thus far. He won the Singapore Literature Prize in 1996 for his novel and travel diary Tangerine. Daren Shiau's Heartland (1999), a novel of an eighteen-year-old's rites of passage from junior college through to enlistment and thereafter, has been selected to be a set text at secondary school level.
Hwee Hwee Tan graduated with a First Class Honours from the University of East Anglia, and a Masters from Oxford University. She grew up in Singapore and in the Netherlands, and her cosmopolitan experience can be readily seen in her novels. Her snazzy, humourous prose can be read in Foreign Bodies (1997) and Mammon Inc. (2001), both published by Penguin Books. Simon Tay, currently the chairperson of Singapore Institute of International Affairs and a former nominated Member of Parliament, has a short story collection and a novel under his belt. These are Stand Alone (1991) and City of Small Blessings (2009).
[edit] List of Singaporean writers
- Aaron Lee, poet and lawyer
- Abdul Ghani Bin Abdul Hamid poet
- Alfian bin Sa'at, playwright, poet and fiction writer
- apoet, dark, sad and disturbed poet of www.apoet.org
- Muhammad Ariff Ahmad
- Gopal Baratham, neurosurgeon and writer
- Boey Kim Cheng, poet
- Colin Cheong, poet and novelist
- Felix Cheong, poet
- Michael Chiang, playwright
- Rohani Din
- Ivy Goh Nair, Journalist and writer
- Goh Poh Seng, poet and novelist
- Han May, high school physics teacher, novelist and writer
- Philip Jeyaretnam, novelist and lawyer
- Rama Kannabiran
- Russell Lee, mysterious author of popular True Singapore Ghost Stories series
- Jeffery T.H. Lee, poet
- Lee Tzu Pheng, academic and poet
- Liang Wern Fook, Chinese writer and songwriter
- Catherine Lim, novelist
- Su-Chen Christine Lim, novelist
- Shirley Lim, poet and critic
- Chandran Nair, poet and artist
- Alvin Pang, poet and editor
- Wena Poon, author based in the US
- Villayil Raman Gopala Pillai, Malayalam novelist
- Darren Shiau, poet, novelist, environmentalist and lawyer
- Rex Shelley, novelist
- Robert Yeo, playwright and poet
- Kirpal Singh, poet, academic and critic
- Huzir Sulaiman, playwright
- Hwee Hwee Tan, novelist
- Colin Tan, poet
- Kelvin Tan, musician, playwright and novelist
- Mohamed Pitchay Gani poet, editor and researcher
- Tan Swie Hian, poet, translator, calligrapher, and artist
- Simon Tay, poet and lawyer
- Tan Tarn How, playwright
- Edwin Thumboo, poet and academic, former Dean of the Arts and Social Sciences Faculty, National University of Singapore
- I Ulaganathan
- James Villanueva, textbook-writer, poet, novelist, playwright
- Cyril Wong, poet and countertenor
- Eleanor Wong, academic lawyer and playwright
- Arthur Yap, academic and poet
- Yeow Kai Chai, poet and journalist
- Yim Kein Kwok, novelist and architect
- Yong Shu Hoong, poet
- Ovidia Yu, playwright and novelist
- Mohamed Latiff Mohamed poet
[edit] Selected works
[edit] English
- After the Hard Hours, This Rain - Chandran Nair (1975)
- All Broken Up and Dancing - Kelvin Tan (1992)
- Army Daze - Michael Chiang (1984)
- Star Sapphire - Han May (1985)
- Below: Absence - Cyril Wong (2002)
- The Bondmaid - Catherine Lim (1995)
- The Brink of an Amen - Lee Tzu Pheng (1991)
- Eight Plays - Huzir Sulaiman (2002)
- Escape from Paradise - John & May Chu Harding (2001)
- First Loves - Philip Jeyaretnam (1988)
- Fistful Of Colours - Su-Chen Christine Lim (1993)
- Amazing, Surprising, Weird & Wonderful: Myths and Facts of Singapore- Thomas Toh (1995)
- Foreign Bodies - Hwee Hwee Tan (1997)
- Frottage - Yong Shu Hoong (2005)
- I Chose to Climb - Colin Tan (2001)
- I Remember May - Yim Kein Kwok (2001)
- If We Dream Too Long - Goh Poh Seng (1973)
- Mammon Inc. - Hwee Hwee Tan (2001)
- Man Snake Apple - Arthur Yap (1988)
- the Nethe(r);R - Kelvin Tan (2001)
- Once the Horsemen and Other Poems' - Chandran Nair (1972)
- Ricebowl - Su-Chen Christine Lim (1984)
- Singapore Accent - Ivy Goh Nair,aka B J Wu (1980)
- The Sea is Never Full - Jeffery T.H. Lee (1994)
- The Shrimp People - Rex Shelley (1991)
- The Space of City Trees - Arthur Yap (2000)
- The Stolen Child - Colin Cheong (1989)
- A Third Map - Edwin Thumboo (1993)
- City of Rain - Alvin Pang (2003)
- City of Small Blessings - Simon Tay (2009)
- Unmarked Treasure - Cyril Wong (2004)
- The Visage of Terrorism - The Hounds of Hell - James Villanueva (2006/2004)
- A Visitation of Sunlight - Aaron Lee (1997)
- Tilting Our Plates to Catch the Light - Cyril Wong (2007)
- The Lies That Build a Marriage - Suchen Christine Lim (2007)
[edit] Chinese
甜咸人生 — 尤今（1982）
橡胶树 — 王润华（1997）
众山围绕 — 刘瑞金（2001)
老人题材 — 蓉子（2004)
[edit] Malay
- Dewi Alam Dan Burung Senja (collection of poems) - Noor SI (1986)
- Jangan Tak Ada (collection of poems) - Muhammad Ariff Ahmad (1990)
- Diari Bonda (Mother's Diary) - Rohani Din (1997)
- Anugerah Buat Syamsiah (An Award for Syamsiah) - Rohani Din (2001)
- Bila Rama-Rama Patah Sayapnya (When The Butterfly Snaps It's Wings) - Mohamed Latiff Mohamed (2007)
- Suasana Senja (Evening Environment) - Masuri SN (2001)
- Petikan Rasa (Abstracts of Feelings) - Abdul Ghani Hamid (2007)
- Perjalananku (My Journey) - Mohamed Latiff Mohamed & A. Samat Ali (2008)
- Diari Hitam (Black Diary) - Mohamed Pitchay Gani Bin Mohamed Abdul Aziz(2008)
- Aku Bukan Penyair (I Am Not A Poet) - Abdul Ghani Hamid (2008)
- Kota Siluman (Siluman City) - Mohamed Pitchay Gani & Muhd Irwan Jamal (2008)
- Mail Mau Kahwin (Mail Wishes To Get Married) - Muhammad Ariff Ahmad (2008)
- Ayah Tidak Sayang Padaku Lagi (My Dad Does Not Love Me Anymore) - Rasiah Halil (2007)
- Mencari Pelangi Malam (Finding The Night Rainbow) - Ahmad Awang (2002)
- Menyongsong Pelangi (Chasing The Rainbow) - Pitchay Gani Bin Mohamed Abdul Aziz(2005)
- Tuhan Masih Sayang (God Still Loves) - A. Wahab Hamzah (2002)
- Bisik (Anthology of Malay Drama) - Teater Ekamatra (2003)
- Tiga Visi (Anthology of Malay Drama) - Perkumpulan Seni (1990)
- Puisi Luka dan Puisi Duka (Poems of Hurt and Sadness) - Suratman Markasan (2004)
- Bicararasa (Speeches of Feel) - Sarifah Yatiman (2004)
- Nota (Notes) - Abdul Ghani Hamid (1987)
- Ziarah Rindu (Visits of Reminisce) - Mohamed Latiff Mohamed (2004)
- Dari Dua Benua (From Two Ends) - Sulaiman Jeem & Muhd. Salihin Sulaiman (1999)
- XXL - Anak Muda Julung Berkeris (XXL - Young Man With a Kris) - Juffri Supa'at (1999)
[edit] Tamil
- Cantana Kinnam - I Ulaganathan (1966)
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Quarterly Literary Review Singapore
- Singapore literature
- Poetry in Singapore
- Introduction to "Second Tongue"
- Singapore individual Poets
- Singapore individual Poets
- Asas '50
