This module examines select literary and dramatic/theatre works in the light of the changes in Singapore literature and culture since independence in 1965 to the present, with an emphasis on the 1980s to the 2000s. The central context of the dramatic changes lie in changes in modernization policy in Singapore – in the 1970s, from a ‘pragmatic’ and culturally philistine modernization that sought to homogenize/standardize culture and the cityscape in the name of economic development, to a 1990s- present modernization that (in contrast) desires Singapore to be a more hip ‘global city for the arts’ (a 1992 government-policy phrase). The changing contexts are as important as the texts to be examined. Why was the Singapore state not interested in what can be called ‘high culture’ or ‘serious art’ in the 1960s & 1970s? The emphasis then appeared to be on culture conceived of as ‘racial’ and ethnic culture – and such ethnic-cultural identities are effectively transformed by the urban change and state-led social engineering. What sort of literary and other cultural responses were there in relation to the state’s
policies on culture and racial management in the 1980s? What happened in the state’s thinking on culture in the 1990s that led a (supposed move away from a philistinism) to a desire to invest in the arts? How did creative-cultural producers relate to these unexpected changes? Such will be the questions that this module will address.
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