Asiatic: IIUM Journal of English Language and Literature
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Edwin Thumboo’s “Differenceâ€: Some Dilemmas of Post-colonial Creativity
No full textDespite Edwin Thumboo’s iconic status within the modern Singaporean artistic scene, observation of the highly vibrant creative and critical activity that has gone on/is still going on on that scene suggests, somewhat ironically, that he and his fellow artistes have throughout been proceeding, unrecognised, along significantly divergent paths. The paper argues that what Thumboo has to offer his fellow artistes/critics will remind them of things they cannot afford to forget, as they seem to have, if their work is to address what might be considered the main challenge of post-colonial creativity, namely, that of fashioning, out of their own available (modern and traditional) resources a distinct contemporary Singaporean creative voice, the voice through which they will be able to liberate themselves and their people from the epistemological, cultural and other forms of hegemony under which, through its interpellations, the dominant empire/capitalism constructed hierarchised global order is seeking to draw them. The paper supports its argument by appending an earlier unpublished paper by the author that supplies a theorised examination of activity in the Singapore theatre during the headiest days of its coming alive that predicts to its present state
Speaking Migrant Tongues in Edwin Thumboo’s Poetry
Get PDFSingapore’s unofficial poet laureate, Edwin Thumboo, is best-known for poems celebrating nationhood. Not much critical attention has been given to his lyrics on the plight of migrants who are seeking a new identity. The quintessential Singaporean poem on nationhood, “Ulysses by the Merlion†(Reflecting on the Merlion 18-19) takes the objective viewpoint of a traveller who observes the settling down of itinerant peoples. The migrant is, in fact, a motif that is juxtaposed alongside the nation in many of Thumboo’s works, from “The Exile†(20-21) in Gods Can Die to “Uncle Never Knew†(19-20) in Still Travelling. Thumboo shows how the migrant’s voice, like the nationalist’s, may clash with the dominant or official culture. In so doing, Thumboo gives utterance to his or her feelings and beliefs as well as suggests cultural improvisation as a means to convert the lyric into a means of building a nation and nurturing the individual other.  In this paper, I will apply ethical concepts and aesthetic strategies outlined by Zhou Xiaojing in her study entitled The Ethics and Poetics of Alterity in Asian-American Poetry. She said that Asian-Americans differ because of their “inherent cultural otherness and subsequent political and cultural marginalization, and because of their apparently successful assimilation†(1). I will explore how Zhou’s appropriation of Levinasian otherness may generate an appreciation of the migrants’ cosmopolitan experience and social critique in Thumboo’s poetry. Otherness as irreducible is also a form of intervention in an adopted society. It requires new ways of looking and voicing the experiences of self and nationhood. This otherness opens up new possibilities for the use of language, imagery and poetic techniques
Understanding Edwin Thumboo
Get PDFEdwin Thumboo is arguably the most famous and powerful figure in Singaporean literature. He is also the most controversial, generating a broad range of responses to the meaning and value of his verse. Thumboo’s poetry parallels not just the stages of his life but problematically also how Singapore has developed socio-politically. These inextricable aspects create the very possibility for conflicting readings, which essentially disagree over historical decisions, the role of art and the impact of Thumboo’s career and character.   My essay will look at the construction of the image of Thumboo and its relation to these differing outlooks. I shall consider the dimensions of his historical place, his artistic convictions, his status in literary and academic culture and his own personality. A different way of working with Thumboo – without using him to frame Singaporean literature – is also proposed. My wish is to be able to confront objectively where this major poet’s legacy stands today. Â
Can a Spirit of Our Own be Expressed in the Language of Our Coloniser?
Get PDFThis study explores the relationship between the concept of Indian identity and the English language as reflected in Indian literature. Questions of identity in this literature are inextricably connected with the issue of using English, the language of the erstwhile colonisers, to portray the non-English, multilingual socio-cultural and political experience of the Indian space. I argue that English is today an Indian language and even functions as a vernacular Indian language. An attempt to dismiss English as the language of the coloniser is endeavouring to reverse the wheels of history, because the Indian nation itself is a product of colonialism. Literature written in this language is not antithetical to or removed in its concerns from literature written in the different regional Indian languages. Rather, like literature in any other Indian language, not only is Indian-English literature credible Indian literature, but often it expresses a sensibility associated with the vernacular and can be meant primarily for an Indian audience. The vernacularisation of English is not based on any linguistic peculiarities of Indian English, but is achieved through the socio-political aspects of the language and the literary articulations of English in a mutually constitutive manner alongside various Indian regional languages
A Feminist Critique of Patriarchy: Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain (1880-1932)
Get PDFRokeya Sakhawat Hossain was one of the most brilliant thinkers of colonial India in the twentieth century. She addressed women, primarily Muslim women, and censured them for their degraded condition in society and loss of self-respect. She ascribed women’s subjection to men to the patriarchal social structure that gave hegemony of men over women. She also blamed men for their selfishness and condemned the prevalent social and religious customs, formulated by men, which perpetuated women’s dependence. If women were in a position to frame them, these unfair customs would certainly have been different. Her call was to women to wake up, to acquire fruitful education instead of useless ornaments and go in for gainful employment that would establish equality with men. Extremely brave and radical seen in the backdrop of her time, she was a champion of gender equality and a precursor of the women’s movement in South Asia in the modern period
Notes on Why Friends, Why Friendship into Poems
Get PDFHistory is especially important in a nation that does not have a long past. For the writer who has to work in cross-cultural terms, the study of English Literature would have stressed the importance of a working history, tapped to provide a sense of context, location and continuity. This is the case with Singapore, which is without a direct historical hinterland. But because it is small, economically strong and politically stable, there is need for the writer to construct missing continuities. This he does by looking not only at the past, but also into the present, its multi-racial, multi-ethnic character. For the present case, friends are both the crystallisation and detailing of this precise historical context, essential for the penetration of both contemporary culture as well as their antecedents. They represent experience as well as repository, a combination that makes them excellent conduits. In the case of Singapore, these cultures mean for the writer specifically the Chinese, Indian, Malay and Eurasian
Stepping into Meaning with “Iskandar J in His Studioâ€: Analysing the Poetry of Edwin Thumboo
Get PDFDrawing on Edwin Thumboo’s poem, “Iskandar J in His Studio,†I illustrate our methodology for investigating meaning which is based on M.A.K. Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistic theory. A systemic-functional perspective, with its emphasis on the semogenic (“meaning-makingâ€) power of language, provides the ideal handle for investigating Thumboo’s poetry as not only an intentional act of meaning but also as a work of art. A poem, like any other text, is the complex realisation of three kinds of meaning: ideational, interpersonal and textual. Ideational meaning has to do with how we construe our world of experience. Interpersonal meaning has to do with how we use language to relate to those with whom we are speaking. Textual meaning concerns what gives texture to a text. The more cohesive and coherent the text, the greater is its texture
