POETIC CULTURE: CONTEMPORARY ENGLISH POETRY IN SINGAPORE POH MIN MEI MAGDALENE NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE 2011 POETIC CULTURE: CONTEMPORARY ENGLISH POETRY IN SINGAPORE POH MIN MEI MAGDALENE (B.A. (Hons.), NUS A THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE 2011 Table of Contents 1. Summary 2. List of Figures 3. Chapter 1 Introduction 4. Chapter 2 Approaches to Describing Singapore 5. Chapter 3 Exploring the Intrinsic Factors of Poetry Production 6. Chapter 4 Analysing the Extrinsic Social Factors 7. Chapter 5 Conclusion and the Way Ahead 8. Bibliography 9. Appendix i Summary This thesis explores what I call the cultural anthropology underlying the production of English poetry in Singapore during the last ten years. It uses a questionnaire and interview method to obtain responses from selected poets, and these responses are then compared against existing published materials and critically analysed, with the purpose of explicating, elaborating and articulating the various factors that have led to production of English poetry in Singapore. So far, all the existing academic material on contemporary Singaporean poetry has centred on literary analysis, and I hope that my research can act as a useful supplement because it is a kind of literary anthropology and a form of context-building which reviews craft as vocation, profession and cultural practice. In this way, I hope to fill a gap or lack in current academic scholarship, and contribute to building a more holistic understanding of contemporary Singaporean poetry and its production. Twelve prominent local poets were selected, and they belong to the contemporary generation who fall within the same age bracket (20s to 40s, with the exception of Lee Tzu Pheng, who is in her 50s, and has been included to give her opinions as a pioneer poet). They are: Lee Tzu Pheng (b. 1946), Heng Siok Tian (b. 1963), Madeleine Lee (b. 1963), Boey Kim Cheng (b. 1965), Felix Cheong (b. 1965), Yong Shu Hoong (b. 1966), Alvin Pang (b. 1972), Aaron Lee (b. 1972), Toh Hsien Min (b. 1975), Cyril Wong (b. 1977), Alfian Sa'at (b. 1977) and Ng Yi-Sheng (b. 1980). ii List of Figures 1. Figure 1: M. H. Abram’s Diagram 2. Figure 2: Art Axis Diagram iii Chapter 1 Introduction Aims This thesis wishes to explore what might be called the cultural anthropology and the processes involved in the production of English poetry in Singapore, specifically within the time-frame of the last ten years. It will explore how and why contemporary poets in Singapore choose poetry (in English) as their genre of choice, what the local poets‘ attitudes towards writing, art and culture here in Singapore are, and how living in a modern, fast-paced society like Singapore has had an impact on the practice of their craft. My research project will explore and critically analyse the many factors which contribute to the production of contemporary English poetry in Singapore, such as economics (key questions include: Assuming that poetry does not make money, what kind of cultural capital is there to be made from its practice, whether locally or in a broader context? What is the ―gain‖ for poets in writing poetry as a vocation? How does a vocational commitment to their craft relate to the economic necessity of making a living here in Singapore? How do they make a living?), politics (Does local politics affect what the writers can or cannot write about? How true is the old narrative of how Singapore as a state dictates agendas that the poets either resist or promote? How do state policies affect the production and reception of local poetry?), race (How does this enter poetry? Is our local English poetry scene dominated by any race(s)? Is there a reason why? Do poets think through this category or think it irrelevant?), gender (Are there more male or female poets that are actively publishing in the last ten years? If there is an inequality in numbers why is this so? How does gender affect the writing of poetry locally? Does the sexual orientation of the poets matter?), religion (Does religion play a part in influencing the writing of poetry in Singapore? How does living in a multi-religious society affect or impact the poets‘ craft? Are any of the poets religious individuals? If so, does religion inspire or figure in their works?), modernity (How do issues of modernity/living in a modern city-state affect the poets? What is modernity like in Singapore? What do Singapore‘s high living standards and fast pace of life do for them as poets who are honing their craft? Do they feel that they have to ―sell out‖ by having proper jobs in order to survive the high living standards in Singapore?), globalisation (How has globalisation affected poetry writing, publication and promotion in present day Singapore, as compared to the literary scene the preceding generations of 1 Singaporean poets faced? Has globalisation changed the enterprise and mechanics of poetry writing in Singapore? Do poets feel that they have a greater platform and wider audience for self-expression with the proliferation of mass media and information, both results of globalisation? How does being invited to international literary festivals and becoming famous overseas, whilst still being relatively unread and unknown by the general population back home in Singapore affect the poets‘ conception of self and of local readership patterns?) and ideas of self (How do the poets view themselves as individuals? Do they define themselves by their vocation as poets, or is their dexterity at their craft an additional element, just one of many facets to their notion of ―self‖? How does being a poet in modern-day Singapore impact how they view themselves?). Significance of Research Project My thesis will show how units of identity-formation, such as family, friends, community and nation affect the writing of English poetry in the Singaporean context; it will show how the production of poetry is a literary activity influenced by and responsible in contributing to and interacting with categories of thought and experience such as ―culture‖ and ―society‖. In essence, I attempt to explore Singapore poetry and its relationship to the larger context of society, culture and nation, which entails what I regard as a ―macro‖ view of the Singaporean poetry scene, an area previous academic work has covered in purely literary rather than context-aware cultural terms. By contextualising the practice of poetry in English in terms of a larger awareness of how cultural productions function in a given time and place, in relation to the perceived and unconscious interactions between poets and their social and cultural environments, this thesis is able to explore the larger cultural forces and influences that impact the newer generation of Singaporean poets writing today. It will adopt a method that is complementary but also alternative to the traditional ―Practical Criticism‖ approach of close reading and the analysis of key themes/ideas within poetry, as this research project is trying to read the cultural network of forces within which texts get produced, rather than focus exclusively on the texts themselves. This macro view of current poets acquires a specific kind of relevance and significance since past academic work has focused more on the earlier generation of poets (from ―first generation‖ poets such as Edwin Thumboo who published his first poetry collection in 1956, to ―second generation‖ poets such as 2 Kirpal Singh and Robert Yeo who first published in the late 1970s), and where the current generation of poets are concerned, the research that has been conducted has been largely of the ―micro‖ kind, focused on the key themes, ideas and imagery of local poetry, and not on the larger cultural and social forces that impact the production of Singapore poetry. Thus, I believe that my thesis will fill in a gap in academic scholarship and be useful in understanding how issues of cultural production as applied to literary studies can be placed in a social and cultural matrix. My work will explore poetry/literariness and its relationship to the larger context of societies, cultures and nation in Singapore, which is a novel and useful approach to contemporary local poetry that has not been attempted before. I have selected twelve prominent local poets for study in this research project. They belong to the contemporary generation of poets who fall within the same age bracket (20s to 40s, with the exception of Lee Tzu Pheng, who is in her 60s). My rationale for selection is based on limiting the field to twelve poets, a number that I feel is reasonable to work with for the purposes of effective data collection. I have included Alfian Sa‘at in my sample not only because he is one of Singapore‘s most promising and talented poets, but also because he is Malay, as this helps to ensure that my sample does not comprise only Chinese poets. Here I wish to point out that I have not included Indian or Eurasian poets in my sample because I did not find the contemporary English poets who were of Indian or Eurasian ethnicity to fulfil the criteria for inclusion I have indicated below, and also because it is not the purpose of my sample to replicate the CMIO (Chinese, Malay, Indian, Other) ethnic composition of Singapore, but to ensure that there is a measure of ethnic variety. The poets have been selected because many of them fulfil the following criteria: (i) almost all of them are active in the local poetry scene today; (ii) quite a number of them have participated in the Creative Arts Programme/Mentor Access Project and have been mentored by prominent older Singaporean poets and (iii) most have been nominated for or decorated with awards and scholarships from the National Arts Council.