edited by Sim Wai Chew and Yow Cheun Hoe

Singapore Comparative Literature Compendium presents an array of essential readings from the local canon. A compelling argument for the comparative study of Singapore’s multilingual literature, the compendium aims to encourage inter-ethnic, inter-lingual, and inter-cultural transfer through the study of cultural expression across language and cultural divides within Singapore’s literary scene.

Apart from education and language policy, the compendium features the following seven sections: politics and history; gender, sexuality, and patriarchy; growing up, ageing, mortality; new migrants; multiculturalism and minority concerns; travel, regionalism, and global SG; and lastly, genre, experimental and speculative fiction.

In turn, this compendium aims to alter entrenched orientations and encourage movement beyond the ascriptive parameters that organise cultural discussion in Singapore

About the Editors:

Sim Wai Chew is an associate professor at Nanyang Technological University. His academic specialisations include comparative literature, postcolonial literature and theory, and translingual literature and theory. His works include Kazuo Ishiguro (published by Routledge in 2010), British-Asian Fiction (published by Mellen in 2007) and Island Voices: A Collection of Short Stories from Singapore (published by Learners in 2007). He also recently published an English translation of Chia Joo Ming’s sinophone novel Exile or Pursuit (published in 2019 by Balestier Press). His research has appeared in the journals Textual Practice, Journal of Commonwealth Literature, CLCWeb Comparative Literature and Culture, and Sun Yat-sen Journal of Humanities.

Yow Cheun Hoe is an associate professor at Nanyang Technological University, where he is the head of the Chinese programme, Director of the Chinese Heritage Centre, and Director of the Centre for Chinese Language and Culture. He is a chief editor for Huaren Yanjiu Guoji Xuebao (International Journal of Diasporic Chinese Studies) and book review editor for Journal of Chinese Overseas. His academic specialisations include Chinese migration and diaspora, qiaoxiang (Overseas Chinese homeland) ties, and diasporic Chinese literature. His books include Xinjiapo yu Zhongguo xin yimin (New Chinese Migrants in Singapore: A Question of Citizenship) (published by the City University of Hong Kong Press in 2021); Yimin guiji he lisan lunshu: Xin Ma huaren zuqun de chongceng mailuo (Migration Trajectories and Diasporic Discourses: Multiples Contexts of Ethnic Chinese in Singapore and Malaysia) (published by Shanghai Sanlian Shudian in 2014), and Guangdong and Chinese Diaspora: The Changing Landscape of Qiaoxiang (published by Routledge in 2013). His articles have appeared in the Journal of Contemporary China, Modern Asian Studies, Asian Ethnicity, Cross-Cultural Studies, Changjiang Xueshu, and Waiguo Wenxue Yanjiu.

ISBN: 978-1-913891-30-5
Imprint: Balestier Academic
Publication date:  25 December 2021
Format: Paperback 229mm x 152mm
Pages: 313 pp