Being family, doing family : inquiring the discourse of family in Singapore literature
This dissertation is driven by the impulse to better understand families. To do so, I read the representations and negotiation of ‘family’ in selected Singaporean fiction, with the aim of considering what precisely is defined and understood as family. Family is everywhere, and the meaning of the...
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| Format: | Thesis-Master by Research |
| Language: | English |
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Nanyang Technological University
2021
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/152121 |
| _version_ | 1826123335026606080 |
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| author | Tan, Geraldine Le Ting |
| author2 | Yong Wern Mei |
| author_facet | Yong Wern Mei Tan, Geraldine Le Ting |
| author_sort | Tan, Geraldine Le Ting |
| collection | NTU |
| description | This dissertation is driven by the impulse to better understand families. To do so, I read the
representations and negotiation of ‘family’ in selected Singaporean fiction, with the aim of
considering what precisely is defined and understood as family. Family is everywhere, and the
meaning of the word seems prima facie. My interest is precisely prompted by this axiom of family,
and how it forms a dominant ideology that superposes and determines lived experiences of families
despite its incommensurability. I adopt a framework of queering the discourse of marriage and
family in Singapore, looking to “definitions and understandings of the term “family” as topics of
inquiry in their own right and part of the process of analysis” (Morgan 93) What I mean by queering
is not for an exploration of homosexual families presented in Singapore Literature, since doing so
would reconfirm and constraint a binary of homosexuality/heterosexuality. Rather, I draw upon
queering as Natalie Oswin does in her analysis of the critical geography of home in Singaporean
housing, analyzing the heteronormative logic governing Singaporean home spaces and the
attendant “properly familial Singaporean subjects” (261) which extends beyond the policing of a
heterosexual-homosexual binary to perpetuate “prevailing notions of respectable domesticity and
proper family” (257). To do so, I read literary renderings of familial and marital forms that comply
with the dominant image of the conjugal Family but recast the meanings of family by turning these
images on its head to explore the complexity of the nuclear unit. |
| first_indexed | 2024-10-01T06:02:58Z |
| format | Thesis-Master by Research |
| id | ntu-10356/152121 |
| institution | Nanyang Technological University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-10-01T06:02:58Z |
| publishDate | 2021 |
| publisher | Nanyang Technological University |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | ntu-10356/1521212023-03-11T20:16:17Z Being family, doing family : inquiring the discourse of family in Singapore literature Tan, Geraldine Le Ting Yong Wern Mei School of Humanities WMYong@ntu.edu.sg Humanities::Literature This dissertation is driven by the impulse to better understand families. To do so, I read the representations and negotiation of ‘family’ in selected Singaporean fiction, with the aim of considering what precisely is defined and understood as family. Family is everywhere, and the meaning of the word seems prima facie. My interest is precisely prompted by this axiom of family, and how it forms a dominant ideology that superposes and determines lived experiences of families despite its incommensurability. I adopt a framework of queering the discourse of marriage and family in Singapore, looking to “definitions and understandings of the term “family” as topics of inquiry in their own right and part of the process of analysis” (Morgan 93) What I mean by queering is not for an exploration of homosexual families presented in Singapore Literature, since doing so would reconfirm and constraint a binary of homosexuality/heterosexuality. Rather, I draw upon queering as Natalie Oswin does in her analysis of the critical geography of home in Singaporean housing, analyzing the heteronormative logic governing Singaporean home spaces and the attendant “properly familial Singaporean subjects” (261) which extends beyond the policing of a heterosexual-homosexual binary to perpetuate “prevailing notions of respectable domesticity and proper family” (257). To do so, I read literary renderings of familial and marital forms that comply with the dominant image of the conjugal Family but recast the meanings of family by turning these images on its head to explore the complexity of the nuclear unit. Master of Arts 2021-07-16T02:15:49Z 2021-07-16T02:15:49Z 2021 Thesis-Master by Research Tan, G. L. T. (2021). Being family, doing family : inquiring the discourse of family in Singapore literature. Master's thesis, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. https://hdl.handle.net/10356/152121 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/152121 10.32657/10356/152121 en This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0). application/pdf Nanyang Technological University |
| spellingShingle | Humanities::Literature Tan, Geraldine Le Ting Being family, doing family : inquiring the discourse of family in Singapore literature |
| title | Being family, doing family : inquiring the discourse of family in Singapore literature |
| title_full | Being family, doing family : inquiring the discourse of family in Singapore literature |
| title_fullStr | Being family, doing family : inquiring the discourse of family in Singapore literature |
| title_full_unstemmed | Being family, doing family : inquiring the discourse of family in Singapore literature |
| title_short | Being family, doing family : inquiring the discourse of family in Singapore literature |
| title_sort | being family doing family inquiring the discourse of family in singapore literature |
| topic | Humanities::Literature |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/152121 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT tangeraldineleting beingfamilydoingfamilyinquiringthediscourseoffamilyinsingaporeliterature |