Philip Holden (email: ellhpj@nus.edu.sg)
Chitra Sankaran (email: ellcs@nus.edu.sg)
[ Introduction and Description | Schedule
and Readings | Assessment and Policies | Related
Resources ]
Week 10: Lydia Kwa: This Place Called Absence (1)
It's heavy reading for this week: I'd like you to read the whole novel and
then two supporting texts. In this first session on the novel we'll be discussing
issues to do with the representation of history in fictional texts. To do this,
we'll look at an essay by Linda Hutcheon, which explores a particular genre
called "'historiographic metafiction," and also an initial chapter
from James Warren's Ah Ku and Karayuki San--Prostitution in Singapore 1870-1940,
which has a significant intertextual presence in the novel.
- Lydia Kwa, This Place Called Absence (New York: Kensington, 2000)
- James Warren, "Prostitution, Singapore Societ, and the Historian. Ah
Ku and Karayuki San--Prostitution in Singapore 1870-1940. 2nd. Ed. (Singapore:
Singapore University Press, 2003) 3-24. Available via e-reserves on
IVLE
- Linda Hutcheon. Historiographic Metafiction." Metafiction.
Ed. Mark Currie. (London: Longman, 1995). 71-91. Available via e-reserves
on IVLE
Some Questions to Think Over
- Can you think of another example of what Hutcheon calls "historiographical
metafiction" which she herself doesn't mention?
- Scorpion Orchid and This Place Called Absence both use
metafictional techniques to question or complicate historical narratives.
What significant differences are there between the texts? Which do you prefer?
- If, after the lecture is over, you need clarification regarding points made
in it, or would
like to develop them, raise these via IVLE.
Last updated:
15 January, 2007
