The lessons on literature from Singapore

This writer had the privilege of participating in the Singapore-Malaysian Literary Festival 2009 which was recently held in Singapore. Apart from sharing borders with a gamut of literatures in Englishes, the literary festival was important on many counts and a source of inspiration to expand the narrow frame of our own literary scene.

In the first place, it among other things emphasised the importance of creating literary cultures in Englishes in their respective countries outside the conventional English speaking world which is centred on Europe.

One of the predominant factors, common to Asia, is the phenomenal growth of literatures in Englishes outside the core English language pool.

After centuries of colonial rule, English left behind by the colonial masters gradually had taken root in adapted countries assimilating diverse facets of host cultures and thereby generating literatures in Englishes.

However, this process of generating Englishes was not uniform and in fact, it rested on many factors such as broad-basing the ownership of language, the degree to which English has been used in day-to-day activities in adapted countries and finally use of English as a medium for creative writing. It seems that the countries that are able to create their own literary cultures in Englishes are those which adapted English whole heartedly, perhaps, at times, waving the conventional norms of the language.

The growth of Englishes in Asia such as Pakistani, Indian, Sri Lankan, Malaysian, Singaporean, The Philippines and Hong Kong Englishes have been augmented by phenomenal growth of literatures in Englishes. However, India and Philippines have produced corpus of literatures in their own variety of English. Standard forms of literatures are mutually enriching. Local literary traditions such as Sanskrit, Tamil, Persian, Bengali, Sinhala, and Bahasa Malaysia have influenced literatures in Englishes.

As far as the Asian continent is concerned, it is the India which, perhaps, for the first time, came out with major literary culture in English.

Although the Indian English has its own strengths and weaknesses, the same cannot be said of considerable corpus of literature in English which India has produced over the years. Indian writers in English from the colonial days such as Jawaharlal Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi, and R.K Narayan and the contemporary writers such as Amitav Ghosh, Vikram Seth and Arundathi Roy have not only shaped the English literary landscape of India but also influenced English literature in general. Suffice to say that India has by now produced its own literary culture in English.

One of the fascinating features of this growth in literatures in Englishes and world Englishes is that the emergence of diverse voices from different cultural strains. For instance, in Singapore, writers in English stems from diverse cultural and linguistic stocks; Chinese, Malay and Tamil. Since the English has been used as the languages of commerce and education in Singapore, it is English which has been widely used by people at large, invariably becoming the medium of creativity. However, it should be stated that literatures grown in native tongues has not been hampered by this process. In fact, indigenous literary inheritance has influenced the English in terms of generating images, symbols and metaphors that have enriched the language in a specific manner. Although modern Singapore has a history of less than half a century as an independent country, by now, it has produced a considerable corpus of literature in English, establishing its own literary culture in English during a very short span of time.

Cross cultural interaction

One of the important features of Singapore-Malaysian Literary Festival was the cross cultural interaction at different levels. There were ample opportunities for exchanging ideas among writers and academics drawn from diverse linguistic and literary traditions. Apart from writers representing Singaporean Chinese, Malay and Tamil communities, the festival was attended by writers and academics from all over the world from United States of America to Israel and Down Under. The sessions were creative as well as informative. Apart from several academic session where themes such as multiculturalism, nationalism, diasporic experiences in literature were discussed, there were several important launches including the launch of first and the second of ' Sharing Borders , Studies in contemporary Singaporean-Malaysian Literature" and anthology of contemporary Singaporean writings " Tamasek'.

Sharing Borders

In a way the "Sharing Borders" anthologies literary works produced in the interregnum between the waning days of colonialism and the emergence of new nations in both Malaysia and Singapore. Literatures in Englishes in Malaysian and Singapore produced in that period carried the trademark turbulent political events that shaped the individual as well as collective destinations of the nations.

In an informative preface to the "Sharing Borders, Studies in Singaporean -Malaysian Literature 1", Prof. Edwin Thumboo states: "We felt in early 50s that we lived in turbulent times, between worlds not quite departed and worlds not quite arrived. And the sense of uncertainty was kept alive by cold war issues, the Korean conflict and threat of militant communism. It influenced how we looked at the world and the place our little would be nation can have in it. There grew a mentality that took few things for granted. Moreover, it explains much in poetry we wrote, and still write on occasion. All this is in Singapore when we were about to leave school and for the university, a Singapore with no clear future; with a Malay contending with irredentist, divided communities. Perhaps, we should look at literature to see what it can return to life today what it had received from life many years ago". Singaporean-Malaysian literatures in English were crafted by generations of writers who witnessed the uneasy birth pans of nations emerging from dark uncertainty of colonialism to the sunlit land of freedom.

Apart from the sheer depth of creative writings in English in Singapore, successive generations of Singaporean writers have boldly ventured into challenging conventional norms of English language and in the process have devised a diction which is near to their hearts and capable of expression contemporary realities of the soil. In other words, it is a process of reclaiming or re-configuration of a language retaining its intrinsic properties in standard form and crafting idiom, symbols and metaphors with distinct origin to the literary landscape of that country. For them English is no longer a borrowed tongue or twisted tongue but a dynamic tool which has been and is acting as a unifying factor. Million dollars worth question lingering is whether we, Sri Lankans, still own the language left behind by the colonial master or are we still owe it? Have the successive generations of Sri Lankan writers in English been able to create a dynamic literary culture in English in Sri Lanka representing our own political, social and cultural realities?

(The writer would like to acknowledge Professor Edwin Thumboo, Emeritus Professor, National University, Singapore and R. Ramachandran, Executive Director, National Book Development Council of Singapore for their support and assistance made it possible to participate at the Singapore-Malaysian Literary Festival 2009).