Introduction

Within Asian and Hindu literature like the literature of other cultures, we often find the values, morality, and principles of proper or right human conduct values by such cultures. From the writings of Confucius to the Noh plays to the epic Ramayana, we see such principles illustrated as a means of helping human beings live a harmonious, peaceful, and moral life.

As a whole Asian literature is a compact of ideas wherein culture, belief,religion, and values collide. This can be reflected from the different writers or authors all over Asia who wants to share thier views, ides, emotion through different literary pieces.

However, this may not be enough to serve as your reference yet this could probabaly help you to get a hint on what to do and what to read.

Singaporean Literature

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Module 1 : Missing You by Felix Cheong Seng Fei-Singaporean author
Posted by : Beverly Abelon
Source:A Travel to the Literature of the World by Claudio Tabotabo, http://www.postcolonialweb.org/singapore/literature/poetry/cheong/missing.html
___________________________________________________________________


The literature of Singapore comprises a collection of literary works by Singaporeans in any of the country's four main languages: English, Chinese, Malay and Tamil.

While Singaporean literary works may be considered as also belonging to the literature of their specific languages, the literature of Singapore is viewed as a distinct body of literature portraying various aspects of Singapore society and forms a significant part of the culture of Singapore. A number of Singaporean writers such as Tan Swie Hian and Kuo Pao Kun have contributed work in more than one language. However, this cross-linguistic fertilisation is becoming increasingly rare and it is now increasingly thought that Singapore has four sub-literatures instead of one.










Missing You

Felix Cheong Seng Fei


I miss you
dawn, dream and dusk,
whenever my words run out
and crawl, toothless and silent at last
to the kennel of your heart.

I miss you
in the privacy of pain,
a cry tucked beneath sheets,
a kiss unfinished
over distances.

And I shall miss you
when I'm neither here nor there,
neither a ghost nor a shadow,
more than love can endure,
more than time will allow.

Biography


Felix Cheong was the recipient of the National Arts Council¹s Young Artist of the Year for Literature Award in 2000. His three books of poetry are Temptation and Other Poems (1998), I Watch the Stars Go Out (1999) and Broken by the Rain (2003).

His work has also been published in newspapers, poetry websites, foreign journals and 6 anthologies of Singaporean poetry. Felix has been invited to perform his work at the Brisbane Writers¹ Festival, the Queensland Poetry Festival, the Hong Kong Literary Festival, the Singapore Writers' Festival and the Edinburgh International Book Festival.

As a literary activist, he has been involved in promoting Singaporean literature abroad. He was instrumental in organising a Singapore contingent of writers on 4 successful reading tours -- The Philippines (January 2001), Australia (July 2001), the US (April 2002) and the UK (August 2003).

Felix graduated from the National University of Singapore with a BA (Hons) in 1990 and completed his Master of Philosophy in Creative Writing at the University of Queensland in 2002.


Evaluation of Learnings:

1. What is the voice of the two Poems

2. What do dawn, dream and dusk symbolize in the poem Missing You?

3. How do Singaporean poems differ from other Asian poems?

Posted by vHeBz at 5:07 PM

 

0 comments:

Post a Comment