Narrating privilege: meritocracy and the portrait of the scholar in Singapore Anglophone literature.
This article considers the literary representation of the government scholar in Singapore Anglophone writing, focusing on two recent novels in particular. I begin by tracing the main features of Singapore's form of meritocracy, especially the pivotal role that competitive government scholarships pla...
| Publicado en: | Postcolonial Studies Vol. 21; no. 4; pp. 414 - 433 |
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| Formato: | Artículo |
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Taylor & Francis Ltd
Dec2018
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=134609572&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 134609572 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 13688790 56Z jtl: Postcolonial Studies issn: 13688790 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Dec2018 vid: 21 iid: 4 pid: 377 pub: Taylor & Francis Ltd artinfo: ui: 134609572 10.1080/13688790.2018.1545280 ppf: 414 ppct: 19 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 1.3MB tig: atl: Narrating privilege: meritocracy and the portrait of the scholar in Singapore Anglophone literature. aug: au: Poon, Angelia affil: English Language and Literature Academic Group, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore su: Meritocracy Social systems English-speaking countries Anxiety Scholars sug: subj: Meritocracy Social systems English-speaking countries Anxiety Scholars keyword: elitism Government scholar meritocracy scholarships Singapore literature ab: This article considers the literary representation of the government scholar in Singapore Anglophone writing, focusing on two recent novels in particular. I begin by tracing the main features of Singapore's form of meritocracy, especially the pivotal role that competitive government scholarships play in this system to generate a privileged ruling elite, before turning to The Inlet (2013) by Claire Tham and A Certain Exposure (2014) by Jolene Tan. In examining the way these two novels intervene in the ongoing debate about meritocracy and elitism in contemporary Singapore, I argue that their characterisation of the scholar as a morally compromised figure reflects deep-seated anxieties about stratification and inequality in Singapore society. Both novels foreground the criss-crossing and mutually reinforcing nature of class, racial, gender and sexual ideologies at work in the entrenchment of privilege among a select group. In delineating the path to privilege afforded by government scholarships, the texts ultimately express resistance and dissent against the Singapore postcolonial state, and the systemic as well as systematic way in which it fosters a national governing elite and a related culture of strict conformity. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Postcolonial Studies is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Postcolonial Studies holder: Taylor & Francis Ltd dt: @attributes: year: 2018 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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