“Old Marley Married a Chinese Writerâ€: Towards an Aesthetics of Confident Intertextuality
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31436/asiatic.v2i2.48Abstract
In exploring how intertextuality functions in two Christmas tales published in Suchen Christine Lim’s recent collection of short stories, The Lies that Build a Marriage: Stories of the Unsung, Unsaid and Uncelebrated in Singapore (2007), this article aims to reassess recent developments in Singaporean writing that promise to open up an aesthetics of intertextuality. This new aesthetic engagement with literary legacies forms part of an important move away from the increasingly problematic issue of postcolonial self exoticisation. Instead, such self-reflexive fiction critically and often self-ironically dissects the multifarious potential of literary traditions. “Christmas Memories of a Chinese Stepfather†and “Christmas at Singapore Casket†play with an established genre in order to render this interpretative adaptation a vehicle not so much simply of current issues, but of their careful interrogation.
Downloads
Downloads
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyrights of all materials published in Asiatic are held exclusively by the Journal and the respective author/s. Any reproduction of material from the journal without proper acknowledgement or prior permission will result in the infringement of intellectual property laws.