TY - JOUR AU - Wagner, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Tamara S. PY - 2014/02/24 Y2 - 2024/03/29 TI - “Old Marley Married a Chinese Writer”: Towards an Aesthetics of Confident Intertextuality JF - Asiatic: IIUM Journal of English Language and Literature JA - AJELL VL - 2 IS - 2 SE - Articles DO - 10.31436/asiatic.v2i2.48 UR - https://journals.iium.edu.my/asiatic/index.php/ajell/article/view/48 SP - 52-64 AB - <p><span>In exploring how intertextuality functions in two Christmas tales published in Suchen<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span><span>Christine Lim’s recent collection of short stories,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em>The Lies that Build a Marriage: Stories of </em></span></span><em><span>the Unsung, Unsaid and Uncelebrated in Singapore</span></em><span class="apple-converted-space"><em><span> </span></em></span><span>(2007), this article aims to reassess r</span><span>ecent developments in Singaporean writing that promise to open up an aesthetics of </span><span>intertextuality. This new aesthetic engagement with literary legacies forms part of an<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span>important move away from the increasingly problematic issue of postcolonial self exoticisation. I</span><span>nstead, such self-reflexive fiction critically and often self-ironically dissects t</span><span>he multifarious potential of literary traditions. “Christmas Memories of a Chinese </span><span>Stepfather” and “Christmas at Singapore Casket” play with an established genre in order to<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span><span>render this interpretative adaptation a vehicle not so much simply of current issues, but of<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span><span>their careful interrogation.</span></p> ER -