UHB2212: SINGAPOREAN NOSTALGIA UNIVERSITY SCHOLARS PROGRAMME, NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE AY SEMESTER 1

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1 UHB2212: SINGAPOREAN NOSTALGIA UNIVERSITY SCHOLARS PROGRAMME, NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE AY SEMESTER 1 Seminar: Tue/Fri 4-6 pm in USP Seminar Room 1 A/P Lo Mun Hou Office: Cinnamon South Learn Lobe #02-02 Tel: lomunhou@nus.edu.sg INTRODUCTION Our generation, Singaporean playwright (and USP alumnus) Joel Tan remarks, is sick with nostalgia. This module studies some examples of such nostalgia, predominantly as manifested in Singapore art: ad campaigns, documentaries, essays, films, graphic novels, poems, TV movies, and short stories. Although Tan seems to be referring to events of the past 20 years, our class will more broadly analyze post-1965 Singapore, examining in particular: the nostalgia of exiles and émigrés; what sociologist Chua Beng Huat calls nostalgia for the kampung ; the national mood during the recent SG50 celebrations; and the nostalgia that appears to be responses to recent perceived crises in heritage, and demographic changes brought about by immigration. When looking at these episodes, we will ponder Tan s characterization of nostalgia as a sickness. Tan is not alone in this view: numerous cultural and intellectual historians, geographers, literary critics, political thinkers, and sociologists have argued against nostalgia, though just as many have sought to rehabilitate it. Accordingly, we will survey arguments about nostalgia s complicated relationships with capitalism, consumerism, history, heritage, memory, nation, politics, progress, and sentiment. Do these critiques and debates apply in the case of Singaporean nostalgia? Or can practices of nostalgia in Singapore art help us rethink the potential of nostalgia? The artists we will study include Boey Kim Cheng, Boo Junfeng, Koh Jee Leong, Eric Khoo, Oh Yong Hwee and Koh Yong Teng, Alfian Sa at, Tan Pin Pin, Royston Tan, and Simon Tay. More theoretical essays will come from Kevin Blackburn, Alastair Bonnett, Svetlana Boym, Chua Beng Huat, Fred Davis, Paul Grainge, Linda Hutcheon, Fredric Jameson, Michael Kammen, Christopher Lasch, Loh Kah Seng, Pierre Nora, Kimberly Smith, Kenneth Paul Tan, Brenda Yeoh and Lily Kong. SCHEDULE Aug 15 Seminar 1.1: Introduction Bergman, Justin. Singapore s New Wave of Nostalgia. The Wall Street Journal 22 Nov < Yap, Arthur. there is no future in nostalgia. In The Collected Poems of Arthur Yap. Singapore: NUS Press, Aug 18 Seminar 1.2: Introduction Histories Hofer, Johannes. Medical Dissertation on Nostalgia, Trans. Carolyn Kiser Anspach. Bulletin of the History of Medicine 2 (1934): Batcho, Krystine Irene. Nostalgia: The Bittersweet History of a Psychological Concept. History of Psychology 16.3 (2013):

2 Aug 22 Seminar 2.1: Introduction Vocabularies Shouse, Eric. Feeling, Emotion, Affect. M/C Journal 8.6 (2005) < Flatley, Jonathan. Glossary: Affect, Emotion, Mood (Stimmung), Structure of Feeling. In Affective Mapping: Melancholia and the Politics of Modernism. Cambridge & London: Harvard University Press, Williams, Raymond. Structures of Feeling. Structures of Feeling: Affectivity and the Study of Culture. Ed. Devika Sharma and Frederick Tygstrup. Berlin: De Gruyter, Aug 25 Seminar 2.2: Introduction Definitions Davis, Fred. The Nostalgic Experience: Words and Meanings, and excerpt from Nostalgia and Art. In Yearning for Yesterday: A Sociology of Nostalgia. New York: Free Press, , Grainge, Paul. Excerpts from Theorizing Nostalgia Isn t What It Used to Be. Monochrome Memories: Nostalgia and Style in Retro America. Westport & London: Praeger, , Aug 29 Seminar 3.1: Introduction Conditions Chase, Malcolm and Christopher Shaw. Excerpt from The Dimensions of Nostalgia. The Imagined Past: History and Nostalgia. Ed. Christopher Shaw and Malcolm Chase. Manchester & New York: Manchester University Press, Turner, Bryan. A Note on Nostalgia. Theory, Culture and Society 4 (1987): Sep 1 No class (Hari Raya Haji) Sep 5 Seminar 4.1: Exiles & Émigrés (I) Said, Edward W.. Reflections on Exile. In Reflections on Exile and Other Essays. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, To Singapore, with Love. Dir. Tan Pin Pin. DVD Sep 8 Seminar 4.2: Exiles & Émigrés (II) Boey, Kim Cheng. Wanton with James and Change Alley. In Days of No Name. Singapore: EPB, , Placenames and Disappeared. In After the Fire: New and Selected Poems. Singapore: First Fruits, , 42.. La Mian in Melbourne, To Markets Glebe, Change Alley, Kuala Lumpur, Calcutta, Varanasi, Xian, Kashgar, Isfahan, Istanbul, Cairo, Jerusalem, Tangiers, Fez, Marrakesh, Madrid, Ahead My Father Moves, The National Theatre, Singapore, Soup, and The Migrant Ledger. In Clear Brightness: New Poems. Singapore: Epigram Books, , 7-14, 16-17, 18-19, 29-30, 46.. Change Alley. In Between Stations: Essays. Attarmon: Giramondo,

3 Sep 12 Seminar 5.1: Exiles & Émigrés (III) Koh Jee Leong. Kinder Feelings, Attribution, In His Other House, In Death as in Life, and Airplane Poems. Steep Tea. Manchester: Caranet, , 36, 47, 59, 65. Rumens, Carol. Poem of the Week: In His Other House by Jee Leong Koh. The Guardian 7 Sep < Sabrah, Samah. Re-Imagining Home and Belonging: Feminism, Nostalgia, and Critical Memory. Resources for Feminist Research (2008): Sep 15 Seminar 5.2: Kampungs (I) Yeoh, Brenda and Lily Kong. The Notion of Place in the Construction of History, Nostalgia and Heritage. Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography 17.1 (1996): Chua Beng-Huat. Nostalgia for the Kampung. In Political Legitimacy and Housing: Stakeholding in Singapore. London & New York: Routledge, Sep 19 Seminar 6.1: Kampungs (II) Sa at, Alfian. Corridor. In Corridor: 12 Short Stories. Singapore: SNP Editions, Koridor. Koridor: Episode Terakhir. Dir. Abdul Nizam Khan. Telemovie. Singapore: Mediacorp TV Suria, Corridor: A Short Film. Dir. Isazaly Mohd Isa. Video < Sep 22 Seminar 6.2: Kampungs (III) Chua Beng Huat. Resettling a Chinese Village: A Longitudinal Study. In Political Legitimacy and Housing: Stakeholding in Singapore. London & New York: Routledge, Loh Kah Seng. History, Memory, and Identity in Modern Singapore: Testimonies from the Urban Margins. The Oral History Review 36.1 (2009): Mid-term Break Oct 3 Seminar 7.1: SG50 (I) 7 Letters. Dir. Eric Khoo et al. DVD. Singapore: Objectifs Films, Oct 6 Seminar 7.2: SG50 (II) Tan, Kenneth Paul. Choosing What to Remember in Neoliberal Singapore: The Singapore Story, State Censorship and State-Sponsored Nostalgia. Asian Studies Review 40.2 (2016):

4 Oct 10 Seminar 8.1: SG50 (III) Solomon, Robert C.. In Defense of Sentimentality. In In Defense of Sentimentality. Oxford: Oxford University Press, Hutcheon, Linda. Irony, Nostalgia, and the Postmodern. 19 Jan < Oct 13 Seminar 8.2: SG50 (IV) Nora, Pierre. Excerpt from Between Memory and History: Les Lieux de Mémoire. Representations 26 (Spring 1989): 7-18, 25. Blackburn, Kevin. The Democratization of Memories of Singapore s Past. Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde [Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences of Southeast Asia] (2013): Oct 17 Seminar 9.1: Heritage (I) Seletar Airbase Singapore s Secret Garden. Dir. Li Xiuqi. Video. Pt 1: < & Pt 2: < Tay, Simon. The City and My Home. Ethos 2 (2007): Seletar and the Unreality of Wild Chickens. Balik Kampong 3A: Northern Shores. Ed. Verena Tay. Singapore: Math Paper Press, Oct 20 Seminar 9.2: Heritage (II) Kammen, Michael. History is Our Heritage: The Past in Contemporary American Culture. In In the Past Lane: Historical Perspectives on American Culture. New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press, Wong Chee Meng. Myths of Heritage in Multicultural Singapore. Living with Myths in Singapore. Ed. Loh Kah Seng, Thum Ping Tjin & Jack Meng-Tat Chia. Singapore: Ethos, Oct 24 Seminar 10.1: Heritage (III) Hicks, Robin. Tiger Beer Launches Campaign to Preserve Singapore s Street Food Culture. Mumbrella Asia 18 April < > (read, and watch all three videos [ Popiah, Hokkien Mee and Char Kway Teow ] embedded in the article) Chan, Randy and Jolene Lee. Hawker Centres: Siting/Sighting Singapore s Food Heritage. Public Space in Urban Asia. Ed. William S.W. Lim. Singapore: World Scientific, Boym, Svetlana. Prospective Nostalgia. In The Off-Modern. New York: Bloomsbury, Oct 27 Seminar 10.2: Heritage (IV) 4

5 Farrar, Margaret E.. Amnesia, Nostalgia, and the Politics of Place Memory. Political Research Quarterly 64.4 (2011): Gaik Cheng Khoo. Of Diminishing Memories and Old Places: Singaporean Films and the Work of Archiving Landscape. Concentric: Literary and Cultural Studies 39.1 (2013): Oct 31 Seminar 11.1: History & Politics (I) Jameson, Fredric. Excerpt from Postmodernism and Consumer Society. Postmodernism and Its Discontents: Theories, Practices. Ed. E. Ann Kaplan. London & New York: Verso, , Excerpt from Nostalgia for the Present. In Postmodernism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. Durham: Duke University Press, Nov 3 Seminar 11.2: History & Politics (II) Lasch, Christopher. The Politics of Nostalgia: Losing History in the Midst of Ideology. Harper s Magazine 269 (1984): Memory and Nostalgia, Gratitude and Pathos. Salmagundi 85/86 (1990): Williams, Raymond. Progressive. In Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society. Revised ed. New York: Oxford University Press, Neo, Harvey and C.P. Pow. Whither Development? Questioning Post-Crisis Southeast Asia. The Naga Challenged: Southeast Asia in the Winds of Change. Ed. Victor R. Savage & May Tan-Mullins. Singapore: Marshall Cavendish Academic, Nov 7 Seminar 12.1: History & Politics (III) Selvaraj Velayutham. Feels so Foreign in My Own Homeland : Xenophobia and National Identity in Singapore. Precarious Belongings: Affect and Nationalism in Asia. Ed. Chih-ming Wang & Daniel PS Goh. London & New York: Rowman & Littlefield, The Provision Shop. Dir. Royston Tan. Telemovie. Singapore: Tribal Worldwide Singapore, < Nov 10 Seminar 12.2: History & Politics (IV) Smith, Kimberly K.. Mere Nostalgia: Notes on a Progressive Paratheory. Rhetoric and Public Affairs 3.4 (Winter 2000): Bonnett, Alastair. Excerpt from Introduction. In Left in the Past: Radicalism and the Politics of Nostalgia. London: Continuum, Nov 14 Seminar 13.1: History & Politics (V) Murphy, Andrew. Longing, Nostalgia, and Golden Age Politics: The American Jeremiad and the Power of the Past. Perspectives on Politics 7.1 (March 2009):

6 Oh Yong Hwee & Koh Hong Teng. The Garden of Foolish Indulgences. Singapore: Pause Narratives, Nov 17 Seminar 13.2: Conclusions RESOURCES Several films and videos we are discussing can be streamed online (e.g., Seletar Airbase Singapore s Secret Garden, The Provision Shop). Three are however only available as DVDs: To Singapore, with Love: one DVD copy available in USP Reading Room Koridor : two subtitled DVD copies available in USP Reading Room. The NUS Central Library also has a copy, but that has no English subtitles. 7 Letters: one DVD copy available in the USP Reading Room, and two in the NUS Central Library We are reading The Garden of Foolish Indulgences in full. You should preferably purchase your own copy from the NUS Coop, although the USP Reading Room and NUS Library also has copies. All other readings are available as pdf files from our IVLE workbin. This is true even in the case of online publications (e.g., Shouse, Hutcheon, Rumens) the pdfs will be easier to refer to during class discussions. REQUIREMENTS There is no final exam for the module, which is 100% CA. The CA is in turn based on five components, as follows: 1. Attendance, Engagement with Readings, and Seminar Participation (10%) Attendance of seminars is mandatory. You are allowed one unexcused absence; anything beyond that will negatively affect your grade. If you need to be excused from a class for good reason family emergencies, documented illnesses let me know, in advance if possible. When you miss a meeting, you are still responsible for doing the readings for the day (especially since the readings tend to refer to and build on each other), and for completing any work assigned during the class. The assigned readings and viewings are a key part of the module: we will learn a lot of information from them, but also from questioning and pondering them. The requirement is therefore that you carefully read and think about the assigned readings before each class. The onus is then on you to thoughtfully demonstrate, during our seminars, that you have indeed done so. This is usually done by participating in the seminar discussions by answering or posing basic questions about the readings, analyzing and interpreting them, and so on. Even when you find a reading difficult, you can still think and speak about how it is difficult, where in the text the difficulty arises, why this difficulty might be significant, and so on. 2. Opening Comments (10%) Beginning from Week 4, we will be engaging with several works of Singapore art, including: Tan Pin Pin s documentary To Singapore, with Love Boey Kim Cheng s poems Koh Jee Leong s poems Alfian Sa at s story, Corridor, and Abdul Nizam Khan s TV adaptation the SG50 anthology film 7 Letters a cluster of texts about Seletar Airbase, especially essays by Simon Tay Royston Tan s telemovie The Provision Shop 6

7 Oh Yong Hwee & Koh Hong Teng s graphic novel The Garden of Foolish Indulgences During each of these seminars, one or more of you will providing some opening comments. These should be brief (no more than 5 minutes), and oral comments delivered from your seats (as opposed to, say, a powerpoint presentation from the front of the classroom). The substance of these comments should be lightly planned with me beforehand, and, depending on the content of the seminar, could engage with one of the following areas: biographical details of the artist; relevant histories and contexts of the artwork; possible interpretative frameworks; central questions worth discussing. 3. Blog Entries: Making Connections and Article Review (25%) You are expected to contribute to the class blog at < in two ways. Blog entry #1 (no specified length; throughout the semester): Nostalgia is not simply an academic subject, but often part of everyday discourse. Over the course of the semester, you should post to our class blog interesting examples of, or discussions about, nostalgia that you come across in the non-academic sphere. These do not have to be restricted to the context of Singapore. Your contributions should be several, and span this spectrum: in some cases, you can simply provide a link to a newspaper article on nostalgia that you ve come across, without too much commentary. In at least one instance, however, you should provide a more extensive response. You should also capitalize on the medium of blogging, and comment on and respond to your classmates posts. One aim of this assignment is to help you make connections between our classroom discussions and the world outside of it, and it is also a way of building up a resource bank for the module. Blog entry #2 ( words; by Week 11): Your second blogging assignment requires you to review an academic article or book about nostalgia that we are not reading in the module. Many of the assigned readings are broader considerations of nostalgia; in contrast, you should select for this assignment an article or book that utilizes a case study. Your specific task is to reflect on how the article/book moves between its case study and broader conclusions about nostalgia. One objective of this review is to get you thinking about how academic arguments move between the specific and the general and thus prepare you for your own final paper, when you will likewise have to do so. Since these are blog entries, they are not expected to be highly rigorous, though they should still be reasoned. Furthermore, since you ll be able to read each other s entries, you can also respond to and converse with your classmates. 4. Paper 1 (20%) 3-4 pages (or self-defined length for creative projects); due Week 4/5: your first paper requires you to demonstrate your understanding of the formal qualities of nostalgia. You will have two options for how to do so. One will be to analyze an existing text that is (commonly recognized as) nostalgic, in which case your task is to explicate how that text evokes or comments on, or undercuts, etc. nostalgia. A second option is creative: here, you would actually author your own nostalgic text. This text can be in any medium: hence, you can write a short essay or story or poem that is nostalgic, or you could submit a video, photograph, painting, etc. 5. Paper 2 (35%) pages; due Reading Week: your final paper should be an argumentative essay. In it, you should pose an interesting question about some form or aspect of Singaporean nostalgia, and then through research and the analysis of textual evidence make an original and intriguing argument about that work, and about how your analysis might advance our understanding of nostalgia. 7