Ang, Ann Su Lee

This chapter surveys the English language literature of Singapore from 1965 to 2020, and presents a broad narrative about the growth and development of poetry, prose, and drama in relation to distinctive periods and concerns. Beginning with the poetry of the immediate post-independence years, written to establish a national literary tradition, the chapter then moves on to discuss how later writing engaged with the social and cultural concerns of moderniz ation and economic development. With Singapore’s positioning as a global city, new literary work was frequently produced within the context of cross-border travel or from a diasporic perspective, as the Singapore writing community grew to include migrant authors. From 2010, grass-roots eorts led to the accelerated publication of new work, an energiz ed infrastructure for the literary arts, and a renewed decolonial perspective on the nation’s beginnings.