Publication: Writing Singapore in a multicultural context - a study of a picture book series, The Adventures of Mooty
Date
2013
Authors
Wee, Serene Ah Eng
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Abstract
Children's literature is recognised as an important area of study because of the important role it plays in preparing children for society. This literary genre introduces young people to society but from the perspective of adults, socialising children and teens into specific ways of viewing the world around them. Although a handful of Singapore writers have produced children's books soon after the independence of the nation, not much research has been done on its quality and value as children's literature. This paper studies one of the first picture book series, The Adventures of Mooty, written by Jessie Wee, a pioneer writer of Singaporean children's literature and illustrated by Kwan Shan Mei. Given that Singapore has a multiracial population and is becoming increasingly diverse in the era of globalisation, this study considers how to evaluate the series in terms of its multicultural value and its cultural authenticity. It also tries to place the series as a classic in Singapore children's Literature, coming up with criteria that could be used to determine the 'Singaporean' quality of the picture books and what conditions need to be satisfied to claim classic status for the series. The dissertation draws links between Wee's 1980 series, the characters, settings and motifs used, and Singapore's national culture, its multicultural heritage and its dominant political and other cultural ideologies. In short, it locates the Mooty series as the product of the nation-building era in Singapore's development from 1965-1980 and shows how the series is caught within the hegemonic ideologies of that era.