Sing Lit 101: How To Read A Singaporean Poem

August 19, 2013

Genre: Literary Arts

Co-presented by The Arts House and Gwee Li Sui

Literary critic and poet Dr Gwee Li Sui will give six lectures, each focused on a major English poem from Singapore’s formative decades. He will introduce their writers and the times before unpacking these poems for a whole sweep of riveting and hidden meanings and implications. If you find poetry a difficult form to enjoy, or if Singapore’s literature appears a mystery, this is the place to start! Dr Gwee will take you on a journey packed with thought, passion, and wit that should show you Singaporean writing in a new light. Whatever your age or background is, you will be charmed and enlightened by the analyses and come to appreciate the value of verse and its inquiry, what poetry does and what can be known through it.

This groundbreaking series will come to a close in style with a special panel discussion to revisit of one of the region’s key historical anthologies, Seven Poets: Singapore and Malaysia (1970). Join us at the panel discussion, Poetry and Existense, with some of Singapore’s pioneer poets on 23 Nov.

About Gwee Li Sui

Gwee Li Sui is a literary critic, a poet, and a graphic artist. He wrote Singapore’s first full-length comic-book novel, Myth of the Stone, in 1993 and published a volume of humorous verse, Who Wants to Buy a Book of Poems?, in 1998. A familiar name in Singapore’s literary scene, he has written on a wide range of cultural subjects and edited Sharing Borders: Studies in Contemporary Singaporean-Malaysian Literature II (2009), Telltale: Eleven Stories (2010), and Man/Born/Free: Writings on the Human Spirit from Singapore (2011).

Venue: Screening Room, Blue Room
Event Timings:

17 Aug: Ulysses by the Merlion by Edwin Thumboo
31 Aug: 2 mothers in a h d b playground by Arthur Yap
14 Sep: Dragon-fly by Wong May
28 Sep: My Country and My People by Lee Tzu Pheng
12 Oct: Bird with One Wing by Goh Poh Seng
26 Oct: After the hard hours, this rain by Chandran Nair

$20 per session, $100 per season pass

$10 per session, $50 per season pass (Student concession)

For ages 15 and above

More Details can be found here.