Postcolonial Hauntings and Urban Gothic in Singapore and Malaysia: The Serpent’s Tooth (Lim, 1982), The Bondmaid (Lim, 1992), Haunting (Lim, 1981), The Black Isle (Tan, 2012), Ponti (Teo, 2018), House of Aunts (Cho, 2014), The Crocodile Fury (Yahp, 1992)

Research output: Chapter or section in a book/report/conference proceedingBook chapter

Abstract

Writers from Singapore and Malaysia revitalise the issues of trauma underlying many ghost stories and consider how they grow from and express different histories, cultures and contexts. Their work considers the ghosts of rebellion in Malaya, and of war, in the Japanese invasion of Singapore. Sandi Tan’s work, in particular, looks at women’s vulnerability and power when acting as ghost seers through these crises and reveals the damaging effects of ignoring the everyday city and village ghosts when glitzy malls and housing estates are built over graveyards, displacing their inhabitants. Everyday Chinese household ghosts and creeping capitalism predominate here and in Shirley Lim’s and Catherine Lim’s work. Catherine Lim exposes brutal acts resulting from the worthlessness of girl children and the sexual and domestic abuse of women, particularly bondmaids. In several Southeast Asian tales, the vampire ghost, the pontianak, reminding us both of Latin American La Llorona and the woman in black, takes both a very broad and a specific revenge.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationContemporary Women's Ghost Stories
Place of PublicationSwitzerland
PublisherPalgrave Macmillan
Pages185-216
Number of pages32
ISBN (Electronic)9783030890544
ISBN (Print)9783030890537
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 3 Jun 2022

Publication series

NamePalgrave Gothic
ISSN (Print)2634-6214
ISSN (Electronic)2634-6222

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Literature and Literary Theory
  • Visual Arts and Performing Arts
  • Linguistics and Language
  • Cultural Studies

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