A DISCOURSE OF THE CLOSET: THE DEVELOPMENT OF SINGAPORE GAY NOVELS FROM 1992 TO 2017

Abstract

This thesis studies the development of Singapore gay novels from 1992 to 2017 through an examination of the discourse of the closet. Through Mikhail Bakhtin’s use of ‘heteroglossia’ and the ‘chronotope’ in suggesting how fiction is always dialogically in negotiation with reality, I address the academic lacuna in Singapore queer studies as highlighted by Angelia Poon and Angus Whitehead through a socio-historical reading and a close analysis of the following selected novels: Peculiar Chris (1992), The Narcissist (2004), Quiet Time (2008), The Last Lesson of Mrs De Souza (2013), and Altered Straits (2017). Such an approach, undergirded by the novels’ predominant use of literary realism, sees the ‘closet condition’ as inextricable from history and (post)coloniality given the persistence of Section 377A of the Singapore Penal Code that criminalises homosexuality. This invokes a continual tension between ‘the West’ and ‘Asian Values’. In addressing this tension, I will build on Tamara Wagner’s study of Occidentalism and coin the term ‘ambivalent Occidentalism’ as part of my theoretical framework. This thesis will argue, in three parts, that since the inception of Singapore gay novels in 1992, the ‘closet condition’ began with a survivalist discourse that changed into a manifestation of ‘ambivalent Occidentalism’. Thus, ‘ambivalent Occidentalism’ becomes a medium through which gay identity politics is expressed, albeit inconsistently, regressing from gay communitarianism to individual concealment. This consequently generates a narrative cliché as the persistence of Section 377A limits the realistic portrayal of gays. In following the Singapore mainstream shift towards speculative fiction in 2017, the discourse of the closet changes from ‘ambivalent Occidentalism’ to ‘homonationalism’ – an attempt to dissolve the closet into Singapore's heteronormative mainstream in order for the Singaporean gay to be finally ‘at home’ where the closet becomes redundant.