The Web and the Slack: Contemporary Singapore Speculative Fiction
13 Oct 2021
10.00 AM - 11.30 AM
Alumni, Current Students, Industry/Academic Partners, Prospective Students, Public
Speculative fiction is an umbrella category composed of several genres including fantasy and science fiction, which are set in worlds that structurally diverge from our own in certain respects. In this talk, I’ll consider two recent works of speculative fiction by Singapore authors Neon Yang and Teo Kok Keong 張國強*, both of whom interweave aspects of the real world with an assortment of SF and fantasy elements. An underlying concern in both sets of works, I argue, involves the relationship between centralized authority and individual agency, together with the matrix of power and information within which they are both located.
* A Hugo award finalist, Neon Yang writes in English. Teo Kok Keong (張國強) writes in Chinese.
Carlos Rojas is Professor of Chinese Cultural Studies, Gender, Sexuality, & Feminist Studies, and Cinematic Arts at Duke University. He is the author, editor, and translator of numerous books, including Homesickness: Culture, Contagion, and National Transformation in Modern China.