Overview

Staging Nation examines the complex relationship between the theatrical stage and the wider stage of nation building in postcolonial Malaysia and Singapore. In less than fifty years, locally written and produced English language theatre has managed to shrug off its colonial shackles to become an important site of community expression. This groundbreaking comparative study examines the role of creative writing and the act of performance as actual political acts and as interventions in national self-constructions. It argues that certain forms of theatre can be read as emerging oppositional cultures which contribute towards the deepening of democracy by offering contending narratives of the nation. The combination of a rigorous theoretical framework, and detailed analysis of theatrical texts grounded in sociological analysis of Malaysian and Singaporean societies together with documentation of specific case studies, makes this book a pioneering contribution to Asian studies, postcolonial analysis, and performance studies.

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9789622096875

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Reviews

Focused and meticulously researched, Staging Nation provides fresh insights into the larger field of English language theatre in Malaysia and Singapore through a detailed and exhaustive examination of four particularly significant plays. By focusing on t Staging Nation brings together different aspects of the socio-political contexts in which these plays were staged, placing the range of views of theatre critics and practitioners against the postcolonial histories and the language and cultural policies o Staging Nation explicates creative writing and performance as actual political acts in their own right, and as important interventions in national self-constructions. Its originality lies in the unravelling of the intimate and pressured interrelation of

""Focused and meticulously researched, Staging Nation provides fresh insights into the larger field of English language theatre in Malaysia and Singapore through a detailed and exhaustive examination of four particularly significant plays. By focusing on t ""Staging Nation brings together different aspects of the socio-political contexts in which these plays were staged, placing the range of views of theatre critics and practitioners against the postcolonial histories and the language and cultural policies o ""Staging Nation explicates creative writing and performance as actual political acts in their own right, and as important interventions in national self-constructions. Its originality lies in the unravelling of the intimate and pressured interrelation of

Author Information

Jacqueline Lo is Senior Lecturer at the School of Humanities, Australian National University. She has published widely on postcolonial theory, performance studies and Asian-Australian cultural politics.

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