The Routledge Concise History of Southeast Asian Writing in English

by Rajeev S. Patke, Philip Holden

The Routledge Concise History of Southeast Asian Writing in English traces the development of literature in the region within its historical and cultural contexts. This volume explores creative writing in English across different genres and media, establishing connections from the colonial activity of the early modern period through to contemporary writing across Southeast Asia, focusing especially on the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong.

In this critical guide, Rajeev S. Patke and Philip

interweave text and context through the history of creative writing in the regionexamine language use and variation, making use of illuminating examples from speech, poetry and fictional prosetrace the impact of historical, political and cultural eventsengage with current debates on national consciousness, globalization, modernity and postmodernismprovide useful features including a glossary, further reading section and chapter summaries.

Direct and clearly written, this Concise History guides readers through key topics while presenting a unique, original synthesis of history and practice in Southeast Asian writing in English. It is the ideal starting point for students and all those seeking a better understanding of Southeast Asian literatures and cultures.

285 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 27, 2009

About the author

Professor Rajeev S Patke has a BA and MA in English literature from University of Pune, India, and an MPhil from Oxford in Modern English and American Literature, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. Professor Patke’s Oxford DPhil dissertation on the long poems of Wallace Stevens was supervised by Richard Ellmann, and published by Cambridge University Press in 1985. In the same year, Prof Patke was at Yale University on a Fulbright Scholarship. He taught for several years at the University of Pune, and joined the National University of Singapore in 1988. Prof Patke has been a part of the faculty at Yale-NUS since 2012, serving as its inaugural Director of the Division of Humanities.

Prof Patke’s research interests include postcolonial and modernist writing in English, the works of Walter Benjamin, and the relation of poetry and painting to the idea of representation. He has recently researched the literary cultures of islands, and is currently working on the relation between tradition and the individual artist in Indian classical vocal music.

Prof Patke has authored six books: The Long Poems of Wallace Stevens: An Interpretative Study (Cambridge, 1985, rpt. 2009); Postcolonial Poetry in English (Oxford, 2006); The Concise Routledge History of Southeast Asian Writing in English (2010, with Philip Holden); Modernist Literature and Postcolonial Studies (Edinburgh, 2013), Walter Benjamin – Extrapolations (Saarbrücken: Lambert, 2017), and Poetry and Islands: Materiality and the Creative Imagination (Rowman & Littlefield, 2018). He is currently working on an online project on Indian Classical Music.

Prof Patke has also published a number of book chapters, refereed journal articles, book reviews; and has also co-edited Institutions in Cultures: Theory and Practice (Rodopi, 1996); an edition of Shakespeare’s Macbeth (Federal Publications, 1999); a special issue of the journal The European Legacy (2002); Complicities: Connections and Divisions – Literatures and Cultures of the Asia-Pacific Region (Rodopi, 2003); A Historical Companion to Postcolonial Literatures: Continental Europe and its Empires (Edinburgh, 2008); Southeast Asian Writing in English: A Thematic Anthology (NLB Singapore, 2012); and several anthologies of creative writing by college and high school students from Singapore. Prof Patke has also produced two audio discs of Singapore poets reading from their work. At the College, during the years in which he was Chair of the Arts Spaces Committee, he worked with the Arts Team (ERT) on producing HD AV-recordings of literary figures visiting the College: the poet Edwin Thumboo, the novelist Ngugi wa Thiong’o, and Professor Stephen Greenblatt.