E-Thesis 77 views
A Dance for Daughters / SIEW TAY
Swansea University Author: SIEW TAY
DOI (Published version): 10.23889/SUthesis.66250
Abstract
My thesis comprises a novel entitled A Dance for Daughters (approximately 98,200 words) and a supporting essay, Creating the Magpie Bridge (approximately 17,400 words). Divided into two layers, A Dance for Daughters explores how different daughters mature into various stages of womanhood. Set in Sin...
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Swansea, Wales, UK
2024
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| Institution: | Swansea University |
| Degree level: | Doctoral |
| Degree name: | Ph.D |
| Supervisor: | Britton, David J. ; Rhydderch, Francesca |
| URI: | https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa66250 |
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| Abstract: |
My thesis comprises a novel entitled A Dance for Daughters (approximately 98,200 words) and a supporting essay, Creating the Magpie Bridge (approximately 17,400 words). Divided into two layers, A Dance for Daughters explores how different daughters mature into various stages of womanhood. Set in Singapore and spanning the 20th century, the primary human layer traces the lives of three generations of Chinese women: Tua Chi (the grandmother), Lee Lian/Lillian (the mother) and Emma (the granddaughter). Escaping the confines of her first unhappy marriage to marry her childhood sweetheart, Tua Chi abandons Lee Lian as a baby. Lacking her birth mother’s care and guidance, Lee Lian/Lillian grows up as an insecure person who embraces the social norms of education and marriage as her way forward in life. Emma, the novel’s main protagonist, imbibes the values of her parents; she studies hard, graduates, becomes a teacher, and is engaged. However, she reaches a crisis point by her mid-thirties: she faces burn-out at work, her boyfriend breaks up with her, her father dies—all these events happening together leads her to question her worldview and choose to seek new paths. The secondary layer of the novel comprises three mythic characters: the Chinese goddesses of Nu Wa, Kuan Yin, and Ma Chor. Summoned by the desperate cries of the baby Lee Lian when she is abandoned, the three goddesses agree to collectively observe, guide, and protect Tua Chi, Lee Lian/Lillian and Lillian’s offspring. Not only do the three goddesses narrate part of the novel, their observations and stories serve as counterpoints to the human action and deepen the exploration of what it takes to mature into a self-determined individual. Ultimately, the values that Nu Wa embodies (love for nature, play, creativity) become the life sustaining path that Emma is led to seek. The supporting essay investigates how I created this novel as a Singaporean writer of Chinese descent and situates the novel within the context of Western and Singaporean English literature. The aspects discussed include biographical and mythical inspirations, narrative structure, plot, first-person narration, characterisation, voice, making the physical context believable, and motifs. |
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| Keywords: |
Singapore, Singaporean novel, Singapore (1930 to 1999), colonial Singapore before WWII, modernisation and growth of independent Singapore, historical novel, fantasy, mythology, women’s writing, women’s fiction, feminism, changing roles of women (1900 to 2000), cross-culturalism, multi-culturalism, intergenerational drama, British colonialism, post-colonialism, World War II, Japanese Occupation of Singapore, influence of Japan on Singapore, Chinese diaspora, Chinese migrants in Singapore (late 19th to early 20th centuries), Chinese goddesses, Nu Wa, Kuan Yin, Kwan Yin, Ma Chor, Ma Zu, spiritualism in fiction |
| College: |
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences |