Autism narratives in Singapore

• Main Author: Ho, Melissa Yun Ling
• Other Authors: Graham John Matthews
• Format: Thesis-Master by Research
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2021
• Subjects: Humanities::Literature::English
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/152970
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

In this thesis, I identify and analyse some common tropes and trends in Singaporean autism narratives, exploring how these stereotypes and discourses emerge in the context of Singapore, and argue for the need to take narrative ethics into consideration in telling stories about autism. Examining Singaporean autism narratives allows us insight into the ways in which dominant global discourses about autism are negotiated in local contexts; narratives are shaped by their socio-cultural contexts and examining those from Singapore, a globalised and multicultural, yet socially conservative city-state, enables us to understand the ways in which such multiple discourses come to bear upon individual narratives. Given that these narratives have, in turn, the potential to shape cultural discourses, and having shown through close literary analysis some effects of existing stereotypes and discourses, I argue for the urgency and importance of attending to narrative ethics in the production of autism narratives in Singapore.