Arthur Yap : representations of the physical and symbolic spaces in Singapore

• Main Author: Yee, Kenneth Shaoyong
• Other Authors: Wee Wan-Ling, Christopher Justin
• Format: Theses and Dissertations
• Language: English
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: DRNTU::Humanities
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/69538
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

This thesis aims to explore the representations of public and symbolic spaces in Arthur Yap’s poetry. It is interested in engaging with how private individuals are affected by public acts of authoritarian governance through the carving out of public spaces where lines are drawn between binaries like the private and the public, Man and nature, as well as how these lines are blurred and crossed. This thesis will also discuss how public spaces are used to reveal sentiments on the ground, where private individuals externalise their fears and insecurities in public. Finally, this thesis will examine how the redevelopment and constant urban renewal of physical spaces and places can affect individual and society as a whole in terms of an erasure of historicities. This thesis is read mainly through the lens of Henri Lefebvre in his theories on social space.