Exalting the Past: Nostalgia and the Construction of Heritage in Children's Literature

• Main Authors: Kong, Lily, Tay, Lily
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 1998
• Subjects: Children literature; change; Singapore; Geography; Nostalgia; Asian Studies; Human Geography; Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/1806; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/soss_research/article/3063/viewcontent/ExhaltPastNostalgia_1998.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

In this paper, we analyse the portrayal of Singapore in local children's literature and seek to understand why such a portrayal was prominent, and to what effect. We argue that this literature is characterized by a nostalgic recollection of past times and places. This emergence of the past as a...