Full Description
Through close readings of contemporary made-in-Singapore films (by Jack Neo, Eric Khoo, and Royston Tan) and television programs (Singapore Idol, sitcoms, and dramas), this book explores the possibilities and limitations of resistance within an advanced capitalist-industrial society whose authoritarian government skillfully negotiates the risks and opportunities of balancing its on-going nation-building project and its "global city" aspirations. This book adopts a framework inspired by Antonio Gramsci that identifies ideological struggles in art and popular culture, but maintains the importance of Herbert Marcuse's one-dimensional society analysis as theoretical limits to recognize the power of authoritarian capitalism to subsume works of art and popular culture even as they attempt consciously—even at times successfully—to negate and oppose dominant hegemonic formations.
Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. One-Dimensional Singapore
2. The Culture Industry in Renaissance-City Singapore
3. Singapore Idol: Consuming Nation and Democracy
4. Under One Ideological Roof: TV Sitcoms and Drama Series
5. Imagining the Chinese Community through the Films of Jack Neo
6. The Tragedy of the Heartlands in the Films of Eric Khoo
7. The Films of Royston Tan: Local Notoriety, International Acclaim
Conclusion
Appendix A: Cited Television Programs and Episodes
Appendix B: Cited Films by Jack Neo, Eric Khoo, and Royston Tan
References
Index
