Confabulation as Decolonial Pedagogy in Singapore Literature

This chapter examines the Singapore state’s commemoration of the 200 year anniversary of the island’s colonial founding. IT argues that the celebrations were part of a wider state-directed pedagogy to narrate a national story that is inextricably tied to Singapore’s British colonizers and their definition of modernity. This bout of state-driven historical performance points to the role of the fictional in both official and unofficial versions of the Singapore story. The chapter then turns to the award-winning graphic novel The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye by Sonny Liew, and Alfian Sa’at and Neo Hai Bin’s play Merdeka/ 獨立 / சுதந்திரம். It reads both these texts as self-reflexive counternarratives and counterpedagogies. Secondary to their depiction of counterfactual or confabulated histories is their insistence of a decolonial pedagogy that insists on an emancipatory approach in confronting Singapore’s national narratives. The texts seek to provide artistic and theatrical spaces for collective learning, contemplation, lacunae, and possibility. Confabulation is a crucial strategy against wilful state-sponsored amnesia and suppression.