Ecological Modernist Poets of Singapore: Wong May and Ho Poh Fun

abstract: This article explores the pioneering role of two women writers, Wong May and Ho Poh Fun, as ecological modernists in the urban city-state of Singapore. As writers and historians seek to restore the island’s green histories prior to British colonization, Wong’s and Ho’s work from the 1960s to the 1980s comprises an important and resistant response to the young nation’s human-centered and utilitarian environmental policies. Their writing scripts an ecological locality that exceeds sociopolitical frameworks of national consolidation, while demonstrating a modernist preoccupation with the limits of human consciousness and the role of material affect.