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Straight nation dissects the intricacies of nationalism in postcolonial Singapore and its entanglements with the governance of sexuality. Rejecting the romanticization of the nation as a pure bastion of belonging, the book theorizes nationalism as a force obsessed with continually generating threats, and excavates the alliance it has struck up with heteronormativity to produce a series of minoritized figures that contemporary identity claims can neither handle nor dispel.
Through an elegant exploration of a vast array of texts and cultural artifacts, the book argues that the relationship between sexuality and nation is instrumental in producing multiple queered figures who are displaced from the national imaginary. Dwelling on what is often taken as conventional wisdom, Straight nation demonstrates how queerness can be xenologized under the sign of the postcolonial nation and turned into a technology of “race”, gender and class in the right contexts.
The book delivers a sharp riposte to narrow identity politics and outlines in detail how the governance of sexual expression functions as a powerful mechanism to shape the lives of many – including, as unlikely as it may seem, heterosexual people. In the face of the far-reaching effects of heteronormativity coupled with nationalism, Straight nation presents a compelling argument for an expansive, non-identarian political critique capable of dismantling the deeply entrenched force of heteronormativity in postcolonial Singapore, and the detritus of nationalism along with it.
'Drawing on an impressive range of media, cultural, and historical artefacts - archival records, ministerial speeches, media reports - as data, Mano argues for heteronormativity as fuel for Singapore’s nation-building goals, demonstrating the alignment between the state’s postcolonial vision for itself and the normative expectations of its people. The book gathers logics of normativity, postcolonial governance, and antiqueerness to render what we now recognize as the image of modern-day Singapore.'
Cultural Studies
'Straight Nation remains an important and necessary contribution to scholarship about sexuality in Singapore. It is a relevant addition to syllabi for Singapore and South East Asia Studies and postcolonial queer theory. It offers a persuasive historicization of Singaporean governance via heteronormative logics shaped by political anxieties of a postcolonial island-nation state in South East Asia [...] scholarship such as Mano’s is not only urgent, but is also what Foucault names in his late work, a courageous act of parrhesia and the speaking of truth to power.'
South East Asia Research
Introduction: Producing a straight nation
1 ‘Qu’est-ce qu’une nation?’: Nationalism, the illusion of nation, and the counter-nation
2 Three faces of the straight nation
3 The work of kinship
4 Xenologizing queerness
5 Heteronormativity (un)contested – or, the will to assimilation
Epilogue: The futility of nationalist flirtations