Shirley Lim, Monsoon History

Andrew Hock Soon Ng (Monash University)
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Monsoon History

(1994), by Malaysian-born poet Shirley Goek-lin Lim, comprises the complete poems from her Commonwealth Poetry Prize winning collection,

Crossing the Peninsula

(1980), and selections from

Modern Secrets

(1989) and

No Man’s Grove

(1985). With an excellent introduction by Laurel Means and an essay by Lim about the interrelationship between the exilic experience and language to cap the collection,

Monsoon History

could be regarded not only as representative of Lim’s poetic oeuvre, but a fundamental text in postcolonial literature for its sheer range of issues and stylistic innovativeness.

The collection is divided into six sections, each dealing with concerns to which Lim returns time and again in both her creative and critical writings. The first is entitled “Bukit

1609 words

Citation: Ng, Andrew Hock Soon. "Monsoon History". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 13 February 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=12449, accessed 19 March 2024.]

12449 Monsoon History 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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