Postcolonial Re-vision in N. V. M. Gonzalez’ A Season of Grace

Abstract

The Philippines’ double-colonization at the hands of Spain (1565– 1898) and then the United States (1898–1946) has produced a distinctive type of postcolonial writing in English. Despite this unique postcolonial situation, there is a lack of substantial and sustained critical work assessing Philippine fiction in postcolonial studies. In order to address this neglect, this article shows how a culturally specific formalist approach provides new opportunities to interrogate the particular postcolonial themes and issues raised in Filipino novels. This article argues that the thematic concerns of Filipino novels need to be related more productively to their formal innovations. It suggests that a contextual examination of the various narrative strategies and techniques deployed in the novels can help shed light on the authors’ project of engaging with the consequences of both the US-endorsed narrative of Philippine modernity and development and the nationalists’ quest for the authentic Filipino. Specifically, this article examines the novel, A Season of Grace, by N. V. M. Gonzalez, one of the early Filipino writers who consistently wrote using the colonial language, English. This article argues that Gonzalez’s temporal experimentations form part of his project of historical re-vision. This article suggests that in the formal portrayal of kaingin or swidden farming, the narrative’s temporal indeterminacy demonstrates the non-specificity of events, and the repetitive nature of these events also show how the kaingineros have been subjected to institutionalized exploitation.