Filipino Literature Research Articles

Beyond the Nation: Diasporic Filipino Literature and Queer Reading by Martin Joseph Ponce (review)

Reviewed by: Beyond the Nation: Diasporic Filipino Literature and Queer Reading by Martin Joseph Ponce Harrod J. Suarez (bio) Beyond the Nation: Diasporic Filipino Literature and Queer Reading, by Martin Joseph Ponce. New York: New York University Press, 2012. 298 pp. $24.00 paper. ISBN: 9780814768068. How should we respond to the condition of Filipinos in the United States who have been forgotten or made invisible in the afterglow of U.S. imperialism? What are the limits of cultural nationalisms both here and in the Philippines that have formed dominant responses? Martin Joseph Ponce’s new monograph, Beyond the Nation: Diasporic Filipino Literature and Queer Reading, delivers a welcome and incisive intervention that explores alternatives for thinking through the heteronormative politics of cultural nationalism. If the response to invisibility has been, as Ponce deftly specifies, “innumerable efforts to locate secure origins, codify grand [End Page 225] narratives of the nation, [and] arrest the erosion of ethnicity” (12), his analyses of diasporic Filipino literature demonstrate “how its multivalent forms of address are routed through issues of gender and sexuality” (14). While he does not dismiss the project or politics of identity, he emphasizes that it “serves, at best, as a starting point” (219) that is undone—or, to use the language he draws from the poet Jose Garcia Villa, “un-oned,” by diasporic literature. That is, the route this literature takes through gender and sexuality reveals the heterogeneity and indeterminacy that constitute the Filipino diaspora. The first chapter is devoted to Maximo Kalaw’s The Filipino Rebel, which was published in the Philippines in the late 1920s or early 1930s. The novel enables Ponce to illustrate the connections between heteronormativity and cultural nationalism in the Philippines. The chapter begins by working through different responses to U.S. imperialism and benevolent assimilation, in which questions about the suitability of Filipinos for self-government were central. Drawing on this context illuminates two points: first, Kalaw’s novel and other writings must be understood as addressing the specific political and cultural discourse that would render Filipinos colonial subjects due to their not-yet-assimilable (“little brown brother”) deviance; second, the deviance takes on a particular gender and sexual form, not unlike alibis for colonialism elsewhere. Kalaw’s novel thus bears a certain logic to it: if Filipinos have been silenced and subjected to colonialism due in part to gender and sexual nonnormativity, then the novel stages its liberatory gestures by making reproductive heterosexuality a “constitutive function” (55). Ponce’s analysis leads us to seek alternative narratives, poetics, and modes of address that do not require heteronormative investments. The chapters that follow produce careful readings countering Kalaw’s hetero-nationalism and reminding readers that cultural politics is not binary, that the alternative to nationalism is not assimilation, and that hetero-nationalism is not the obligatory response to imperialism. In the poetics of Jose Garcia Villa, he finds a modernist aesthetic not devoid of political questions (of which it has been accused) but one that reframes these issues along the lines of a queer erotics in a way that has slipped past critics and led to Villa’s marginalization. Our loss, Ponce informs us. Reading Carlos Bulosan’s posthumously published novel, The Cry and the Dedication, he argues that it revises the autobiography of Luis Taruc, a rebel leader. Bulosan’s address is plural—addressing the Huk rebellion from his positionality as a writer based in the United States while questioning the effects of race, class, and gender on characters who sojourn there—in comparison to Taruc’s narrow narrative of national liberation. [End Page 226] Though the study takes on a chronological form, it is far from being invested in any sort of linear telos. The final three chapters make profound inroads into interpreting much recent work in transpacific Filipino literature and suggest that contemporary formations are riddled with restrictive cultural politics while also working through moments of subversion and subterfuge. Ponce examines the cross-cultural dynamics of Jessica Hagedorn’s work to show how identity and community are constructed on terms that are neither biological nor national. Instead, her characters borrow from African American musical traditions, from the rock of Jimi Hendrix to the...

Filipino-ness and the Heterosexual Matrix in the Work of Gregorio Brillantes

This paper is an attempt to substantiate J. Neil M. Garcia’s endorsement of Butlerian performativity in assessing what constitutes Filipino-ness, and how that Filipino-ness is constituted in post-Independence Filipino literature, focusing on two short stories by Gregorio Brillantes. Caroline Hau argues that literature is one of the structures of intelligibility through which we imagine ourselves as a nation, and ourselves as belonging to a particular nation. The Rizal Bill, passed in 1956, attested to “the exis- tence of a disciplinary space, an ensemble of discourses and practices constituting the field of literary education over which the Philippine state sought continually to extend the scope of its nation-building projects” (Hau 1). Literature was enlisted as a means to regulate the performance of Filipino-ness; literature, as Hau’s performative lexicon suggests, also performed Filipino-ness. If literature as a disciplinary practice indeed has the ability to intervene in national history, then it becomes necessary to ask, “How does literature ‘represent’ (in both artistic and political senses of the word) the ‘true’ Filipino national community? How does literature address, and resolve, the problem posed by the foreign, especially colo- nial ‘influences’ on Philippine national culture? How does literature imag- ine the ‘foreigner’ within the Filipino nation? How does literature forge the link between the personal and the political?” (Hau 9). Given its central place as a disciplinary practice in nation-imagining, what literature does has definite bearing on what Filipino-ness is. This paper answers the questions Hau raises in the context of Brillantes’ short stories.

A Chronicle of the Philippines in the Poetry of Zoilo Hilario

About The Author Isaac Donoso is currently professor at the University of Alicante (Spain), having taught previously for three years at the Philippine Normal University. He graduated from the University of Alicante with degrees in Hispanic Philology (2003) and Humanities (2003), from the University of the Philippines with a Master’s degree in Islamic Studies (2008), and from the University of Alicante with a doctorate in Arab and Islamic Studies (2011). He is presently finishing a doctorate in Literary Theory at the University of Alicante with a thesis about Filipino literature in Spanish. He has won twice the Ibn al-Abbar Prize for Research (2004-2008) and also, with Andrea Gallo, the First Juan Andres Prize for Writing and Research in Human Sciences (2010) for the work Literatura hispanofilipina actual (Contemporary Hispanofilipino Literature). He has produced critical editions of the principal works of Jose Rizal (Noli Me Tangere, El Filibusterismo, and Selected

Ang Poetikong Filipino: Isang Penomenolohikong Paggalugad sa Pagpapakahulugan ng Pitong Pangunahing Kritiko*

The Philippine Poetic: A Phenomenological Explication of its Definitions by Seven Filipino Critics As a means to harness what Jonathan Culler calls, competence, each teacher of literature is expected to be armed with the capacity to form an efficient framework in reading, one that guides students in their own textual experience. Each teacher too manages to have his/her own practice of reading depending on individual politics, or institutional positions. In this paper, the author seeks to create a phenomenological reading to the act of reading poetry. The author examines selected Filipino texts that explain the practice of reading poetry (as explicated by seven major writer-critics from the Philippines: Gemino Abad, Virgilio S. Almario, Cirilo F. Bautista, Isagani R. Cruz, E. San Juan Jr., Edith L. Tiempo, and Bienvenido Lumbera). This project envisions to create a cartography of the landscape of reading in the Filipino context. This work is a new contribution to Filipino literature, as it aspires to understand the trajectories, possibilities, and future of harnessing literary competence. In the end, this paper endeavors to attempt a more located reading practice of poetry (a practice based on contexts, time, and history).

América is in the Archipelago: Mariano De la Rosa’s "Fíame" and the Filipino (American) Novel in Spanish of World War II

Via analysis of the World War II novel Fiame (Filipinas-America) [Trust in Me (Philippines-America)] by Mariano L. De la Rosa, this essay argues that Filipino literature in Spanish written during the United States colonial period undermines any normative definitions of both American and Filipino literature. Fiame, a hitherto unknown text, challenges the marginality of its oblivion by revamping putative national boundaries through a symbolic plot in which two couples, each composed of a Filipino and an American, develop subtly subversive relationships before, during, and immediately after the War. The novel thereby can be connected to questions of Filipino American identity implicitly raised in texts as diverse as the National World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C., and the testimonial narrative America Is in the Heart by Carlos Bulosan. The conceptual diversification of “Filipino American” to include texts written in the islands and in an older imperial language makes the term not an ethnic designation of immigrants and their descendants but a heuristic device of potentially global usage and implications. Meanwhile, Fiame also forces a reappraisal of the twentieth century tradition of Filipino fiction in Spanish because scholars have supposed unanimously that Los pajaros de fuego [The Birds of Fire] by Jesus Balmori was the lone archipelagic novel in that language to be written during and about World War II. This essay is a companion piece to an analysis of Balmori’s novel that was published in Kritika Kultura 17.

América is in the Archipelago: Mariano De la Rosa’s "Fíame" and the Filipino (American) Novel in Spanish of World War II

Via analysis of the World War II novel Fíame (Filipinas-América) [Trust in Me (Philippines-America)] by Mariano L. De la Rosa, this essay argues that Filipino literature in Spanish written during the United States colonial period undermines any normative definitions of both American and Filipino literature. Fíame, a hitherto unknown text, challenges the marginality of its oblivion by revamping putative national boundaries through a symbolic plot in which two couples, each composed of a Filipino and an American, develop subtly subversive relationships before, during, and immediately after the War. The novel thereby can be connected to questions of Filipino American identity implicitly raised in texts as diverse as the National World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C., and the testimonial narrative America Is in the Heart by Carlos Bulosan. The conceptual diversification of “Filipino American” to include texts written in the islands and in an older imperial language makes the term not an ethnic designation of immigrants and their descendants but a heuristic device of potentially global usage and implications. Meanwhile, Fíame also forces a reappraisal of the twentieth century tradition of Filipino fiction in Spanish because scholars have supposed unanimously that Los pájaros de fuego [The Birds of Fire] by Jesús Balmori was the lone archipelagic novel in that language to be written during and about World War II. This essay is a companion piece to an analysis of Balmori’s novel that was published in Kritika Kultura 17.

What the Planetary Filipino Should Know: San Juan Versus Almario

An assessment of the debate between E. San Juan Jr. and Virgilio S. Almario, the essay inquires into what it calls the planetary unconscious of Filipino literary production. The essay is divided into two parts. The first part explains the historical context that informs the San Juan-Almario debate. The second part focuses on the planetary implications of their exchange. The essay argues that Filipino literature should be viewed from a more planetary perspective. Moreover, it suggests that the example of Filipino literature has much to contribute to the reinvention of world literature as a practice and concept, one that provides a counterpoint to the field’s Goethean origins.

Ang Dapat Mabatid ng Planetaryong Filipino: San Juan versus Almario

An assessment of the debate between E. San Juan Jr. and Virgilio S. Almario, the essay inquires into what it calls the planetary unconscious of Filipino literary production. The essay is divided into two parts. The first part explains the historical context that informs the San Juan-Almario debate. The second part focuses on the planetary implications of their exchange. The essay argues that Filipino literature should be viewed from a more planetary perspective. Moreover, it suggests that the example of Filipino literature has much to contribute to the reinvention of world literature as a practice and concept, one that provides a counterpoint to the field’s Goethean origins.

Allegory and Archipelago: Jesus Balmori's "Los pájaros de fuego" and the Global Vantages of Filipino Literature in Spanish

The trajectory of modern globalization is incomprehensible without an attempt to understand the Philippines. This essay considers a Filipino novel written in Spanish during World War II, Los pájaros de fuego [The Birds of Fire] by Jesús Balmori, as a landmark of world literature by virtue of its composition in the tongue of an old European empire, under the duress of an East Asian empire, and during the colonization of a North American empire. Although the novel focuses on the elite Spanish-speaking class of the mid-20th-century Philippines, its allegorical processings of a globalized conflict raise questions of broad theoretical import to many academic disciplines. The Birds of Fire, despite its obscurity and that of the tradition of which it is part, reveals Filipino literature in Spanish to be a key to rendering a fuller account of the contemporary world and the imperial histories that pervade it.

Allegory and Archipelago: Jesus Balmori's "Los pájaros de fuego" and the Global Vantages of Filipino Literature in Spanish

The trajectory of modern globalization is incomprehensible without an attempt to understand the Philippines. This essay considers a Filipino novel written in Spanish during World War II, Los pajaros de fuego [The Birds of Fire] by Jesus Balmori, as a landmark of world literature by virtue of its composition in the tongue of an old European empire, under the duress of an East Asian empire, and during the colonization of a North American empire. Although the novel focuses on the elite Spanish-speaking class of the mid-20th-century Philippines, its allegorical processings of a globalized conflict raise questions of broad theoretical import to many academic disciplines. The Birds of Fire, despite its obscurity and that of the tradition of which it is part, reveals Filipino literature in Spanish to be a key to rendering a fuller account of the contemporary world and the imperial histories that pervade it.

Langston Hughes's Queer Blues

Martin Joseph Ponce is assistant professor of English at Ohio State University. He is at work on a history of Anglophone Filipino literature.

Filipino Identity in Fiction, 1945–1972

The Philippines in the immediate post-war years may be described as a nation in search of an identity. This preoccupation with what one journalist has dubbed ‘the question of identity’ spurred a sudden interest in the research and discussion of things Filipino: Filipino dance, theater, literature, language, music, art and cultural traditions. After four hundred and fifty years of colonial rule the Filipino intelligentsia began to wonder if indeed the western legacy of colonial rule was the annihilation of the very essence of Filipino culture. Under the aegis of American rule Filipinos were adamant about proving to their colonizers that they had been good pupils in western democratic ideals and were fit to govern themselves. From the 1920s to the early 1940s, the Filipino had become a sajonista (pro-American). The Japanese colonizers who replaced the Americans in the second world war were appalled not only at the pro-Americanism of the Filipino but at the magnitude of American influence absorbed by Filipino culture. In fact it was the Japanese who promoted the use of Tagalog and the ‘revival’ and appreciation of Filipino cultural traditions as part of the policy of ‘Asia for the Asians’. Once independence was achieved at last in 1946, the focus shifted. The nagging question was no longer ‘Are we western enough to govern ourselves?’ but its opposite—‘Have we become too westernized to the point of losing ourselves?’.

Causal Attributions for Achievement of Filipino Barrio Children

Summary An investigation of the causal attributions of 82 male and 112 female school children from a depressed rural area of the Philippines found that they ascribed examination results almost equally to ability, effort, and task difficulty. Luck, although rated more important than in Western studies, was considered the least important cause. The males tended to rate unstable factors, effort and luck, as more important than did the females. Unsuccessful students were least likely to use internal ascriptions, consistent with the self-serving bias hypothesis. The results were similar to those obtained from students at a major prestigious Filipino university. In general, this study supports the Filipino literature which indicates that the outlook on life of Filipinos, even from deprived circumstances, tends to be one of “optimistic fatalism.”

Bamboo and the Greenwood Tree: Essays on Filipino Literature in English. By Miguel A. Bernad, S.J. Manila: Bookmark, 1961. xiii, 128. Appendices. $2.50 (cloth); $2.00 (paper).

Bamboo and the Greenwood Tree: Essays on Filipino Literature in English. By Miguel A. Bernad, S.J. Manila: Bookmark, 1961. xiii, 128. Appendices. $2.50 (cloth); $2.00 (paper).