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Imagining the Nation in Four Philippine Novels

By (author) Maria Teresa Martinez-Sicat

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In her book Dr. Sicat interrogates Maximo Kalaw's The Filipino Rebel: A Romance of American Occupation in the Philippines, F. Sionil Jose's Po-on, Linda Ty-Casper's The Three Cornered Sun, and Alfred A. Yuson's Great Philippine Jungle Energy Cafe. Set against the historical conjunctures of the Philippine Revolution against Spain and the Philippine-American war, these novels conceptualize a people free of foreign oppression and therefore ripe for the shaping of the nation. The author points out, however, that the concept of the nation in these novels integrates the masses into a political, economic, and social system dominated by the native elite. The socio-historical forces - ilustrados and pobres y ignorantes - are present: the exploitative relationship between them is absent. Sicat believes that in Philippine literary discourse, the concept of the nation must be imbued with the masses' definition of the nation. The revolution against Spain and the Philippine-American war were fought mainly by the masses, and their struggles can provide the basis for a common meaning, a common history. Instead of belittilng the masses, literature can valorize their consciousness and their language. It can challenge the hidden assumptions of the dominant power system and thereby contribute to the shaping of a strong and authentic nation.