tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8975068782640761502.post4116075248799521845..comments2024-01-03T08:48:10.334+08:00Comments on LOL Literatures in Other Languages: Filipino-ness and other ness-esAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08899050113520098038noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8975068782640761502.post-63902299845758741532009-02-13T08:40:00.000+08:002009-02-13T08:40:00.000+08:00If we must define "Filipino-ness" in the arts, we ...If we must define "Filipino-ness" in the arts, we need to examine the themes and their underpinings. The themes invariably must derive their "meaning" from the Filipino's milieu -- his culture, his myths, his ethos -- the entire gamut of attitudes toward his text and context. Necessarily, these include the layers upon layers of cultural fibre the Filipino has gone through, not to mention the native nuance (or "take") of a fictive or poetic material. How does Filipino-ness deal, say, with "expressions of love" on Valentine's day? In some Ilocano songs I grew up with, the expression could take the form of a handkerchief dropped by the inamorata and retrieved by the anxious swain while they sing: "Daytoy panyo'k no mareg-reg ko, makapidut isublinanto. Maimarka ti sinan puso ken naiborda iti nagan ko." (When I drop and lose my handkerchief -- whoever picks it up must return it one day. It would have been marked by the image of a heart and embroidered with my name!") Now is this "treatment of context" in terms of the zarzuela lyrics considered "Filipino"? Is this the "Filipino-ness" we are looking for? But even that bespeaks of the "fandango" introduced by Hispanic literature, and forthwith caricatured by wartime comics Chichay and Tolindoy in the Japanese-time burlesque of the act of swearing love to one's "querida", by dropping that handkerchief and used by the pursuing lad to wipe off bird-droppings he sat on while playing "wall-flower" on the dance kiosk. Why "Filipino-ness" (as in "bailes de ayer" --- dances of yesteryears -- often performed by expatriate dancetroupes elesewhere in global diasporas)? Is that the "distinction" of poetry or fiction written by the Filipino?<BR/>What is the Great Filipino novel like? What is the text of that context? (I am sure Dr. Bien Lumbera and Dr. Isagani R. Cruz have better insights about a great Filipino Heritage.)--ALBERT B. CASUGAALBERT B. CASUGAhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08403297362821170299noreply@blogger.com