[wp-svg-icons icon=”user” wrap=”i”] Marikit Tara Alto Uychoco [wp-svg-icons icon=”envelop” wrap=”i”]
Department of English and Comparative Literature, University of the Philippines Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines.
Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 14, Issue 1, January-March, 2022, Pages 1–11. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v14n1.15
Abstract received: 8 Feb 2021 | Article received: 1 June 2021 | Revised: 12 August 2021 | Accepted: 6 Sept 2021 | First Published: 05 February 2022
(This article is published under the Themed Issue Contemporary East and Southeast Asian Literary and Cultural Studies)
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Apostol’s Creed: Unveiling the Political Fictions of Colonialism and Nation in the Diasporic Novel
Abstract
Gina Apostol is a Philippine-American writer whose novel, Insurrecto, gives important insights into the political fictions of colonialism and the nation-state. Using postmodern readings of metafiction and historiographic metafiction, as well as postcolonial readings of hybridity and postcolonial doubles, this paper will unearth the political fictions that were used by the United States in rationalizing the Philippine-American War, and the political fictions used by the Philippines in rationalizing extrajudicial killings. This paper follows the argumentation of Ania Loomba, who argues that nation-states have used the same violence as those used by colonizing powers, and that after the colonizing powers left, the nation-state excluded and silenced marginal peoples. Philippine-American Literature distinguishes itself against Asian-American Literature because it discusses the Philippine colonial experience under the U.S., lending itself to important reflections regarding hybridity, historiography, and solidarity. This paper will use the postmodern theories of Patricia Waugh when it comes to metafiction, Linda Hutcheon’s and Michel Foucault’s theories regarding historiographic metafiction and suprahistorical history, and the postcolonial theories of Homi Bhabha and Gloria Anzaldua regarding hybridity.
Keywords: Philippine-American Literature, Diasporic Literature, Metafiction, Historiographic Metafiction, Hybridity.