The diaspora of Magno Rubio: A semiotic investigation of the Ma-Yi Theater Company's The romance of Magno Rubio

• Main Author: Logico, Jenny G.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2006
• Subjects: Literature; Comparative Literature
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/2116
• Institution: De La Salle University

The study began in addressing the unprecedented issue regarding the Filipino diaspora. The Filipino diaspora proves to more than just a case of dispersal. Rather, it is a situation that harbors a complex web of contradictions and layer after layer of predicaments. The problems involving the Filipino diaspora deal with various concerns such as questions on identity, our global invisibility, our dis/position in the labor market in this world of globalization, cultural notalgia and nationalist ethos (despite our climate of hybridity), historical and cultural stigmas, and the list goes on. It has been stated earlier in the study, that history stigmatized us, developed us in such a displaced state. In the course of speculating, the study has turned its focus on the play, The Romance of Magno Rubio by the Ma-Yi Theater Company, with the plan of seeking how cultural conventions have affected the formation of the play's mise-en-scene- i.e., the characters, dramatic use of language, set design, props and technical production. Through the use of Umberto Eco's theory of codes and theory of sign production, I have analyzed the play as a dynamic semiotic entity that embodies significations that are strongly linked with the cultural code. The course of this study has eventually recognized The Romance of Magno Rubio as a spectacle of contradictions, ironies and paradoxes. The contradictions that are marked in the arrangement and details of the mise-en-scene disclose a connection with the contradicting culture of the Filipino diaspora as well. Analysis on the characters (Magno Rubio, Nick, Claro, Prudencio, and Atoy) revealed a reading linked to the issue of hybridity. Analysis on the dramatic use of language uncovered issues of hegemonic-subordinating powers, displacement and cultural affinity. Analysis on the set design and props displayed the various issues that deal with Filipinos' position in globalization, the labor market, and migration. And finally, analysis on the technical production renders us to face the truth of our predicament, thus urging us to continue problematizing, to battle darkness as much as possible so that we may reach the light. This examination, however, does not claim to provide solutions for the predicament enclosing the Filipino diaspora. I am simply joining in the quest of problematizing, of question, of speculating. This semiotic inquiry only offers as a clearer understanding of our culture - the contradictions that underlie us, our political and social status, our position in the world.