The hatching of the egg in Philippine literature: A postfeminist look at five Chick-lit novels

• Main Author: Enriquez, Patricia Regina Lobrin
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2004
• Subjects: Romance literature (Philippines); Literature > Women authors; Comparative Literature
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/2140
• Institution: De La Salle University

This study examines how the main female protagonists in five (5) Philippine Chick-Lit novels - Kach of Drama Queen by Abi Aquino, Monica of The Breakup Diaries by Maya Calica, Mia of Tough Love by Melissa Salva, Karen of Almost Married by Tara FT Sering, and Denise of Have Baby, Will Date by Andrea Pasion - embody Postfeminist ideas of (1) pushing for authenticity, (2) playing the game of sexual politics on one's own terms, (3) enriching the self rather than competing with the opposite sex, (4) pushing for full personhood and the effort to restructure one's life according to one's own vision of meaning and right living, (5) coming into consciousness and a subsequent development of self, and (6) integrating all of one's parts that have been disconnected or fragmented by the forces that drive one to play contradictory roles. This study also shows how different Chick-Lit is from Romance novels yet is still in the Romance mode, as well as its role in the Philippine literary scene as the voice of the middle class, educated, professional women, too old to relate with characters of Young Adult Fiction yet too contemporary to related with those of the Mills & Boon type of Romance novel, who can afford to buy these novels, and have time and English skills to read them.