Haunting and soul-searching: Primi as national personification in Gina Apostol Bibliolepsy

• Main Author: Villa, Manuel McCann
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2013
• Subjects: Comparative Literature
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/2620
• Institution: De La Salle University

This thesis is a study of Gina Apostol Bibliolepsy, a novel written in the form of a memoir told by a woman afflicted with a fictional disease called bibliolepsy. In her memoir, she graphs with the acceptance of her missing parents as she pieces together the flimsy narrative of her questionably factual past. The entire memoir would be seen as a commentary on literary historiography, thus making Primi, the main character, a national personification that embodies the history of the Philippines. The study will study the novel alongside Mojares concept of the haunting of the Filipino writer so it could hope to shed light on how Primi as a character and a national personification operates around the Marcos presidency and Martial Law, and what it should mean for Filipino writers.