Going beyond patriarchal and feminist essentialisms: A dialogic study of Bautista's Bata, Bata... Pano Ka Ginawa?

• Main Author: de Guia, Jon Robert Raymond H.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2014
• Subjects: Creative Writing
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/2669
• Institution: De La Salle University

The novel Bata, Bata... Pano Ka Ginawa? has always been viewed as the celebration of female empowerment. There were some studies that investigated other aspects of the novel but none, so far, has served as a reputation of the many feminist essentialisms against patriarchy. This study problematizes the lack of counter-arguments and rebuttals by affirming the validity of the other voices in the novel. It does so by utilizing the methodological framework of Mikhail Bakhtin's dialogism. This thesis concludes by pointing the flaws in Lea's logic as well as the options and other valid points made by the other characters as a consequence of her treatment of all polemic statements against her as polemic statements against the entirety of women.