A phenomenological exploration of recent Philippine detective fiction by FH Batacan and Edith Tiempo

• Main Author: Tensuan, Miguel Antonio S.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2004
• Subjects: Detective and mystery stories; Comparative Literature
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/6979; https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/context/etd_bachelors/article/7623/viewcontent/TU13758_P.pdf
• Institution: De La Salle University

Detective fiction is one of the most popular of all literary genres, yet our own Philippine detective fiction is painfully understudied. In the library I found only one thesis dedicated to the mystery/detective story. Thus this thesis seeks to change all that. The thesis uses the philosophical-phenomenological approach. It integrates the philosophy of Sartre and the phenomenology of his contemporaries into one analysis. The thesis is a character study of the key characters in the novels Smaller and Smaller Circles and The Builder. It assesses their rationalizations and actions using the philosophy of Jean-Paul Sartre and phenomenology, and the bearing these actions and rationalizations have on the story in order to come to a fuller understanding of the novels. Detective stories are inherently philosophical. Characters in them always follow some sort of philosophy whether consciously or unconsciously. In the case of the 2 novels characters think in a manner that has traces of Sartre in them. The thesis is concerned with bringing this out. Phenomenology enters into the picture in order to closer match human experience with the characters' experiences, closing the gap between reader and story. And in the end, when all is said and done, the thesis wishes for further studies into the genre to be made, for the country has many mystery and detective stories, they are just unknown. I hope that this thesis can encourage further study into our own detective and mystery fiction.