Live Literature in the Philippines: An Ethnographic Study of #RomanceClass and Reading as Performance

• Main Authors: Parnell, Claire, Trinidad, Andrea Anne I, McAlister, Jodi
• Format: text
• Published: Archīum Ateneo 2021
• Subjects: Live literature; ethnography; Filipino popular culture; book culture; performance; Creative Writing
• Online Access: https://archium.ateneo.edu/filipino-faculty-pubs/72; https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17510694.2021.1939544
• Institution: Ateneo De Manila University

Live literature – events where literature is the dominant art form presented or performed – is a highly visible form of contemporary book culture. In this article, we examine the live reading events organised by #RomanceClass in the Philippines as a case study, using a digital ethnography method which draws on fieldnotes, interviews, social media content, a decibel reader, and a bingo card; and grapple with some of the methodological challenges of researching post-digital literary events. By doing so, we seek not only to explore these fascinating live reading events as specific local phenomena, but also the ways in which the characteristics of a given genre world shape the phenomenology of live literature events more broadly.