Modernist Poetic Practices in English Poetry from Southeast Asia: A Comparison Between Jose Garcia Villa and Arthur Yap

• Main Author: Patke, Rajeev S.
• Format: text
• Published: Archīum Ateneo 2024
• Subjects: Philippine poetry; postcolonial poetry; Singapore poetry
• Online Access: https://archium.ateneo.edu/kk/vol1/iss9/2; https://archium.ateneo.edu/context/kk/article/1123/viewcontent/_5BKKv00n09_2007_5D_202.1_Article_Patke.pdf
• Institution: Ateneo De Manila University

The paper develops a comparison between Jose Garcia Villa (1908-97) and Arthur Yap (1943-2006) as the principal Modernists of English poetry from Southeast Asia. Though they wrote from very dissimilar backgrounds, and in very different circumstances, each represents for his time and place a radical assimilation of Western poetic practices into a new form of experimental writing. The comparison delineates the various ways in which their example reveals the scope and limits of what can be achieved through a systematic subversion of traditional modes of poetic writing in Southeast Asia.