Translation and the Problem of Realism in Philippine Literature in English

• Main Author: Garcia, J. Neil C.
• Format: text
• Published: Archīum Ateneo 2024
• Subjects: anglophone; poetry; Filipino; mimetic; category mistake; avant-garde
• Online Access: https://archium.ateneo.edu/kk/vol1/iss23/7; https://archium.ateneo.edu/context/kk/article/1580/viewcontent/_5BKKv00n23_2014_5D_202.6_Article_Garcia.pdf
• Institution: Ateneo De Manila University

To the degree that Philippine literature in English is translational it cannot be realistic: realism is a signifying practice that presupposes a monocultural ground, upon which the “consensus” of representational fidelity can happen. And yet, much of the criticism of this literature, as produced by Filipinos themselves, has generally failed to take note of this crucial precondition, enacting a ruinous category mistake that, among other things, unwittingly confounds contemporary departures from the referential towards the “avant-garde” and/or antimimetic modes, as these are espoused by young Filipino poets and fictionists alike. Finally, this paper argues that the various literary practices encoded in Philippine anglophone writing still need to be postcolonially specified, their translated or syncretic qualities critically recognized and acknowledged, and that this kind of interpretive labor needs to be made not only by locally engaged critics but also by Filipino writers who purport to champion more theoretically informed and self-reflexive “performances” or texts.