Migration, Imagination, and Transformation: Revisiting E. San Juan’s Carlos Bulosan and the Imagination of the Class Struggle

• Main Authors: Pante, Michael D., Nery, Leo Angelo
• Format: text
• Published: Archīum Ateneo 2024
• Subjects: historiography; peasantry; transnationalism
• Online Access: https://archium.ateneo.edu/kk/vol1/iss26/20; https://archium.ateneo.edu/context/kk/article/1954/viewcontent/_5BKKv00n26_2016_5D_205.4_CriticalFutures_Pante_Nery.pdf
• Institution: Ateneo De Manila University

This paper argues that an examination of the historiographical trajectory of scholarly works on the Philippine peasantry, particularly peasants in Luzon provinces, and transnational migration can deepen our understanding of Carlos Bulosan’s life and works. Using E. San Juan, Jr.’s Carlos Bulosan and the Imagination of the Class Struggle as the analytic focus in pursuing the argument, we aim to contextualize Bulosan’s life story within the larger framework of the history of Philippine peasant movements and draw connections between his life in America and the contemporary experience of Filipino migrants. To reach these objectives, we need to understand San Juan’s text as part of a wider scholarly terrain that has become increasingly interdisciplinary over the years from the 1970s up to the present.