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Lit. 267
**We will be meeting in the computer lab on the following dates:
Thursday 2/5 and every Tuesday after that for the remainder of the semester
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Jeepney Links
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What are we studying? An Overview of Filipino-American Literature
The Philippines, an archipelago of 7,107 islands, is an independent nation of about 70 million people in South East Asia. The Philippines was colonized by the Spanish for over three centuries and by the Americans for almost fifty years. During WWII the Japanese occupied the Philippines for three years. The Philippines were granted independence, as provided in the Tydings-McDuffie Bill of 1934, on July 4, 1946.
Although during the Spanish and American colonial periods the many dialects and languages of the Philippines were discouraged in favor of Spanish and English respectively, this did not lead to the obliteration or death of the more than 87 languages and dialects including Tagalog, Kapampandan, Ilocano. Cebuano, Pangasinanian, Bicolano, Ibanag and many others which are still the spoken and written languages for many Filipinos.
The literature of the Philippines incorporates the varied history, languages, culture and identity from the oral literature that has survived from the pre-Hispanic period to the contemporary Filipinos and Filipino-Americans whose novels, plays, short stories and poems are read throughout the world. Indeed there is too much to cover in one semester, so in this class we will be exploring the literature of Filipino-Americans as well as a brief look at the literary history of the Philippines as it influenced these contemporary writers.
Some of the writers we will be reading are Tess Uriza Holthe, Cecilia Manguerra Brainard, Nick Carbo, Eugene Gloria, Vince Gotera, Jaime Jacinto, M. Evelina Galang, Jessica Hagedorn, Linda Ty-Casper, Carlos Bulosan, Jeff Tagami, Eileen Tabios, and Bienvendios Santos among others.
We will be reading short stories, poems, and two full length novels, exploring themes of:
Identity/Ancestry/Home
Assimilation/Language/Food
The legacy of colonialism
Folk literature
Gender identity and relationships
Cross-cultural conflict