Philippine E-Journals

Technology, Language, Spectacle and Region/Nation in Leoncio Deriada’s The Week of the Whales and Other Stories

Isidro M. Cruz

 

Abstract:

This paper is part of the dissertation entitled “Damming the Nation: Region/Nation and the Global Order in Contemporary West Visayan Literature.” The dissertation examines the discourse of contemporary West Visayan literature on Region/Nation and the Global Order, which may evince a particular imagining of the nation from a regional standpoint. It describes how the region and the nation are constructed and deconstructed in writings in the three lingua franca (Hiligaynon, Filipino, and English), published from 1986 (EDSA Revolution) to 2003. The region and the nation are mutually deconstructive, as well as fragmented due to differences in ethnicity, gender, and class. Reading one major work each by seven acclaimed writers of the region, the dissertation argues that contemporary West Visayan literature proffers a (re)construction of the nation and employs strategies that are transgressive to disable the erosion of the region and the nation. In particular, Leoncio Deriada’s The Week of the Whales and Other Stories constructs and deconstructs the region and the nation by way of technology, language, and spectacle.