Philippine E-Journals

THE STORY OF PILANDOK: A POST-COLONIAL READING OF TRICKSTER TALES

Peachy Cleo Dehino | Ariel E. San Jose

 

Abstract:

Philippines is very rich in cultures and traditions which most aim to entertain our ancestors and the Filipino people. The story helped to identify themselves with the story of Pilandok, the colonizers and the colonized by using the theory of Homi Bhabha, “Hybridity” or the “Third Space”. Through this lens, the researcher was able to examine the very purpose of the story beyond mere entertainment. The character of Pilandok was mirrored on the culture and customs of the Filipinos. On the other hand, the sultan, the crocodiles and the sumusong-sa-alongan reflected the wickedness of the colonizers. The researcher chose three stories of Pilandok which are: “Pilandok and the Sumusong sa-Alongan”, “Pilandok and the Crocodiles”, and “Pilandok in the Kingdom of Maranaw Sea”. Each story emphasized that he always won against the oppressors or colonizers. He used his wittiness to trick them by his cunning and dodgy words. It was beyond the imagination of the colonizers that Pilandok could defeat them because they looked at him, mere a commoner, stupid. The clash between the colonizers and the colonized was a manifestation of an intercultural battle. When Pilandok triumphed over every obstacle, this cleverness and sagacity created another culture that Bhabha termed “third space.”