Papers by ivan emil labayne
Akda: The Asian Journal of Literature, Culture, Performance
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Plaridel
Visual forms of communication are historically allied with the colonial project. Photography and ... more Visual forms of communication are historically allied with the colonial project. Photography and film have been used both to create narratives about, or impart stories to, the colonized native, as part of framing their way of life, or lack of ‘civilization,’ and feeding them with the colonizer’s culture. Yet as with all things, these technologies and processes are pregnant with their opposites, as Marx put it. This short essay looks at two films, Walang Rape sa Bontok and Tokwifi, to examine how alternatives concerning the medium have been pursued. It focuses not just on the filmic content but also on the processes of the movies’ creation. Doing this betokens not just alternative representations of the Bontoc people but more importantly, alternative relationships materialized to make a historically marginalized group—the indigenous people–more present and active in procedures of storytelling, representation, and visualization. A preliminary wager is that both films approximate and b...
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Entrada, 2015
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Entrada, 2017
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Dunong, 2021
Ang papel na ito ay naglalaman ng mga pagmumuni-muni ng isang kapapasok na mag-aaral sa tri-colle... more Ang papel na ito ay naglalaman ng mga pagmumuni-muni ng isang kapapasok na mag-aaral sa tri-college program na PhD sa Philippine Studies. Sapagkat nakasentro ang mga pagmumuni sa ilang pangunahing perspektiba sa disiplinang Philippine Studies ay maituturing ang papel na ito bilang reflexive na pagtanaw sa programang binanggit. Kung gayon ay magiging kapaki-pakinabang ang papel na ito bilang bahagi ng pagdodokumento sa paggagap ng mga mag-aaral sa programang pinapasukan. Sinipat ang mga kaalamang mula sa Sikolohiyang Pilipino ni Virgilio Enriquez, Pantayong Pananaw ni Zeus Salazar, at ang mga kaugnay ngunit naiiba ring makabayang oryentasyon nina Bienvenido Lumbera, Patricia Melendrez-Cruz, at Resil Mojares. Ang ideya ng pagtatalaban na binanggit ni Ramon Guillermo ang magsisilbing tagapagtahi ng mga magkakawing at nagtutunggaliang ideyang tatalakayin. Dudulo ang papel sa panimulang panawagan para sa isang “Philippine studies” na dahil lapag sa kasaysayan at lipunang Pilipino ay magkakaroon ng kabuluhan sa mas malawak na konkestong lampas sa akademya.
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Makiling Review, 2022
There is not much of a tradition of conceptual writing to speak of in the Philippines. A descenda... more There is not much of a tradition of conceptual writing to speak of in the Philippines. A descendant of, and arguably a less popular exponent of the Western avant-garde, conceptualism is usually associated with Sol Lewitt’s sentences-as-manifesto, and the more contemporary works of Kenneth Goldsmith and Vanessa Place. This paper looks at two works by Angelo Suarez, a writer, artist, and activist, who at some point markedly identified himself as a proponent of conceptual writing in the Philippines. Through a close analysis of CIRCUIT (The Blurb Project) and Maliit Lang Yung Sa ‘yo, Itabi mo, Magpadaan Ka: Adventures in Parataxis, this paper aims to show the potentials of conceptualist practice in positing anew, and reframing old debates related to cultural production. Doing such can also expand the categories usually deployed in cultural analysis (form, content), bringing to the foreground the more obscured but no less important considerations such as the materials used in, or situations informing the work, or the very materiality of cultural work. CIRCUIT and Maliit Lang Yung Sa ‘yo make explicit how one’s social networks can figure in artmaking, and how a seemingly trifling event such as riding taxis can lead to the meaningful redistribution of roles in literary production. The paper will also try to establish possible links, however indirect, between the more long-standing oral tradition in the Philippines and Suarez’s conceptualist works, particularly Maliit Lang Yung Sa ‘yo. In all, conceptual writing can reintroduce the social aspects of art objects and production, after having been effaced by an overemphasis on what does art convey, and how does it convey it.
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Kritika Kultura, 2022
Extended Abstract
Edel Garcellano’s Maikling Imbestigasyon ng Isang Mahabang Pangungulila (MINI... more Extended Abstract
Edel Garcellano’s Maikling Imbestigasyon ng Isang Mahabang Pangungulila (MINIMP) begins with a conundrum—the task of making a broken eyeglass speak: more of a conceptual rather than a practical challenge, for how can one expect an eyeglass to talk? After this, the novel mentioned the Aleph, the teleology of the One and Many, the structure of the DNA, and before the first page ends, Minerva. The first page alone demonstrates the novel’s proclivity to resort to long prose and utilize non-alphabetic symbols like /, [ ], ;, among others. Variously, the novel has been described as “philosophical,” “detective” and “reflexive.,” while also being classified under the science fiction genre. Altering the above modifiers description a little, this paper proposes to describe the work as an intentionally intellectual novel, not least because of its generous intertextual references to names and events from history, mythology, philosophy and the history of thought.
The novel’s ample intertextual references and metanarrative commentaries make it intentionally intellectual, constantly calling attention to its constructedness, so as to blast the idea that a fictional work is self-enclosed, meaningful by virtue only of its formal properties. The work favors artifice over verisimilitude, formal disunity and tensions, over organic unity.
In calling attention to its constructed quality, the novel’s meta gestures mimic the idea of Aleph as totality, demonstrate it as ailing, even inane. Further, the novel’s unsparing metacommentaries also demand that the readers be engaged in meaning-making and forming ideas. The equivalent of Susan Stewart’s “syntactical embedding” in discourse and conversations, “narrative closure” is ironically delayed, if not altogether forestalled, through the author’s gestures. The novel neither spoon-feeds nor proffers the readers with a ‘complete’ narrative whose wholeness they are supposed to appreciate and grasp. Instead, it guides the meaning-making process by constructing not a singular, “essential kernel” but a “horizon of meaning” (Guillermo) from which interpretation can be based. This jives with Ellen Berry’s illustrations of how negative feminist critique is at work in the texts of Kathy Acker, Valerie Solanas, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Linda Barry, among others: refusing the idea that literary works have an identifiable core and inviting readers to co-construct meaning and not just grasp a predetermined one. Much like the works Berry discussed, MINIMP is hard to pin down, both in terms of the specifics of the narrative and any coherent worldview that can be read into it, or any clear-cut politics that can be attributed to it.
In connection, the paper also forwards that the novel departs from the formal tradition of realism in Philippine fiction while arguably still sharing many aspects of its politics. Here, the paper takes off from the prior works of Resil Mojares on the history of the Filipino novel. Regarding Filipino novels during the first half of the 20th century—marked by American colonization, pre-war Commonwealth, and post-war recovery—Mojares observed the tendency to synthesize the empirical and aesthetic impulses. Such synthesis means departing from previously dominant formulas: linear and predictable stories whose problems are magically and hastily resolved towards the end, and peopled by stock characters not benefitting from well-executed literary techniques that could have given them proper motivations and well-rounded representations. The paper argues that instead of insisting on a clean resolution, MINIMP keeps itself open, in keeping with its suspicion on self-enclosed totalities, and with reliance on the provocations of its ample meta-citations. This stance of suspicion and the citational gesture of performing it does not absolve the figure of the author in general, and Z-666, a university professor and writer who can count as the novel’s main character. Both general figure and specific character are presented reflexively, pointing to their conditions of production and the contested spheres where they operate.
Finally, the paper forwards that the novel’s intentionally intellectual style helps to illustrate Stewart’s distinction between book as object and book as material, expanding the idea of “book” beyond the more familiar sense of being a collection of texts and thoughts. Instead, it is a material object produced by human labor and therefore, implicates a larger set of social relations. As phrased in the novel itself, “Ayon sa dayalektikal na karunungan, ang salita ay materyal na produksyon din, tulad ng lanseta, sapatos, salamin, isang representasyon ng representation” (27). Dialectical knowledge posits that like knives, shoes, or mirrors, words are material products, representing representation (my translation). The social relations described and critiqued in the novel thus refer not just to the events told in the narrative but also to the larger conditions of book, and knowledge production. Part of these conditions—but also helping to produce them—is the “pasaway na hangal”/mischievous fool, no longer the mighty author churning out clean and complete manuscripts, but the playful writer, effecting through her words the contradictions both in the literary text and in the social moment where it is embedded.
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Kritika Kultura, Aug 22, 2018
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Ang Abanao Square ay maituturing na isa sa mga pangunahing pamilihan sa lungsod ng Baguio, bagama... more Ang Abanao Square ay maituturing na isa sa mga pangunahing pamilihan sa lungsod ng Baguio, bagamat isa rin ito sa mga pinaka-naapektuhan ng pagkakatayo ng malaking SM Baguio Mall noong 2004. Matatagpuan sa gitna ng Public City Market at ng Baguio City Hall, masasabing nakakatulong ang lokasyong ito sa pakikipagsabayan ng Abanao hindi lamang sa SM kung hindi pati na rin sa iba pang tulad nitong maliliit na shopping malls tulad ng Tiong San, Center Mall at Por ta Vaga. Nilalayon ng papel na ito na tingnan ang mga kulturang nagsa-sanga-sanga sa loob at labas ng Abanao Square -- isang pamilihan sa isang lungsod tulad ng Baguio na ranas na ranas ang paglaganap ng kapital sa global na sakop.Titingnan ng papel una, kung paano gumagana ang ideya ng “simultaneity of the non-simultaneous” ni Ernst Bloch hindi lang sa pagitan ng Abanao Square at iba pang pamilihan sa Baguio kung hindi pati na rin sa loob mismo ng Abanao Square. Pangalawa, uusisain rin kung ano-anong mga “tactics” (mula sa gami...
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Kritika Kultura, 2016
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Perspectives in the Arts and Humanities Asia, 2018
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Babasahin ng papel na ito ang Session in Bloom bilang isang kultural na kaganapan, partikular bil... more Babasahin ng papel na ito ang Session in Bloom bilang isang kultural na kaganapan, partikular bilang manipestasyon ng kontemporanyong pamilihan at sintomas ng modernong urbanisasyon. Susuriin ang pagkakatugma o ‘di-pagkakatugma ng lohikang gumagana sa Session in Bloom sa sa tabi ng magkakaibang ideya: ang carnival ni Mikhail Bakhtin at ang mga pagmumuni-muni ukol sa pamilihan-bilang-laberinto ni Walter Benjamin. Magmumula sa paghahambing ng Session in Bloom sa pamilihang kinagiliwan ni Benjamin ang pag-iibang anyo ng pamilihan sa takbo ng kasaysayan.
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HASAAN Journal, 2017
Babasahin ng papel na ito ang Session in Bloom bilang isang kultural
na kaganapan, partikular bil... more Babasahin ng papel na ito ang Session in Bloom bilang isang kultural
na kaganapan, partikular bilang manipestasyon ng kontemporanyong
pamilihan at sintomas ng modernong urbanisasyon. Susuriin ang
pagkakatugma o ‘di-pagkakatugma ng lohikang gumagana sa Session in
Bloom sa sa tabi ng magkakaibang ideya: ang carnival ni Mikhail Bakhtin
at ang mga pagmumuni-muni ukol sa pamilihan-bilang-laberinto ni
Walter Benjamin. Magmumula sa paghahambing ng Session in Bloom sa
pamilihang kinagiliwan ni Benjamin ang pag-iibang anyo ng pamilihan sa
takbo ng kasaysayan.
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Kritika Kultura, 2018
Using a Marxist framework, this paper looks at Nick Joaquin's conduct of history writing and uses... more Using a Marxist framework, this paper looks at Nick Joaquin's conduct of history writing and uses this analysis to comment on the general practice of writing on history. The paper first assesses the extent by which a strand of dialectical thought operates in Discourses. Second, typical assertions of history as "narrativized" discourse are put into test. The ideas of Linda Hutcheon and Edel Garcellano are utilized to bring in the larger sociality where textual discourses take place, thereby shunning the supposed primacy of texts and positing the dynamic ties between history writing and society. Third, the relationship between oral and written discourses and how these types of sources figured in the book are examined. Following this, the potentials of oral sources for alternative practices of history writing and interpretation-more dispersed, refusing the singularity of the "official"-are hailed. Toward the end, a call for reflexivity is reaffirmed. This is done to counter both the pretentiously grand claims of History and the flirtations with liberal tendencies of history writing that opens itself to multiple sources. What is espoused is history writing that is open precisely because of its awareness of its location in the complexity of the societal whole.
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Katipunan Journal, 2017
Abstract
Ang Abanao Square ay maituturing na isa sa mga pangunahing pamilihan sa lungsod ng Bagu... more Abstract
Ang Abanao Square ay maituturing na isa sa mga pangunahing pamilihan sa lungsod ng Baguio, bagamat isa rin ito sa mga pinaka-naapektuhan ng pagkakatayo ng malaking SM Baguio Mall noong 2004. Matatagpuan sa gitna ng Public City Market at ng Baguio City Hall, masasabing nakakatulong ang lokasyong ito sa pakikipagsabayan ng Abanao hindi lamang sa SM kung hindi pati na rin sa iba pang tulad nitong maliliit na shopping malls tulad ng Tiong San, Center Mall at Por ta Vaga. Nilalayon ng papel na ito na tingnan ang mga kulturang nagsa-sanga-sanga sa loob at labas ng Abanao Square -- isang pamilihan sa isang lungsod tulad ng Baguio na ranas na ranas ang paglaganap ng kapital sa global na sakop.Titingnan ng papel una, kung paano gumagana ang ideya ng “simultaneity of the non-simultaneous” ni Ernst Bloch hindi lang sa pagitan ng Abanao Square at iba pang pamilihan sa Baguio kung hindi pati na rin sa loob mismo ng Abanao Square. Pangalawa, uusisain rin kung ano-anong mga “tactics” (mula sa gamit ni Michel de Certeau) ang inilulunsad ng mga mamimili upang hindi ganap na masakop ng umiiral na batas ng paggawa at pagbili sa loob ng pamilihang ito at kung ano ang mga potensyal at limitasyon ng tactics na ito. Magtatapos ang papel gamit ang isang materyalistang lenteng mula kayTeresa Ebert na tutumbok kung paano mas produktibong mauunawaan ang mga kultural na kaganapan at entitad tulad ng Abanao Square at mga binabahay nito.
(Abanao Square can be considered as one of the primary malls in Baguio, although it is also one of the most affected when SM Baguio was built in 2004. Being ocated in the middle of the Public City Market and the City Hall has arguably Abanao Square in competing not just with SM Baguio but with other smaller and older malls such as Tiong San, Center Mall and Porta Vaga.This paper aims to look at the various cultures intersecting inside and surrounding Abanao Square – a shopping center in a city where the workings of global capital are very palpable.The paper will look mainly at the following: how Ernst Bloch’s idea of the “simultaneity of the non-simultaneous” can apply not just among the shopping centers in Baguio but also within Abanao itself; what are the “tactics” (as conceptualized by Michel de Certeau) launched by the consumers in order to evade the logic of production and consumption in Abanao and the potentials and limitations of these tactics.The paper will be wrapped up using a materialist framework mainly supplied by Teresa Ebert which will posit how we can more productively analyze cultural phenomena and entities such as Abanao Square.)
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Conference Presentations by ivan emil labayne
Marx@200 Conference, UP Diliman, 2018
How can we characterize the politics of Kidlat Tahimik’s Perfumed Nightmare, a 1977 film exhibiti... more How can we characterize the politics of Kidlat Tahimik’s Perfumed Nightmare, a 1977 film exhibiting postmodern, if not avant-garde formal properties? What is the significance of the film’s pastiche-rich style in forwarding its content and its politics? What picture of globalization and the Filipino’s exposure to it is being painted in the protagonist’s journey to the West? Drawing from a variety of Marxist cultural theory, this paper seeks to answer the above questions towards locating Tahimik’s film in the progressive, if not radical tradition in Philippine cinema.
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Nagsimula ang Maikling Imbestigasyon ng Isang Mahabang Pangungulilas sa isang pagtatakang nangha... more Nagsimula ang Maikling Imbestigasyon ng Isang Mahabang Pangungulilas sa isang pagtatakang nanghahamon: pagpapasalita sa isang “basag na salamin sa mata.” Susunod rito ang pagbanggit sa Aleph, sa “teolohiya ng Isa at Karamihan,” sa “istruktura ng DNA” at bago matapos ang unang pahina, kay Minerva.
May isang manunulat na tinawag ang nobela bilang isang “pilosopikal” na akda. Nais ng papel na ibahin nang kaunti ang bansag na ito at ipanukalang ang nobela ay ‘di lang pilosopikal kundi intelektwal. Nakasalalay ang pag-iibang ito sa pag-asang mas madaling ihayag ang sosyalidad ng panghuli. Mula rito, susuriin ang sala-salabid na kaisipang ipinasok sa akda at susubukang gagapin kung paano sila nag-uugnay-ugnay. Sisipatin rin ang istilo at pamamaraan ng pagkukwento ng nobela—hindi banayad, tahimik na nangugusap, malay sa ginagawa—at kung ano ang ambag nito sa kaisipang binubuo ng akda. Dalawang bagay kaugnay sa sinasabi at ginagawa ng nobela ang sisipatin: (1) ang estado at konstruksyon ng kwento/naratibo (mula sa nobela: “sa pinanlansi na ‘Fiction does not lie,’ kahit na ang kabaligtarang lohika nito ay ‘Fiction lies precisely because fiction is a lie.’” Ang sugal ko: higit sa katotohanan, kailangang usisain ang punsyon ng piksyon (ang baybay ay para sa alliterative effect); ano ang mga relasyong binubuhay nito) at (2) ang bisa ng pagsulat, ang silbi ng citation at ang kawalang-isahan ng may-akda (sa nobela, “siya’y isinasapapel din,” babarilin pa nga; “ang location/coordinates of the speaking voice”). Ang panimulang ideya na susubukin sa papel: ang naratibo ay background lang; tinutuntungan lamang ito upang ibida ang pagmumuni tungkol sa sosyalidad ng kaisipan, pagkukwento at pagsulat.
(Edel Garcellano’s Maikling Imbestigasyon ng Isang Mahabang Pangungulila commences with a challenging conundrum: making a broken eyeglass speak. After this, the following are mentioned: Aleph, the teleology of the One and Many, DNA structure, and, before the first page ends, Minerva.
One Filipino wrier described this novel as “philosophical.” This paper aims to slightly alter this designation and propose that the novel is not just philosophical but also intellectual—with the sociality of this second term easier to evince. The multifarious ideas permeating the novel will be discussed and their potential connections will be established. Analysis will also be given to the novels’ narrative style—creasy, covertly conversing, conscious of its own act—and how this contributes to the ideas being built in the work. Two points of concern will be on what the novel is saying and what it is doing: (1) the status and construction of the narrative (from the novel, “sa panlalansi na ‘Fiction does not lie,’ kahit na ang kabaligtarang lohika nito ay ‘Fiction lies precisely because fiction is a lie.’” My wager: what must be interrogated more than the truth-value is the function of fiction); and the relations that this narrative activates (2) the efficacy of writing, the purpose of citations and the multiplicity/complexity of the author (from the novel, “siya’y isinasapapel din,” he is also being written, gunned even; the “location/coordinates of the speaking voice”). The preliminary idea this paper will test: the narrative merely serves as backdrop to the reflections on the sociality and materiality of thinking, of storytelling, and of writing.)
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Papers by ivan emil labayne
Edel Garcellano’s Maikling Imbestigasyon ng Isang Mahabang Pangungulila (MINIMP) begins with a conundrum—the task of making a broken eyeglass speak: more of a conceptual rather than a practical challenge, for how can one expect an eyeglass to talk? After this, the novel mentioned the Aleph, the teleology of the One and Many, the structure of the DNA, and before the first page ends, Minerva. The first page alone demonstrates the novel’s proclivity to resort to long prose and utilize non-alphabetic symbols like /, [ ], ;, among others. Variously, the novel has been described as “philosophical,” “detective” and “reflexive.,” while also being classified under the science fiction genre. Altering the above modifiers description a little, this paper proposes to describe the work as an intentionally intellectual novel, not least because of its generous intertextual references to names and events from history, mythology, philosophy and the history of thought.
The novel’s ample intertextual references and metanarrative commentaries make it intentionally intellectual, constantly calling attention to its constructedness, so as to blast the idea that a fictional work is self-enclosed, meaningful by virtue only of its formal properties. The work favors artifice over verisimilitude, formal disunity and tensions, over organic unity.
In calling attention to its constructed quality, the novel’s meta gestures mimic the idea of Aleph as totality, demonstrate it as ailing, even inane. Further, the novel’s unsparing metacommentaries also demand that the readers be engaged in meaning-making and forming ideas. The equivalent of Susan Stewart’s “syntactical embedding” in discourse and conversations, “narrative closure” is ironically delayed, if not altogether forestalled, through the author’s gestures. The novel neither spoon-feeds nor proffers the readers with a ‘complete’ narrative whose wholeness they are supposed to appreciate and grasp. Instead, it guides the meaning-making process by constructing not a singular, “essential kernel” but a “horizon of meaning” (Guillermo) from which interpretation can be based. This jives with Ellen Berry’s illustrations of how negative feminist critique is at work in the texts of Kathy Acker, Valerie Solanas, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Linda Barry, among others: refusing the idea that literary works have an identifiable core and inviting readers to co-construct meaning and not just grasp a predetermined one. Much like the works Berry discussed, MINIMP is hard to pin down, both in terms of the specifics of the narrative and any coherent worldview that can be read into it, or any clear-cut politics that can be attributed to it.
In connection, the paper also forwards that the novel departs from the formal tradition of realism in Philippine fiction while arguably still sharing many aspects of its politics. Here, the paper takes off from the prior works of Resil Mojares on the history of the Filipino novel. Regarding Filipino novels during the first half of the 20th century—marked by American colonization, pre-war Commonwealth, and post-war recovery—Mojares observed the tendency to synthesize the empirical and aesthetic impulses. Such synthesis means departing from previously dominant formulas: linear and predictable stories whose problems are magically and hastily resolved towards the end, and peopled by stock characters not benefitting from well-executed literary techniques that could have given them proper motivations and well-rounded representations. The paper argues that instead of insisting on a clean resolution, MINIMP keeps itself open, in keeping with its suspicion on self-enclosed totalities, and with reliance on the provocations of its ample meta-citations. This stance of suspicion and the citational gesture of performing it does not absolve the figure of the author in general, and Z-666, a university professor and writer who can count as the novel’s main character. Both general figure and specific character are presented reflexively, pointing to their conditions of production and the contested spheres where they operate.
Finally, the paper forwards that the novel’s intentionally intellectual style helps to illustrate Stewart’s distinction between book as object and book as material, expanding the idea of “book” beyond the more familiar sense of being a collection of texts and thoughts. Instead, it is a material object produced by human labor and therefore, implicates a larger set of social relations. As phrased in the novel itself, “Ayon sa dayalektikal na karunungan, ang salita ay materyal na produksyon din, tulad ng lanseta, sapatos, salamin, isang representasyon ng representation” (27). Dialectical knowledge posits that like knives, shoes, or mirrors, words are material products, representing representation (my translation). The social relations described and critiqued in the novel thus refer not just to the events told in the narrative but also to the larger conditions of book, and knowledge production. Part of these conditions—but also helping to produce them—is the “pasaway na hangal”/mischievous fool, no longer the mighty author churning out clean and complete manuscripts, but the playful writer, effecting through her words the contradictions both in the literary text and in the social moment where it is embedded.
na kaganapan, partikular bilang manipestasyon ng kontemporanyong
pamilihan at sintomas ng modernong urbanisasyon. Susuriin ang
pagkakatugma o ‘di-pagkakatugma ng lohikang gumagana sa Session in
Bloom sa sa tabi ng magkakaibang ideya: ang carnival ni Mikhail Bakhtin
at ang mga pagmumuni-muni ukol sa pamilihan-bilang-laberinto ni
Walter Benjamin. Magmumula sa paghahambing ng Session in Bloom sa
pamilihang kinagiliwan ni Benjamin ang pag-iibang anyo ng pamilihan sa
takbo ng kasaysayan.
Ang Abanao Square ay maituturing na isa sa mga pangunahing pamilihan sa lungsod ng Baguio, bagamat isa rin ito sa mga pinaka-naapektuhan ng pagkakatayo ng malaking SM Baguio Mall noong 2004. Matatagpuan sa gitna ng Public City Market at ng Baguio City Hall, masasabing nakakatulong ang lokasyong ito sa pakikipagsabayan ng Abanao hindi lamang sa SM kung hindi pati na rin sa iba pang tulad nitong maliliit na shopping malls tulad ng Tiong San, Center Mall at Por ta Vaga. Nilalayon ng papel na ito na tingnan ang mga kulturang nagsa-sanga-sanga sa loob at labas ng Abanao Square -- isang pamilihan sa isang lungsod tulad ng Baguio na ranas na ranas ang paglaganap ng kapital sa global na sakop.Titingnan ng papel una, kung paano gumagana ang ideya ng “simultaneity of the non-simultaneous” ni Ernst Bloch hindi lang sa pagitan ng Abanao Square at iba pang pamilihan sa Baguio kung hindi pati na rin sa loob mismo ng Abanao Square. Pangalawa, uusisain rin kung ano-anong mga “tactics” (mula sa gamit ni Michel de Certeau) ang inilulunsad ng mga mamimili upang hindi ganap na masakop ng umiiral na batas ng paggawa at pagbili sa loob ng pamilihang ito at kung ano ang mga potensyal at limitasyon ng tactics na ito. Magtatapos ang papel gamit ang isang materyalistang lenteng mula kayTeresa Ebert na tutumbok kung paano mas produktibong mauunawaan ang mga kultural na kaganapan at entitad tulad ng Abanao Square at mga binabahay nito.
(Abanao Square can be considered as one of the primary malls in Baguio, although it is also one of the most affected when SM Baguio was built in 2004. Being ocated in the middle of the Public City Market and the City Hall has arguably Abanao Square in competing not just with SM Baguio but with other smaller and older malls such as Tiong San, Center Mall and Porta Vaga.This paper aims to look at the various cultures intersecting inside and surrounding Abanao Square – a shopping center in a city where the workings of global capital are very palpable.The paper will look mainly at the following: how Ernst Bloch’s idea of the “simultaneity of the non-simultaneous” can apply not just among the shopping centers in Baguio but also within Abanao itself; what are the “tactics” (as conceptualized by Michel de Certeau) launched by the consumers in order to evade the logic of production and consumption in Abanao and the potentials and limitations of these tactics.The paper will be wrapped up using a materialist framework mainly supplied by Teresa Ebert which will posit how we can more productively analyze cultural phenomena and entities such as Abanao Square.)
Conference Presentations by ivan emil labayne
May isang manunulat na tinawag ang nobela bilang isang “pilosopikal” na akda. Nais ng papel na ibahin nang kaunti ang bansag na ito at ipanukalang ang nobela ay ‘di lang pilosopikal kundi intelektwal. Nakasalalay ang pag-iibang ito sa pag-asang mas madaling ihayag ang sosyalidad ng panghuli. Mula rito, susuriin ang sala-salabid na kaisipang ipinasok sa akda at susubukang gagapin kung paano sila nag-uugnay-ugnay. Sisipatin rin ang istilo at pamamaraan ng pagkukwento ng nobela—hindi banayad, tahimik na nangugusap, malay sa ginagawa—at kung ano ang ambag nito sa kaisipang binubuo ng akda. Dalawang bagay kaugnay sa sinasabi at ginagawa ng nobela ang sisipatin: (1) ang estado at konstruksyon ng kwento/naratibo (mula sa nobela: “sa pinanlansi na ‘Fiction does not lie,’ kahit na ang kabaligtarang lohika nito ay ‘Fiction lies precisely because fiction is a lie.’” Ang sugal ko: higit sa katotohanan, kailangang usisain ang punsyon ng piksyon (ang baybay ay para sa alliterative effect); ano ang mga relasyong binubuhay nito) at (2) ang bisa ng pagsulat, ang silbi ng citation at ang kawalang-isahan ng may-akda (sa nobela, “siya’y isinasapapel din,” babarilin pa nga; “ang location/coordinates of the speaking voice”). Ang panimulang ideya na susubukin sa papel: ang naratibo ay background lang; tinutuntungan lamang ito upang ibida ang pagmumuni tungkol sa sosyalidad ng kaisipan, pagkukwento at pagsulat.
(Edel Garcellano’s Maikling Imbestigasyon ng Isang Mahabang Pangungulila commences with a challenging conundrum: making a broken eyeglass speak. After this, the following are mentioned: Aleph, the teleology of the One and Many, DNA structure, and, before the first page ends, Minerva.
One Filipino wrier described this novel as “philosophical.” This paper aims to slightly alter this designation and propose that the novel is not just philosophical but also intellectual—with the sociality of this second term easier to evince. The multifarious ideas permeating the novel will be discussed and their potential connections will be established. Analysis will also be given to the novels’ narrative style—creasy, covertly conversing, conscious of its own act—and how this contributes to the ideas being built in the work. Two points of concern will be on what the novel is saying and what it is doing: (1) the status and construction of the narrative (from the novel, “sa panlalansi na ‘Fiction does not lie,’ kahit na ang kabaligtarang lohika nito ay ‘Fiction lies precisely because fiction is a lie.’” My wager: what must be interrogated more than the truth-value is the function of fiction); and the relations that this narrative activates (2) the efficacy of writing, the purpose of citations and the multiplicity/complexity of the author (from the novel, “siya’y isinasapapel din,” he is also being written, gunned even; the “location/coordinates of the speaking voice”). The preliminary idea this paper will test: the narrative merely serves as backdrop to the reflections on the sociality and materiality of thinking, of storytelling, and of writing.)
Edel Garcellano’s Maikling Imbestigasyon ng Isang Mahabang Pangungulila (MINIMP) begins with a conundrum—the task of making a broken eyeglass speak: more of a conceptual rather than a practical challenge, for how can one expect an eyeglass to talk? After this, the novel mentioned the Aleph, the teleology of the One and Many, the structure of the DNA, and before the first page ends, Minerva. The first page alone demonstrates the novel’s proclivity to resort to long prose and utilize non-alphabetic symbols like /, [ ], ;, among others. Variously, the novel has been described as “philosophical,” “detective” and “reflexive.,” while also being classified under the science fiction genre. Altering the above modifiers description a little, this paper proposes to describe the work as an intentionally intellectual novel, not least because of its generous intertextual references to names and events from history, mythology, philosophy and the history of thought.
The novel’s ample intertextual references and metanarrative commentaries make it intentionally intellectual, constantly calling attention to its constructedness, so as to blast the idea that a fictional work is self-enclosed, meaningful by virtue only of its formal properties. The work favors artifice over verisimilitude, formal disunity and tensions, over organic unity.
In calling attention to its constructed quality, the novel’s meta gestures mimic the idea of Aleph as totality, demonstrate it as ailing, even inane. Further, the novel’s unsparing metacommentaries also demand that the readers be engaged in meaning-making and forming ideas. The equivalent of Susan Stewart’s “syntactical embedding” in discourse and conversations, “narrative closure” is ironically delayed, if not altogether forestalled, through the author’s gestures. The novel neither spoon-feeds nor proffers the readers with a ‘complete’ narrative whose wholeness they are supposed to appreciate and grasp. Instead, it guides the meaning-making process by constructing not a singular, “essential kernel” but a “horizon of meaning” (Guillermo) from which interpretation can be based. This jives with Ellen Berry’s illustrations of how negative feminist critique is at work in the texts of Kathy Acker, Valerie Solanas, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Linda Barry, among others: refusing the idea that literary works have an identifiable core and inviting readers to co-construct meaning and not just grasp a predetermined one. Much like the works Berry discussed, MINIMP is hard to pin down, both in terms of the specifics of the narrative and any coherent worldview that can be read into it, or any clear-cut politics that can be attributed to it.
In connection, the paper also forwards that the novel departs from the formal tradition of realism in Philippine fiction while arguably still sharing many aspects of its politics. Here, the paper takes off from the prior works of Resil Mojares on the history of the Filipino novel. Regarding Filipino novels during the first half of the 20th century—marked by American colonization, pre-war Commonwealth, and post-war recovery—Mojares observed the tendency to synthesize the empirical and aesthetic impulses. Such synthesis means departing from previously dominant formulas: linear and predictable stories whose problems are magically and hastily resolved towards the end, and peopled by stock characters not benefitting from well-executed literary techniques that could have given them proper motivations and well-rounded representations. The paper argues that instead of insisting on a clean resolution, MINIMP keeps itself open, in keeping with its suspicion on self-enclosed totalities, and with reliance on the provocations of its ample meta-citations. This stance of suspicion and the citational gesture of performing it does not absolve the figure of the author in general, and Z-666, a university professor and writer who can count as the novel’s main character. Both general figure and specific character are presented reflexively, pointing to their conditions of production and the contested spheres where they operate.
Finally, the paper forwards that the novel’s intentionally intellectual style helps to illustrate Stewart’s distinction between book as object and book as material, expanding the idea of “book” beyond the more familiar sense of being a collection of texts and thoughts. Instead, it is a material object produced by human labor and therefore, implicates a larger set of social relations. As phrased in the novel itself, “Ayon sa dayalektikal na karunungan, ang salita ay materyal na produksyon din, tulad ng lanseta, sapatos, salamin, isang representasyon ng representation” (27). Dialectical knowledge posits that like knives, shoes, or mirrors, words are material products, representing representation (my translation). The social relations described and critiqued in the novel thus refer not just to the events told in the narrative but also to the larger conditions of book, and knowledge production. Part of these conditions—but also helping to produce them—is the “pasaway na hangal”/mischievous fool, no longer the mighty author churning out clean and complete manuscripts, but the playful writer, effecting through her words the contradictions both in the literary text and in the social moment where it is embedded.
na kaganapan, partikular bilang manipestasyon ng kontemporanyong
pamilihan at sintomas ng modernong urbanisasyon. Susuriin ang
pagkakatugma o ‘di-pagkakatugma ng lohikang gumagana sa Session in
Bloom sa sa tabi ng magkakaibang ideya: ang carnival ni Mikhail Bakhtin
at ang mga pagmumuni-muni ukol sa pamilihan-bilang-laberinto ni
Walter Benjamin. Magmumula sa paghahambing ng Session in Bloom sa
pamilihang kinagiliwan ni Benjamin ang pag-iibang anyo ng pamilihan sa
takbo ng kasaysayan.
Ang Abanao Square ay maituturing na isa sa mga pangunahing pamilihan sa lungsod ng Baguio, bagamat isa rin ito sa mga pinaka-naapektuhan ng pagkakatayo ng malaking SM Baguio Mall noong 2004. Matatagpuan sa gitna ng Public City Market at ng Baguio City Hall, masasabing nakakatulong ang lokasyong ito sa pakikipagsabayan ng Abanao hindi lamang sa SM kung hindi pati na rin sa iba pang tulad nitong maliliit na shopping malls tulad ng Tiong San, Center Mall at Por ta Vaga. Nilalayon ng papel na ito na tingnan ang mga kulturang nagsa-sanga-sanga sa loob at labas ng Abanao Square -- isang pamilihan sa isang lungsod tulad ng Baguio na ranas na ranas ang paglaganap ng kapital sa global na sakop.Titingnan ng papel una, kung paano gumagana ang ideya ng “simultaneity of the non-simultaneous” ni Ernst Bloch hindi lang sa pagitan ng Abanao Square at iba pang pamilihan sa Baguio kung hindi pati na rin sa loob mismo ng Abanao Square. Pangalawa, uusisain rin kung ano-anong mga “tactics” (mula sa gamit ni Michel de Certeau) ang inilulunsad ng mga mamimili upang hindi ganap na masakop ng umiiral na batas ng paggawa at pagbili sa loob ng pamilihang ito at kung ano ang mga potensyal at limitasyon ng tactics na ito. Magtatapos ang papel gamit ang isang materyalistang lenteng mula kayTeresa Ebert na tutumbok kung paano mas produktibong mauunawaan ang mga kultural na kaganapan at entitad tulad ng Abanao Square at mga binabahay nito.
(Abanao Square can be considered as one of the primary malls in Baguio, although it is also one of the most affected when SM Baguio was built in 2004. Being ocated in the middle of the Public City Market and the City Hall has arguably Abanao Square in competing not just with SM Baguio but with other smaller and older malls such as Tiong San, Center Mall and Porta Vaga.This paper aims to look at the various cultures intersecting inside and surrounding Abanao Square – a shopping center in a city where the workings of global capital are very palpable.The paper will look mainly at the following: how Ernst Bloch’s idea of the “simultaneity of the non-simultaneous” can apply not just among the shopping centers in Baguio but also within Abanao itself; what are the “tactics” (as conceptualized by Michel de Certeau) launched by the consumers in order to evade the logic of production and consumption in Abanao and the potentials and limitations of these tactics.The paper will be wrapped up using a materialist framework mainly supplied by Teresa Ebert which will posit how we can more productively analyze cultural phenomena and entities such as Abanao Square.)
May isang manunulat na tinawag ang nobela bilang isang “pilosopikal” na akda. Nais ng papel na ibahin nang kaunti ang bansag na ito at ipanukalang ang nobela ay ‘di lang pilosopikal kundi intelektwal. Nakasalalay ang pag-iibang ito sa pag-asang mas madaling ihayag ang sosyalidad ng panghuli. Mula rito, susuriin ang sala-salabid na kaisipang ipinasok sa akda at susubukang gagapin kung paano sila nag-uugnay-ugnay. Sisipatin rin ang istilo at pamamaraan ng pagkukwento ng nobela—hindi banayad, tahimik na nangugusap, malay sa ginagawa—at kung ano ang ambag nito sa kaisipang binubuo ng akda. Dalawang bagay kaugnay sa sinasabi at ginagawa ng nobela ang sisipatin: (1) ang estado at konstruksyon ng kwento/naratibo (mula sa nobela: “sa pinanlansi na ‘Fiction does not lie,’ kahit na ang kabaligtarang lohika nito ay ‘Fiction lies precisely because fiction is a lie.’” Ang sugal ko: higit sa katotohanan, kailangang usisain ang punsyon ng piksyon (ang baybay ay para sa alliterative effect); ano ang mga relasyong binubuhay nito) at (2) ang bisa ng pagsulat, ang silbi ng citation at ang kawalang-isahan ng may-akda (sa nobela, “siya’y isinasapapel din,” babarilin pa nga; “ang location/coordinates of the speaking voice”). Ang panimulang ideya na susubukin sa papel: ang naratibo ay background lang; tinutuntungan lamang ito upang ibida ang pagmumuni tungkol sa sosyalidad ng kaisipan, pagkukwento at pagsulat.
(Edel Garcellano’s Maikling Imbestigasyon ng Isang Mahabang Pangungulila commences with a challenging conundrum: making a broken eyeglass speak. After this, the following are mentioned: Aleph, the teleology of the One and Many, DNA structure, and, before the first page ends, Minerva.
One Filipino wrier described this novel as “philosophical.” This paper aims to slightly alter this designation and propose that the novel is not just philosophical but also intellectual—with the sociality of this second term easier to evince. The multifarious ideas permeating the novel will be discussed and their potential connections will be established. Analysis will also be given to the novels’ narrative style—creasy, covertly conversing, conscious of its own act—and how this contributes to the ideas being built in the work. Two points of concern will be on what the novel is saying and what it is doing: (1) the status and construction of the narrative (from the novel, “sa panlalansi na ‘Fiction does not lie,’ kahit na ang kabaligtarang lohika nito ay ‘Fiction lies precisely because fiction is a lie.’” My wager: what must be interrogated more than the truth-value is the function of fiction); and the relations that this narrative activates (2) the efficacy of writing, the purpose of citations and the multiplicity/complexity of the author (from the novel, “siya’y isinasapapel din,” he is also being written, gunned even; the “location/coordinates of the speaking voice”). The preliminary idea this paper will test: the narrative merely serves as backdrop to the reflections on the sociality and materiality of thinking, of storytelling, and of writing.)