Literature of Exile

Literature of Exile

Imaging the Filipino Migrant

What constitutes literature of exile?
recurring related themes of
separation,
exile,
expatriate life,
(im)migration,
(re)location,
travel abroad

What is the impact of these experiences on the writer’s lives and work and the national literature ?

How do these experiences influenced their sense of nation, identity and their concept of home?

Theme: the experience of exile

Exile itself has been the one central fact of our whole literary tradition. The expatriate choice is only one form of exile. For some, it takes the form of escape to a more seminal, intellectual centers of Madrid, Paris, HongKong and New York. For others, it implies Dapitan or Muntinlupa, for still others, exile into the past.

The exile referred to in the subsequesnt discussion is actual expatriation-exile from homeland, not just familial residence.

Filipino Migration to the United States
1st generation of filipino migrants to the US
1906-1946 approx 150,000 (to the sugar plantations of Hawaii and California)

2nd generation of Filipino migrants to the US
1946-1964 approx 30,000 Filipinos (mostly war veterans)

3rd generation
1964-1984 approx 630,000 Filipinos

among the first generation:
Jose Garcia Villa
NVM Gonzales
Bienvenido Santos
Carlos Bulosan
Nick Joaquin

The theme is fairly new to women’s narratives. It did not find its way into the stories by women of the generation of NVM Gonzales, Bienvenido Santos and Carlos Bulosan.

Most of the stories of exile that have emerged in the last few decades are written by women married to foreign men: Casper, Brainard, Skinner, Apostol. Most of their stories deal with homesick middle-class women. And the relocation is no longer confined to the United States.

A new variation of this theme –and one more likely to become significant in the future- focuses on the OFW and the mail order brides, the heartbreaking side of the contemporary Philippine Diaspora.
No longer confined to the United States
some examples
Fruit Stall (Kingcross, Australia)
Case 2182-93 Angela Cabading, Age 26(HongKong)

Character analysis
PROTAGONIST
Fruit Stall
Case 2182-93 Angela Cabading, Age 26
The Day the Dancers Came
America is in the Heart

Character analysis
PROTAGONIST
Fruit Stall
The fruit seller

Character analysis
PROTAGONIST
Case 2182-93, Angela Cabading, Age 29
Angela Cabading

Merlinda Bobis in "Fruit Stall" and
Nadine Sarreal in "Case 2182-93 Angela Cabading, Age 26"

from the lower class
pushed into exile by circumstances not completely within their control
both pay monstrous price for the exile


But both stories are sharp indictments of the system that condones—even encourages—such suffering, by turning a blind eye to the consequences.

Synthesis

Does the fact that these stories are written in English detract or contribute to their effectivity? Is this a relevant question?


( Reading assignment for next meeting )

The Day the Dancers Came by Bienvenido Santos
America is in the Heart by Carlos Bulosan