Vicente Sotto Lecture 2024 July
“Gugma sa Yutang Natawhan: Recontextualizing Vicente Sotto’s sense of nation in his journalistic fiction amid current challenges to Philippine Sovereignty,”
Dr. Crina E. Tañongon
ABSTRACT:
Following the Philippines’ independence from American colonial rule in 1946, questions persist regarding the nation’s true sovereignty, especially amidst ongoing territorial disputes in the West Philippine Sea with China. This situation challenges Filipino patriotism and prompts a reexamination of the extent to which we are willing to defend our sovereignty. This lecture will revisit the concept of “nation” through the lens of Vicente Sotto’s journalistic fiction, written during the early American period. Sotto skillfully integrated journalistic and literary elements in his 1900s stories, which this presentation will explore through a Bakhtinian (1981/2004) perspective on intertextuality.
Grounded in Bakhtin’s view of language as dialogic and ever-evolving, Hodges’ (2008) concept of recontextualization will be employed to reinterpret Sotto’s nationalist themes in his journalistic fiction in light of present-day political realities. Hodges viewed the past as the foundational domain for interpreting the present, emphasizing that any text evolves from existing texts and are reinterpreted across diverse interactional contexts. The intertextuality of historical and contemporary events allows for new interpretations and reshaping when placed in new contexts. Thus, approaching the theme of “gugma sa yutang natawhan” (love for one’s homeland), the lecture will explore how Sotto’s short stories from his collection, Mga Sugilanong Pilipinhon (Stories on Filipino Nationalism) — specifically Gugma sa Yutang Natawhan (Love for one’s homeland), Budhi sa Yutang Natawhan (Betrayal against one’s homeland), Magpakamatay Tungod sa Yutang Natawhan (To die for one’s homeland), and Ang Makilungsod (The civic-minded) — can be recontextualized to address contemporary challenges to Filipino sense of nation and Philippine sovereignty, aligning with Anderson’s notion of the nation as an imagined community.
The realignment of Sotto’s texts within the current political context signifies a profound discursive encounter within the dialogical framework of Philippine nationhood. Sotto, both as narrator and through the characters in his short stories, embodies a heroic role in this reimagining of a nation. By drawing insights from Sotto’s historical context, the lecture may reveal updates and transformations in the contemporary understanding of national identity, potentially enhancing an enduring sense of nation, or possibly leading to the emergence of a new concept of nation altogether.
Date: July 30, 2024
Category: Vicente Sotto Lecture Series