| Title | : | After Postcolonialism: Remapping Philippines-United States Confrontations |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0847698610 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780847698615 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 272 |
| Publication | : | First published May 24, 2000 |
| Awards | : | Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book Award (2001) |
Caught betwixt the Asian continent and the hegemonic power of the United States, the Philippines occupies a contested space between past and present. Between the memory of colonial experience and an emergent nation-making dream, can a meaningful future be envisioned? This provocative book explores this problematic zone of difference through a critique of the Western production of knowledge in the context of local resistance. While Americanization of the Filipino continues, the encounter of globalizing and nationalizing forces has precipitated a profound political and social crisis whose outcome may be a paradigmatic lesson for many so-called third world countries. What happens in this Southeast Asian nation may foretell the fate of the ideals of democracy and social justice now beleaguered by the market and the unrelenting commodification of everyday life.
After Postcolonialism: Remapping Philippines-United States Confrontations Reviews
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Marxist post-colonial literary critic meets the Asian American literary canon. E. San Juan, Jr. is not, of course, “meeting” the canon. As a leading critic of Filipino literature, he is renarrating the canon to fit with his analysis of historically situated dialectically created identity articulated within the uneven development of late capitalism. And the truth be told, the Asian American literary canon really only figures into the beginning and ending chapters (with Hagedorn getting her own chapter), the bulk of the book focuses on engaging various critical debates around postmodernism and postcolonialism for the uneven relations between the Philippines and the United States. The book was a surprisingly enjoyable read although I was newly impressed each page with the author’s ability to utilize so much jargon, and yet have each sentence remain (more or less) interpretable, particularly if one actually slowed down to read every word.
