Filipino Studies: Palimpsests of Nation and Diaspora

by Martin F. Manalansan (Editor), Augusto Espiritu (Editor)

Overview

After years of occupying a vexed position in the American academy, Philippine studies has come into its own, emerging as a trenchant and dynamic space of inquiry. Filipino Studies is a field-defining collection of vibrant voices, critical perspectives, and provocative ideas about the cultural, political, and economic state of the Philippines and its diaspora. Traversing issues of colonialism, neoliberalism, globalization, and nationalism, this volume examines not only the past and present position of the Philippines and its people, but also advances new frameworks for re-conceptualizing this growing field.

Written by a prestigious lineup of international scholars grappling with the legacies of colonialism and imperial power, the essays examine both the genealogy of the Philippines’ hyphenated identity as well as the future trajectory of the field. Hailing from multiple disciplines in the humanities and social sciences, the contributors revisit and contest traditional renditions of Philippine colonial histories, from racial formations and the Japanese occupation to the Cold War and “independence” from the United States. Whether addressing the contested memories of World War II, the “voyage” of Filipino men and women into the U.S. metropole, or migrant labor and the notion of home, the assembled essays tease out the links between the past and present, with a hopeful longing for various futures. Filipino Studies makes bold declarations about the productive frameworks that open up new archives and innovative landscapes of knowledge for Filipino and Filipino American Studies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781479884353
Publisher:	New York University Press
Publication date:	05/10/2016
Pages:	464
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Martin F. Manalansan (Editor)
Martin F. Manalansan IV is Professor of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Rutgers University, New Brunswick. He has taught at the University of Minnesota, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, New York University, New School University, and the University of the Philippines. He is the author of Global Divas: Filipino Gay Men in the Diaspora (Duke UP:2003). His forthcoming book is entitled “Queer Dwellings: Mess, Mesh, Measure.” He is the president of the Association for Asian American Studies.

Augusto Espiritu (Editor)
Augusto F. Espiritu is Associate Professor of history and Asian American studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is the author of Five Faces of Exile: The Nation and Filipino American Intellectuals (2005).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

The Field: Dialogues, Visions, Tensions, and Aspirations Martin F. Manalansan IV Augusto F. Espiritu 1

Part I Where From? Where To? Filipino Studies: Fields and Agendas

1 Challenges for Cultural Studies under the Rule of Global War Neferti Tadiar 15

2 Toward a Critical Filipino Studies Approach to Philippine Migration Robyn Magalit Rodriguez 33

3 Oriental Enlightenment and the Colonial World: A Derivative Discourse? John D. Blanco 56

Part II Colonial Layerings, Imperial Crossings

4 Collaboration, Co-prosperity, and "Complete Independence": Across the Pacific (1942), across Philippine Palimpsests Victor Bascara 87

5 A Wondrous World of Small Places: Childhood Education, US Colonial Biopolitics, and the Global Filipino Kimberly Alidio 106

6 Ilustrado Transnationalism: Cross-Colonial Fields and Filipino Elites at the Turn of the Twentieth Century Julian Go 128

7 "Not Classifiable as Orientals or Caucasians or Negroes": Filipino Racial Ontology and the Stalking Presence of the "Insane Filipino Soldier" Dylan Rodriguez 151

Part III Nationalist Inscriptions: Blurrings and Erasures

8 Transnationalizing the History of the Chinese in the Philippines during the American Colonial Period: The Case of the Chinese Exclusion Act Richard T. Chu 179

9 Redressive Nationalisms, Queer Victimhood, and Japanese Duress Robert Diaz 197

10 Decolonizing Manila-Men and St. Mail, Louisiana: A Queer Postcolonial Asian American Critique Kale Bantigue Fajardo 227

Part IV The Filipino Body in Time and Space

11 Pinoy Posteriority Martin Joseph Ponce 251

12 The Case of Felicidad Ocampo: A Palimpsest of Transpacific Feminism Denise Cruz 274

13 Hair Lines: Filipino American Art and the Uses of Abstraction Sarita Echavez See 297

14 Eartha Kitt's "Waray Waray": The Filipina in Black Feminist Performance Imaginary Lucy Burns 313

Part V Philippine Cultures at Large: Homing in on Global Filipinos and their Discontents

15 Diasporic and Liminal Subjectivities in the Age of Empire: "Beyond Biculturalism" in the Case of the Two Ongs Francisco Benitez 333

16 The Legacy of Undesirability: Filipino TNTs, "Irregular Migrants," and "Outlaws" in the US Cultural Imaginary Anna Romina Guevarra 355

17 "Home" and The Filipino Channel: Stabilizing Economic Security, Migration Patterns, and Diaspora through New Technologies Emily Noelle Ignacio 375

18 "Come Back Home Soon": The Pleasures and Agonies of "Homeland" Visits Rick Bonus 388

About the Contributors 411

Index 415

Editorial Reviews

"This exciting and crucial anthology marks a major historiographical intervention into the fields of Asian American and Filipino/American studies. Bringing together a distinguished group of scholars,Filipino Studiesrepresents not only a moment of stock-taking, but also a clarion call to future scholars to take up the fields politically committed aspirations."

Theodore S. Gonzalves

"The book will primarily interest scholars and students but may also appeal to general readers with connections to the Philippines."

Choice Connect

"Edited byMartin Manalansan IV and Augusto F. Espiritu, pioneers of FilipinoX studies, it is an unapologetic introduction to the interdisciplinary, intersectional, transnational,palimpsestic nature of the work many FilipinoX scholars in the Diaspora have engaged over the last two decades."

Pacific Historical Review

This exciting and crucial anthology marks a major historiographical intervention into the fields of Asian American and Filipino/American studies. Bringing together a distinguished group of scholars, Filipino Studies represents not only a moment of stock-taking, but also a clarion call to future scholars to take up the field’s politically committed aspirations.”-Theodore S. Gonzalves,author of The Day the Dancers Stayed: Performing in the Filipino/American Diaspora

From the Publisher