Embodying the Manananggal (an abstract)

So...nakasulat ako "paper" (in a parallel reality!) kag ginapost ko dya tulad to remind myself to "werk it, girl!"

Embodying the Manananggal: Portrayal of Female Characters in Speculative Fiction by Filipina Writers

The mananangal is one of the most iconic mythical creatures in Philippine folklore and its ability to separate itself by will has come to symbolize what is “shocking, terrifying, horrific, abject” supposedly about the women in the Philippines. This paper did a textual analysis of four selected speculative fiction stories by Filipina writers: Hunger by Gabriela Lee (2016); Excerpt from a Letter by a Social-Realist Aswang by Kristin Mandigma; Santos de Sampaguitas by Alyssa Wong; and Seek Ye Whore by Yvette Tan to understand how such symbolism is embodied by female characters in these stories.

Analysis of the stories yielded the main insight that the lived bodily experiences of the manananggal as well as its struggles for autonomy and self-determination are actually a reflection of the tensions between women's lived bodily experiences and the cultural [that is, the Filipino culture] meanings inscribed on the female body. The choices of the female characters such as agreeing to be a mail-order bride, preying only on pregnant women who do not want their unborn babies, believing that eating babies “is a legitimate form of population control” or sacrificing her sister’s baby to spare her own children seem indeed “shocking, terrifying, horrific, abject” to Filipinos. These characters’ portrayals as “monsters” give the stories a moral undertone and dilemma.

#literary #academic #litcrit #mananaggal #embodiment #speculativefiction #shortstories #filipinawriters #femalecharacters #womenmonsters