Akda: The Asian Journal of Literature, Culture and Performance

Mark Joseph Pascua Santos’ essay, “Ang Estados Unidos sa Hiraya ni Manong Frankie: Paglalapat ng Tematikong Pagsusuri sa mga Nobela ni F. Sionil Jose sa Diwa ng Araling Kabanwahan”, reveals the tensions and negotiations of racial inquiry and class critique determined through the thematic analysis of 13 novels.

Download the article here: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/akda/vol6/iss1/3/
Browse through Volume 6 Issue 1 here: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/akda/

Abstract
Ginamit ng pag-aaral ang tematikong pagsusuri upang isalansan ang mga datos mula sa 13 nobela ni F. Sionil Jose ukol sa Estados Unidos at ugnayang Pilipino-Amerikano. Isinagawa ang paspasang pagbasa sa mga nobela, itinala ang mga pahinang may banggit sa “Estados Unidos” at mga salitang kaugnay nito, isinaalang-alang ang konteksto ng bawat banggit, at pinalitaw ang mga temang umiinog dito. Para ito sa layuning makapag-ambag sa Araling Kabanwahan (pagsasa-Filipino ng Area Studies/International Studies), kung saan pinag-aaralan ang mga kabihasnan sa labas ng Pilipinas gamit ang wika-at-perspektibang Pilipino. Hinahangad ng pag-aaral na maitaguyod ang ibayong interseksyon sa pagitan ng Araling Kabanwahan at Araling Panitikan, tungo sa higit na pagsasari-sari ng Araling Kabanwahan. Nakapagpalitaw ang pag-aaral ng 45 sub-tema na ipinailalim sa malalaking tema. Sa pamamagitan ng pagbaybay sa mga sub-temang ito, napansin ang may kalabuang representasyon ni Sionil Jose sa mga Amerikano. Isang sanhi nito ang tendensyang pagtuunan ng pansin ang makauring pagsusuri kaysa makalahing pagsisiyasat. Sa kagustuhang gamitin ang Estados Unidos bilang literary foil upang kastiguhin ang Pilipinong elit bilang pangunahing banta sa bayan, lumabnaw ang negatibong pagsasaimahen sa kolonyalismo/neokolonyalismong Amerikano. Taliwas dito, naninindigan ang Araling Kabanwahan tungo sa balanseng pag-aaral sa iba/kaugnay na kabihasnan, tungo sa maka-Pilipino at makatarungang pagsusuri.

Keywords
Araling Kabanwahan, Estados Unidos, F. Sionil Jose, tematikong pagsusuri, ugnayang Pilipino-Amerikano

Clarissa V. Militante’s “Han Kang on Time & Body” offers a critical review of Han Kang’s novel Human Acts, focusing on the liminality of time, how survivors “inhabit” the past to prevent forgetting, and the centrality of the body. The review argues how acts of defiance against the state’s inhumanity positions the novel as a tool to “decolonize time” from the erasure of history.

Download the article here: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/akda/vol6/iss1/7/
Browse through Volume 6 Issue 1 here: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/akda/

Abstract
Han Kang's novel Human Acts delves into the liminality of time-space, as memories about a historical event become a ritual of remembering for those who survived tragedy. Time is not only historical, but can also be foregrounded by bodies, both dead and surviving. The survivors do not merely recall the past but inhabit it, too, so that they will not forget. This in itself is an act of defiance and resistance.

Keywords
time, liminal, body, memory, historical fiction

Jester Gabriel De Leon’s essay, “Panitikan at Pakikibakang Pesante: Kasaysayan ng Pakikibaka para sa Repormang Agraryo sa Tatlong Nobela ni Lazaro Francisco”, offers an examination of Francisco’s three novels, highlighting the distinct ways each novel forwards the struggle for genuine agrarian reform.

Download the article here: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/akda/vol6/iss1/3/
Browse through Volume 6 Issue 1 here: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/akda/

Abstract
Binasa ng papel na ito ang tatlong nobela ng Pambansang Alagad ng Sining sa Panitikan na si Lazaro Francisco na Ama (1929), Maganda Pa ang Daigdig(1955), at Daluyong (1962), upang ipatampok ang kasaysayan ng pakikibaka repormang agraryo buhat sa iba pang mga tunggalian na binunga ng nagbabanggaang interes ng mga magbubukid at panginoong maylupa sa isang lipunang malapyudal sang-ayon sa pagsusuring Maoismo. Matapat na isiniwalat ng mga akda ni Francisco ang kalagayan ng magbubukid sa rurok ng malapyudal na pananamantala mula sa panahon ng pananakop ng Estado Unidos hanggang sa panunungkulan ng mga burukrata-kapitalista matapos ang Ikalawang Digmaang Pandaigdig. Sa kabila nito, malinaw na hindi banayad sa mga magsasaka ang pagtahak sa landas ng pakikibaka. Habang ang mga iba ay binabagabag ng moral na ekonomiya nila na hindi sumalungat sa takda ng pagkaalipin, ang iba ay nagtatayo na ng kilusan. Agad itong sinalig ng mga mga panginoong maylupa sa pamamagitan ng mga hakbang upang lupigin ang pakikibaka nila. Sa kabilang banda, naging tuntungan naman ng reporma ang tunggalian sa pananaw ng naliliwanagan at despotikong panginoong maylupa. Pinupuna ng mga akda ang pagkahulog ng diskurso ng repormang agraryo sa kamay ng mga pulitiko na sila ring mga nagmamay-ari ng lupain kaya litaw ang kahirapan sa malawakang pagtataguyod ng pamamahagi ng lupa sa mga magbubukid. Sa kabuoan, isang sustenidong kritika ang panulat ni Francisco sa nagpapatuloy na panawagan para sa tunay na reporma sa lupa at may bisa ito hanggang sa kasalukuyan sa ganang naglilinaw ito ng mga aral mula sa suliraning pambansa na bagamat nagbago sa mga usaping kantitatibo, mabigat pa ring problema hanggang ngayon.

Keywords
Lazaro Francisco, nobelang Tagalog, repormang agraryo, kilusang agraryo, pakikibakang pesante

Sylvelyn Jo A. Almanzor’s “Narratives of Dis-ease: A Genre Study of Pathography” explores the genre of Pathography, personal narratives of illness, treatment, and grief. It analyzes how pathography provides a “counter-narrative” to the cold, objective data of clinical medicine. By focusing on the concept of “dis-ease”, the paper demonstrate how pathographicwriting allows writer/patients to reclaim their humanity, agency, and voice within a healthcare system and society that often silences them.


Download the article here: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/akda/vol6/iss1/6/
Browse through Volume 6 Issue 1 here: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/akda/

Abstract
This essay establishes pathography as a distinct genre of creative nonfiction, tracing the development, form, and cultural significance of this body of literature. I have broadly defined it as narratives on personal experiences of Gabriel Marcel's "dis-ease"—covering and critiquing the human understanding and experience of sickness, pain, and grief—which has evolved from autobiographical narratives and life-writing of patients and medical professionals to a recognized form of creative nonfiction. This study will analyze the genre's structure, themes, and rhetorical strategies with consideration to cultural significance and how it negotiates the human understanding of suffering, healing, and societal attitudes toward existence and embodiment.

Keywords
creative nonfiction, autobiographical essays, medical narratives, illness narratives, pathography

Victor John M. Loquias’s “Gregor Samsa’s Pagkagimata (Awakening) in Bikol: A BecomingMinor in Translation” examines the translation work of Kristian Sendon Cordero, who translates world canon (e.g., Kafka, Borges) into the Bikol and Rinconada languages. Using the theoretical framework of Deleuze and Guattari, the paper argues that these translations function as “Minor Literature.” It explores how localizing global texts subverts the dominance of “major” languages like English and Tagalog, creating a space for regional identity and linguistic audacity throughthe concept of Pusuanon.

Download the article here: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/akda/vol6/iss1/5/
Browse through Volume 6 Issue 1 here: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/akda/

Abstract
Kristian Cordero’s translation of Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis instantiates what the philosophers Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari call minor literature. Preferring the Bikol term Pagkagimata—the literal event of Gregor Sama’s becoming-animal in the novel as title of the translation and the utilization of the Rinconada Bikol language for the transformed Samsa— Cordero has typified a perspective of translation that challenges the popular view of fluent translation from the source text to the target language. Exemplifying the concept of becoming-minor of Deleuze and Guattari and deploying Lawrence Venuti’s notion of the “remainder,” An Pagkagimata ni Gregor Samsa exhibits a deterritorialization of Bikol language and reveals what translation is in practice—an ideology and utopia. With this Deluezio-Guattarian perspective of Cordero’s translation an alternative way of framing questions surrounding identity, particularly of Bikolness, is proffered that is, as an invention for a people-to-come.

Keywords
Bikol Translation, Kafka, Metamorphosis, Deleuze and Guattari, Becoming-Minor

Michael Aaron C. Gomez’s “Literary Colonization and Locating Avenues of Subversion in Bobby Flores-Villasis’s Suite Bergamasque” examines how the collection’s literary canon is shaped by imperialist and class ideologies, and how its narratives of family, identity, and “freedom” reveal the tensions between cultural inheritance and structural inequality in contemporary Dumaguete society.

Download the article here: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/akda/vol6/iss1/2/
Browse through Volume 6 Issue 1 here: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/akda/

Abstract
This paper examines four short stories included in the collection titled Suite Bergamasque, written by multi-awarded Negrense playwright and fictionist Bobby Flores-Villasis. A materialist reading situates Villasis within the canon of Philippine literature in English and analyzes the way his stories formally render the class antagonisms of history through the interconnected narratives of Dumaguete City’s sugar elite. Finally, this paper also contends that the political imagination of Villasis’s work exhorts contemporary Dumaguete writers to critically examine inherited hagiographies in order to describe fully the conditions that have shaped the city into its contemporary formation, particularly the phenomena of gentrification and brain drain. Through this reading, this paper hopes to spark or contribute to the discourse surrounding the politics of Dumaguete City’s claim to be a “City of Literature.”

Keywords: Bobby Flores-Villasis, Suite Bergamasque, Edilberto Tiempo, Edith Tiempo,
Dumaguete City, Silliman University, Silliman University National, Writers Workshop,
Philippine literature in English, Philippine literary canon, gentrification, imperialism

We are pleased to announce the latest issue of Akda: The Asian Journal of Literature, Culture, Performance (Vol. 6, No. 1). You may access the issue here: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/akda/

“What binds these contributions is not a single theoretical orientation, but a shared commitment to reading closely where meanings begin to fray: in institutions that shape literary production, in the uneven terrains of social life, in the unstable work of translation, and in the fragile yet enduring narratives through which experience is made legible. Literature, in this sense, does not simply reflect these conditions; it inhabits them, often uneasily, and in doing so opens them to renewed scrutiny.” -From the Editor, Dinah Roma.

Akda Vol. 6, No. 1 includes the following articles:
Regular Articles:
1. Literary Colonization and Locating Avenues of Subversion in Bobby Flores Villasis’s Suite Bergamasque by Michael Aaron C. Gomez
2. Panitikan at Pakikibakang Pesante: Kasaysayan ng Pakikibaka para sa Repormang Agraryo sa Tatlong Nobela ni Lazaro ni Francisco Jester G. De Leon
3. Ang Estados Unidos sa Hiraya ni Manong Frankie: Paglalapat ng Tematikong Pagsusuri sa mga Nobela ni F. Sionil Jose sa Diwa ng Araling Kabanwahan ni Mark Joseph Pascua Santos
4. Gregor Samsa’s Pagkagimata (Awakening) in Bikol: A Becoming-Minor in Translation by Victor John M. Loquias
Perspectives Article:
5. Narratives of Dis-ease: A Genre Study of Pathography by Sylvelyn Jo A. Almanzor
Review:
1. Han Kang on Time & Body by Clarissa V. Militante

We would like to congratulate our author, Dr. Vijae Alquisola, whose article "Pagduyan sa Bayan: Tungo sa Pagluluwal ng Tradisyon ng Oyayi” published in Vol 4, No 1. of our journal won Outstanding Published Scholarly Article in Filipino at the St. Miguel Febres Cordero Research Awards for Academic Year 2024–2025. Padayon, Dr. Vijae!

You may download this award-winning article here: https://doi.org/10.59588/2782-8875.1075
You may browse through our current issue here: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/akda/
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Abstract
Sa diskusyon ng tradisyon at panitikang oral, tila nakaligtaan ang oyayi sa duyan nang malibang sa kuwentuhan ang tagapag-alaga. Bagamat nahahagip ang oyayi sa ilang kritikal na sulatin, antolohiya, at mga lathalain—nananatili ang pangangailangan na sinupin ang mga ito upang masimulan ang paglalatag ng tradisyon ng anyo. Bukod sa pag-survey sa mga kaugnay na literatura, layunin ng papel na maipakita ang mahigpit na pagkakabigkis ng oyayi sa karanasan ng bayang nagluwal dito. Isa rin itong pakikipagdiyalogo sa mga maagang nasabi tungkol sa oyayi bilang hindi nagkukuwento o “non-narrative” at “walang kahulugan” labas sa pagpapatulog ng bata. Sa paglalatag, ipinakita ang kalikasan ng oyayi bilang awit at tula, at isang anyo na sa kabila ng kaiksian—may kalong-kalong na naratibo.
The lullaby seemed neglected in the oral tradition and literature discussion, much like a child left in a hammock as the caregiver was engrossed in a conversation. Although it has been written about in some critical essays, anthologies, and feature articles, these materials must still be reviewed and synthesized as a preliminary step toward writing the lullaby’s tradition. Aside from surveying possible related literature, the article illustrates that the existence of lullabies is tied to the experience of the community that gave birth to it. This article is in dialogue, too, with scholars’ early perceptions of lullabies in the country who believe that it is a “non-narrative song” and “meaningless” outside its use of lulling the baby to sleep. The essay sheds light on the nature of a lullaby as a song and poem, and despite its shortness—it carries a narrative.
Keywords: oyayi, tradisyonal na tula, awiting bayan, panitikang oral, tradisyong oral, naratibo (lullaby, traditional poetry, folk song, oral literature, oral tradition, narrative)

We are pleased to inform everyone that the deadline for submission to our Special Issue on the Philippine National Artists for Literature is extended to February 10, 2026.

Please review the submission guidelines and other details below

DEADLINE EXTENDED: February 10, 2026

Call for Abstracts: Special issue on the Philippine National Artists for Literature

In 1995, the late National Artist Bienvenido Lumbera challenged the Filipino artist to find the "indigenous soil in which his art should sink roots" (7). It was, indeed, a task he himself set out to do, publishing widely both critically and creatively, contributing vital works in Philippine criticism and literature infused with a decolonial agenda while firmly rooted in and critical to the concept of "nation" and how they constitute "National Literature" (Lumbera 2000). For his substantial contribution to Philippine literature and criticism, Ka Bien was inducted into the Order of the National Artists in 2006. The Order of National Artists, since its inception in 1972, has conferred the title of National Artist for Literature to 18 writers who have, in a variety of ways, uplifted the national consciousness through their art while embodying, as National Artist Resil Mojares states, the "haunting" burden of the Filipino writer to "invoke the national soul" (310).

This Special Issue on the Philippine National Artists for Literature of Akda: The Asian Journal for Literature, Culture, Performance aims to gather works from scholars, artists, and cultural practitioners that engage and examine the creative and intellectual legacy and contribution of our national artists for literature, recognizing the enduring vitality of their works through critical scholarship within the interdisciplinary fields of literary, cultural, and performance studies and other allied fields in the humanities.

We invite local and international authors whose proposals explore the life and works of Philippine National Artists for Literature within and even beyond these themes:

• the national artist and the canon
• the writer read in the diaspora/in translation
• the literary biography as critical text
• the interface of media and literature
• performing the literature
• translation and adaptation of the writers’ work
• the nation, the region, the nation-state, and the national artist
• historical construction/imagination in the writers’ work
• the literary criticism of the writers’ work
• text and intersectionality
• the cultural politics of literature and the national artist award

Proposals may consider one or more of the following National Artists for Literature:

• Amado V. Hernandez (1973)
• Jose Garcia Villa (1973)
• Nick Joaquin (1976)
• Carlos P. Romulo (1982)
• Francisco Arcellana (1990)
• Rolando S. Tinio (1997)
• N.V.M. Gonzales (1997)
• Carlos Quirino (1997)
• Edith L. Tiempo (1999)
• F. Sionil Jose (2001)
• Virgilio S. Almario (2003)
• Alejandro Roces (2003)
• Bienvenido Lumbera (2006)
• Lazaro A. Francisco (2009)
• Cirilo F. Bautista (2014)
• Ramón L. Muzones (2018)
• Resil B. Mojares (2018)
• Gémino H. Abad (2022)

We welcome articles written in English or in Filipino. Abstracts must be between 150-250 words with at least four keywords. Abstracts written in Filipino must have an accompanying English translation. Alongside the abstract, please submit a 150-word bionote, which includes your institutional affiliation and other professional credentials.

Submit your abstract and bionote through this Google Form: https://forms.gle/eUsRVYJQMTHxjG8e8

Deadline for abstract submission is January 26, 2026. (DEADLINE EXTENDED: February 10, 2026)
Authors whose abstracts are accepted will be notified by the end of February 2026.

Authors whose abstracts are accepted are expected to submit their full papers on or before May 15, 2026.

Guidelines for full papers and other policies can be viewed on Akda's official website: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/akda

If you have any questions, please email the special issue editor, Dr. Shirley O. Lua ([email protected]) and carbon copy the managing editor, Dr. Jose Kervin Cesar B. Calabias ([email protected]).

Works Cited:

Lumbera, Bienvenido. Writing the Nation/Pag-Akda Ng Bansa. University of the Philippines
Press, 2000.

Mojares, Resil B. Waiting for Mariang Makiling: Essays in Philippine Cultural History. Ateneo
de Manila University Press, 2002.

Ma. Cecilia C. de la Rosa’s “Ang Kasama: Agapay na Sanaysay sa Librong Kampuhan” is a critical accompaniment to her poetry collection Kampuhan (2024), which engages with Jodi Dean’s theory of the Comrade translated through Virgilio Enriquez’s Kapwa and its manifestation in the ordinary and daily life and experiences of revolutionaries pervading the poetry collection.

Download the article here: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/akda/vol5/iss2/7/
Browse through Volume 5 Issue 2 here: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/akda/

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Abstract
Ang sanaysay na ito ay mungkahing pagbasa ng aking librong Kampuhan (2024), koleksiyon ng 55 tula tungkol sa buhay ng mga rebolusyonaryo sa isang lihim na kampo. Hango sa komponenteng poetika ng aking tesis masterado na may parehong pamagat, ang sanaysay ay pinaikling bersiyon ng seksiyong tumututok sa Teorya ng Comrade ni Jodi Dean (2020) bilang balangkas at perspektiba sa pag-unawa sa mga persona at bagay at sa kaligiran nila sa mga tula.
Hinahapag ni Dean ang Comrade bilang lagom ng praktis ng komunismo at unyonismo sa buong mundo sa pamamagitan ng apat na tesis ng kasama na nagpapagitaw sa mga katangiang esensiyal sa isang komunista. Sa ganito’y lumilinaw ang Comrade bilang teorya ng “politikal na pakikibahagi.” Para ganap na maisalin ang Comrade tungong Kasama, dumaan ito sa pagdadalisay ng Kapwa (Virgilio Enriquez, 1983), at sa proseso’y iginigiit ng papel na ang Kasama ay ang politikal na Kapwa. Gamit ang Kasama bilang balangkas, mababasa sa mga tula ang mga halimbawa ng bawat tesis ng Kasama. Sa ganito’y naipapakilala ang kasama sa paraan ng pagtula sa karaniwan at pang-araw-araw na buhay at karanasan ng mga rebolusyonaryo sa kampuhan. Sa pagbasang ito, iginigiit kong ang ninanais talaga ng koleksiyon ay makaharap at makilala, makamayan marahil, ng mambabasa ang kasama/komunista.
Keywords
kasama, Jodi Dean, tula, rebolusyon, Kampuhan