Abstract

This article is a textual analysis of two short stories of Pedro S. Dandan who has articulated for Filipinos their political unconscious against the onslaught of colonial domination. In his works we read how Filipinos confront socio-political problems of war, squatting, poverty in everyday lives. Since most of his stories depict Manila in its early phase of urbanization, it is interesting to note how such stories offer a crucial perspective to the real socio-political problems we are still experiencing today. Reading his works in light of our contemporary problems will reveal the various interplay of forces of control and resistance. Dandan’s short stories narrativize these forces and allow us to see how problems are assessed and reassessed. Conveniently, Dandan’s stories are narrativization of  our roles as subjects in a continued effort for improvement and further emancipation. In the works of Dandan, we pose also the question of who we are in relation to this domination and how we can recognize ourselves as agents of transformation in our society. These articulations have generative resonances to our own real situation and condition. In this paper, Intramuros is not only a convenient setting in  Dandan’s stories, rather Intramuros becomes the narrative of Filipinos’ colonial experience and counter-colonial sentiments.

Keywords

city, colonial discourse, Manila, Pedro S. Dandan

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Kritika Kultura
Department of English
School of Humanities
Ateneo de Manila University

The Philippine Commission on Higher Education (CHED) declares Kritika Kultura as a CHED-recognized journal under the Journal Challenge Category of its Journal Incentive Program.

International Board of Editors

Jan Baetens
Professor
Faculty of Arts
Katholieke Universiteit te Leuven (Belgium)

Joel David
Professor of Cultural Studies
Inha University (South Korea)

Michael Denning
Professor of American Studies and English
Department of English
Yale University (US)

Faruk
Faculty of Cultural Sciences
Universitas Gadjah Mada (Indonesia)

Regenia Gagnier
Professor of English
University of Exeter (UK)

Leela Gandhi
John Hawkes Professor of the Humanities and English
Brown University (US)

Inderpal Grewal
Professor of Women's Gender and Sexuality Studies
Professor of South Asian Studies, Ethnicity, Race and Migration Studies
Yale University (US)

Peter Horn
Professor Emeritus and Honorary Lifetime Fellow
University of Cape Town (South Africa)
Honorary Professor and Research Associate in German Studies
University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa)

Anette Horn
Professor of German Studies
University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa)

David Lloyd
Distinguished Professor of English
University of California, Riverside (US)

Bienvenido Lumbera
National Artist for Literature
Professor Emeritus
University of the Philippines

Rajeev S. Patke
Director of the Division of Humanities
Professor of Humanities
Yale NUS College (Singapore)

Vicente L. Rafael
Giovanni and Amne Costigan Endowed Professor of History
University of Washington (US)

Vaidehi Ramanathan
Department of Linguistics
University of California, Davis (US)

Temario Rivera
Professorial Lecturer
Department of Political Science
University of the Philippines

E. San Juan, Jr.
Philippines Studies Center (US)

Neferti X.M. Tadiar
Professor of Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies
Barnard College (US)
Director of the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race
Columbia University (US)

Antony Tatlow
Honorary Professor of Drama
Trinity College Dublin (Ireland)