Discursive Formations and the Ambivalent Nation in Gina Apostol's "The Revolution According to Raymundo Mata"

Abstract

Gina Apostol’s The Revolution According to Raymundo Mata brings to the fore a multi- contested textual space that not only politicizes the act of reading, but more importantly, engages in a form of nation-building or imagining. The paper will demonstrate through a two-prong analysis of form and content that this novel utilizes postmodern modes of articulation such as parody, intertextuality, and a non-sequential temporal narrative in order to examine knowledge-productions, politics of representation, agency, and nationhood that have become immanent and critical in the emerging and rapidly-developing field of theoretical discourse that seeks to illuminate Philippine postcoloniality. It will also be argued that postmodern forms, which are premised upon diffusion, multiplicity, and the ambivalence of meaning render the notion of the Philippines to be equally ambivalent and diffused. Whether such re-imagining or re-configuring of the nation is advantageous or not is left for the reader to decide. The critical works of Linda Hutcheon, Homi Bhabha, and Benita Parry will serve as departure points for the analysis.