Book review: The subversive Soledad Reyes

Before Soledad S. Reyes came along, the academic world was not interested in Tagalog comics and romance novels. She changed all that by writing about Darna and Fernando Poe Jr. as well as Bienvenido Lumbera and Virgilio Almario. As the country's most important female literary critic, Reyes has devoted her life to the study of Philippine popular culture, pointing out the richness and depth of the Filipino soul that is reflected in various literary forms. For those who will be reading her for the first time, the 476-page Salungat: A Soledad S. Reyes Reader (Vibal Foundation, 2012) is a good introduction to her world of literary theory and criticism. It is composed of 20 essays that make up a handy and representative volume of her works. A Professor Emeritus at the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies at the Ateneo de Manila University, Reyes has published numerous books on Tagalog literature covering a wide range of topics including films, movie stars, and komiks. Among her books are Ang Nobelang Tagalog (1905-1975): Tradisyon at Modernismo (1982), The Romance Mode in Philippine Popular Literature and Other Essays (1990), and Narratives of Note: Studies of Popular Forms in the 20th Century (2012). In her latest book, the introduction by editor David Jonathan Y. Bayot entitled “Salungat: Soledad S. Reyes and the Romance with the Subject/s of Philippine Literature, in the Tropics of One Enchanted Room” provides a comprehensive overview of her work, although the jargon-filled language might be mentally prohibitive for the uninitiated. Nonetheless, it is Bayot’s hand as the editor that has chosen and divided the essays into four parts to come up with a very useful road map to the critical mind of Soledad Reyes. Under the first part called “Theoretical Interventions,” essays on Philippine aesthetics, literary studies, colonialism, Balagtasismo, and poetics are included. Her most popular essay is in this section: “The Romance Mode in Philippine Popular Literature.” Here, Reyes points out that the lack of realism in komiks and novels serialized in popular magazines such as Liwayway should not be seen as a weakness, or as an excuse not to take these works seriously. In her view, this romanticism is in itself subversive. She writes, “By creating an ideal world, the romance subverted the reality it could not reflect.” In the second part called “Tagalog Literature,” she delves into the development and history of Tagalog novels, as well as the life and works of writers like Agustin Fabian and Macario Pineda. In her essay “The Tagalog Novel in the Twentieth Century,” she recognizes the novel as a “precious artefact” and “as an index to the complex socio-historical processes that society has undergone in the twentieth century.” In the third part called “Women and Literature,” there are two essays about Tagalog writers Rosario de Guzman Lingat and Lina Flor. She returns Lingat into her rightful position as one of the important Philippine writers in the 20th century, writing thus: “In the fiction of Rosario de Guzman Lingat, the sound the reader hears is not raucous. The color one perceives is not garish. The tone one detects is not abrasive. In the encounter between the texts and the reader, what transpires is an unfolding of Lingat’s many selves which each text painstakingly creates.” The last part on “Popular Culture” looks at famous icons – including Joseph Estrada and Fernando Poe, Jr. – as text, along with essays about the importance of taking komiks seriously and similar topics. She compares FPJ with epic heroes, which is why the common tao, the masa, loves him with so much devotion. In her essay “Fernando Poe Jr.: The Making of a Legend,” Reyes says the perception of the actor as defender of the poor and the marginalized has made his popularity soar. This could translate into economic gains and/or political advantage, and this is real power. According to Reyes, “The rich and the intelligent are powerless to regulate popular perceptions: FPJ will remain etched as the courageous defender of the oppressed in the consciousness of millions of Filipinos.” This Soledad S. Reyes reader is aptly titled Salungat, for it is the Tagalog approximation of the word subversion, or counter-action. Indeed, Reyes is a subversive critic, an academician from a university for the rich who dared to pave the way in critically interrogating literary and non-literary texts that are associated with the poor: the komiks, Tagalog novels, and movie actors. Because of her work, these popular forms of Tagalog literature are now taken seriously in universities. – YA, GMA News   J. I. E. Teodoro is a Palanca award-winning writer from San Jose de Buenavista, Antique. He is an assistant professor of writing and literature at Miriam College in Quezon City. Read his blog at www.jieteodoro.blogspot.com