Hunny Kyle B. Laurente Prof.

Sonido
2018-68059 CL 150 THQ

Names, titles, and identity: an onomastic reading of Angela Manalang Gloria’s Soledad and
Gregoria de Jesus’ poem of Oriang
In critical reading of literature by women, it is imperative to look through how identity
is latently or/and explicitly expressed. Focusing on identity is a crucial gesture in executing a
critical reading of women’s works; and any critical reading of women’s works must and
always be (at least in one way if not purely) a feminist one.
During the late 19th century and early 20th century, the Philippines was experiencing
a crucial switch from the Spanish colonialism to American colonialism. A wide range of
anxieties from the attempted revolution to the tension of conservative Catholic culture versus
the birth of liberal democracy vis-à-vis US colonialism were forced to be compounded all at
once in the Philippine society. As such, the Filipino woman had internal and external
anxieties of her own – regarding her own persona, her identity as a woman, and her national
identity.
Angela Manalang Gloria’s Soledad and Gregoria de Jesus’ Poem of Oriang are two
poems in which examples of the anxieties by the Filipno woman at that time could be
revealed. The common similarity of these two texts is that they employ names not only as
primary foundation of the poems, but as the titles of the poems themselves, and such
employment has heavy implications on the conception/ideation of identity in the texts. Title in
literature has a heavy literary function in the text and this means the names in the poem serve
heavy literary function themselves.
In their study Structure and Functions of the Title in Literature, Gérard Genette and
Bernard Crampé referenced Leo Hoek’s characterization of title as a construct and artifact
created for reception or commentary (693). The authors state various functions of title in a
literary work such as poetry. Some of it are designation, connotation, and interestingly –
seduction.
Genette and Crampé define such seduction within the sense of the author selecting a
title that has the power to ‘invite’ readers. When placed with the context of names as titles of
poems dealing with women’s sexuality and desire such as Soledad, seduction in this sense
becomes loaded with meaning, extending beyond Genette and Crampé’s definition of
seduction as a formalist function; Soledad as a gendered name (feminine) seduces the reader
to read more into the poem. A poem with a feminine proper name begs the reader a question:
who is Soledad? This process of arousing a sense of curiosity on the reader’s part as a form of
seduction (of curiosity, not necessarily sexually though a gendered name at times like in
Soledad renders ideation of a sexualized feminine figure). We can extend Hoek’s
characterization of title as being made for audience reception or commentary (on the poem) as
being a principal tool that orients the central focus on the poem. The title acts as a thesis, and
Angela Manalang Gloria’s two poetic decisions of A: having a name as a title; and B: that
name being Soledad, prove that the poem is grappling with assertions and making sense of the
identity.
 In the field of literary onomastics, Richard Coates’ Pragmatic Theory of Properhood
revolutionized the study of proper names in literary work. This includes Coates’ ideas
regarding the role of etymologies in literary reading. Coates stated that there are names that
are consciously designed to be comprehended in a manner that is relevant to the literary work.
There is an aspect of a name that is understood along with the etymological meaning and thus
their sense or semantic value are left available to the reader (7). Coates further argued that the
semantic value, on the reader’s first encounter with the name, sets a pretext on how the reader
would make sense of the individual’s personality and role in the narrative (7). Soledad in
Spanish is ‘solitude,’ and the paradoxical intermingling of the literal meaning of solitude in
relation to the context of the poem where the persona (Soledad) is subjected to criticism and
ostracization of a sexist society, violating her privacy (privacy as a form of neutral solitude),
bringing her into feelings of loneliness and exile (a form of negative solitude).
Meanwhile, we can read Genette and Crampé’s exploration of connotation in relation
to what they categorize as rhematic titles, into the titling of Gregoria de Jesus’ Poem of
Oriang. The authors define rhematic titles as general designations (715); for example,
Situations by Peguy and Sartre which is literally a collection (essays) of situations. This kind
of titling can also be found in classical works generally named as: Journal, Autobiography,
Dictionary, Glossary. There are literary works as well that refer to the texts themselves, not
the object: Un livre by Barnes, Écrits by Lacan. However, though rhematic titles are generally
literal and generic designations, they may still have semantic/secondary effects in them.
Poem of Oriang as a title first tells us what the text is: a poem written by Oriang. The
connotative quality, however, presents itself through the name Oriang. There are ways that the
readers can deduce why de Jesus chose to use her nickname Oriang instead of her real name.
First, since the poem itself is an elegy to her late lover Bonifacio, the decision to use Oriang
may be a glimpse to this intimate space of their relationship that is revealed to the readers: her
late lover might have commonly called her as Oriang, and since she speaks as his lover, she
speaks as Oriang. Gregoria de Jesus, as a lover, is Oriang – therefore a love poem written to
Bonifacio is a love poem written by Oriang. Though the name Oriang is used by Gregoria de
Jesus not only in their relationship but mainly in the revolution itself (national identity),
Bonifacio and de Jesus’ romantic relationship bloomed through and for the revolution: thus
the de Jesus’ identity as a lover as well as her national identity intersect and become one.
Oriang is Bonifacio’s beloved, as well as a force of the revolution. Through the name Oriang,
love and revolution become one. While de Jesus identifies with it as a name through which
her beloved addresses her in their intimate relationship, their entire relationship is born out of
the revolution, and their comrades as well refer to her as Oriang. When Bonifacio refers to
her, she is not only his lover, but his comrade. Thus the content of the poem is not only her
mourning to the death of her lover, but the tragic way through which a revolutionary like
Bonifacio, her comrade, died.

References

Genette, Gérard, and Bernard Crampé. “Structure and Functions of the Title in Literature.”
Critical Inquiry, vol. 14, no. 4, 1988, pp. 693, 715.,
https://doi.org/https://www.jstor.org/stable/1343668.
Coates, Richard. “Meaningfulness in Literary Naming within the Framework of The
Pragmatic Theory of Properhood (TPTP).” Onomastica Uralica, vol. 14, 31 Dec. 2018,
p. 7., https://doi.org/https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/855203/
meaningfulness-in-literary-naming-within-the-framework-of-the-pragmatic-theory-of-
properhood-tptp