Title

þÿGuattarian Confluences in Sari Saysay s Mga Aninipot sa Tahaw Kan Salog (Fireflies at the Center of the River)

Authors
Maria Lorena Santos
DEPT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE & LITERATURE

Keywords
folk drama
river
Bicol
Guattari
clean ecology

Issue Date
2021

Publisher
Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment-Association of Southeast Asian Nations

Citation
þÿMaria Lorena Santos (2021). Guattarian Confluences in Sari Saysay s Mga Aninipot sa Tahaw Kan Salog (Fireflies at
the Center of the River). Journal of Southeast Asian Ecocriticism 1 (1) : 60-73. ScholarBank@NUS Repository.

Abstract
In November 2017, a musical centered on a river that runs through the Bikol region debuted in the small riparian town
of Camaligan. Titled Mga Aninipot Sa Tahaw Kan Salog (Firefies on the River), it was penned by playwright Sari
Saysay and performed by community theater group Sining Banwa to raise awareness about a dying river that is
central to the lives of Bikolanos from many communities. The play, based on stories gathered from the elders who
lived along a once vibrant and rich body of water, tells the tale of an old woman who suffers loss of memory. With the
help of the fora and fauna of the Bikol river, and especially the frefies and fantasma of Philippine folkore, she regains
what she has lost. The play was presented by environmental group Sumaro sa Salog, Inc. (SULOG, Inc), along with
cultural workers and the cast and crew, in three riverine towns of Bikol as part of the project called Saving the Bikol
River Through Collaborative Interdisciplinary Artistic Production. This paper offers a reading of this Bikol River musical
using an ecocritical lens. Specifcally, it examines how the play utilizes frefies on the river as a metaphor for memory
and life: their presence indicates a clean ecology, while their absence suggests the opposite, the destruction of water
þÿand earth death for the river as well as those who live by it. The analysis uses Guattari s ecological framework of
þÿmental, social, and environmental ecologies, which guide the play s call for communities not only to defend but also
þÿgo on the offensive for nature. By confating frefies with memory and with humanity who must save the frefies to
þÿsave themselves Mga Aninipot shows how attention to the intimate interconnection of human subjectivity, the
environment, and social relations, is the way towards ecological equilibrium.

URI
https://scholarbank.nus.edu.sg/handle/10635/227359