LESSON 13:

POETRY
MEMORY OF THE EMPIRE
AND/IN THE
COSMOPOLITAN PORT
CITY
VIEWS
•When we think of "the modern age" or
"the 21st century", we normally visualize
towering skyscrapers curtained by a veil of
neon lights,newest and fastest motor
vehicles knifing through the open
highways,enormous planes that can cross
ocean and land at an airport where hundred
of other planes are holding and unholding
passengers.
In other words we think about cities.
Cities -are critical and definitive markers of
the modernity.They materialize the features
of modern life:order(spaces in the city are
organized according to
zones),predictability(goods are valued
through prices,travel time is calculated based
on traffic condition at a particular time of the
day),and scientific advancement(the city
houses everything that is "latest")
NEW YORK CITY MAKATI CITY

BANGKOK CITY TOKYO

Another important feature of
the modern city is what we call
cosmopolitanism."
From the word cosmos (universe)and
polis (city),cosmopolitanism refers to a
global mindset.
-It characterizes an openness to the
different cultures and worldviews of
people.
Most of the big cities in the world---
New York,Singapore,London,Bangkok
even to a certain extent,Manila---are
cosmopolitan in nature.You can see
this in the diversity that you find in
the city---diverse cultures and
ethnicities,modes of
entertainment,brands and more.
THE PHILIPPINES COLONIAL
EXPERIENCE
The Philippines as you know was
colonized by two Western superpowers
of their time: the Spanish and the
Americans. The Japanese occupied the
country during much of World War II, but
they did not stay long enough to have a
long-lasting influence on our culture.
Synecdoche -is a figure of
speech in which a parts stands for
the whole.
EX:
When a lover tells his beloved"Can I
have your hand in marriage?"obviously
he just not want her hand he wants her
as a whole human being to be his wife.
Metonymy -is the use of a
name as a substitute for another
name.
EX:
When the headlines reads
"Malacanang approves the new tax
law",the newspaper is referring to a
talking building;it is saying that the
president signed a bill to law.
J. NEIL GARCIA
The Poet as Traveler
∙J. Neil Garcia
-A Filipino poet,essayist,and literary critic
-He teaches courses on creative writing and
literature at the University of the Philippines
Diliman.
-As a creative writer,he published six poetry
anthologies. As an academic,he is a prolific and an
established writer in the field of gender and
postcolonial studies and has authored and edited
books on this subjects.
 -One of these is an anthology of his
essays,Postcolonialism and Filipino
Poetics,where he charts ng postcolonial
trajectory of Phillipine literary
tradition.However,Garcia's persona as a
literary critic and as a creative writer do
not exist independently.
-His critisisms of the postcolonial state of
Philippine culture are still very much seen
in his craft as a poet.
What does the post mean?
Postcolonialism is both a chronological and
a cultural positioning.It may refer literally to the
period after colonialism but it can also point at the
cultural state of the former colony.It examines the
various ways in which the postcolonial people
appropriate the cultural materials and even political
structures left by the empire.In the case of the
Philippines,major examples would be religion and
language.One of the more enduring legacies of the
Spanish colonial rule was Christianity.
The City from the Sea
Often,the most cosmopolitan cities
in the world are port cities.Over
decades and centuries,ships would
arrive in these cities from various far
flung ports,bringing with them all
kinds of cultural possibilities.
Given this context,Garcia is writing not just as
an observer but as a postcolonial subject.
Garcia cleverly used words that remind us of
these people's colonial past:creole( as
opposed to "pure"),native(as opposed to being
Western/Europen)and "other"(a marker of
difference)
Education and Enculturation-effective methods
of the colonial project
The practices of the natives were deemed as
uncivilized and therefore needing to be curtailed by
the education of white man.This critique of
education and enculturation is a recurring theme in
colonial novels like Jose Rizal's Noli Me Tangere
and El Filibusterismo and Pramoedya Toer's Buru
Quartet,a set of four novels that chronicle the
awakening and transformation of a Native
Indonesian named Minke from a
priviliged,educated native to a revolutionary figure.
ACTIVITY:
1. _____are critical and definitive markers at the
modernity.
a.cities
b.cosmopolitanism
c.postcolonialism

2. From the word cosmos (universe)and polis (city)

_____refers to a global mindset.It characterizes an
openness to the different cultures.
a.cities
b.postcolonialism
c.cosmopolitanism
3.__________is a figure of speech in which a parts stands
for the whole.
4. ________is the use of a name as a substitute for
another name.
5.Who is the Filipino poet,essayist,and literary critic?
6.The dominated city and the capital city of
Netherlands.
7.The people with supreme authority to do whatever
they want.
8. The resources of the people.
9. The wealth of the city that was being controlled.
10.A practice by which country extends its power to
control other areas of the world.