Necessary Fictions examines the intimate but fraught connection between Philippine literature and nationalist discourse through close readings of the works of Jose Rizal, Amado Hernandez, Nick Joaquin, Edgardo Reyes, Ricardo Lee, Kerima Polotan, Carlos Bulosan, and Mario de Verdades Posadas. The book argues that the long-standing affinity between Philippine literature and nationalism is based, in part, on the power of literature to work through as set of questions central to nationalist debates on the possibility and necessity of social change. It asks? What is the relationship betweek knowledge and action? Between the personal and political? Between the foreign and Filipino? Between culture and history, culture and politics, culture and economics?

2018/332pp
bookpaper/paperback