Announcements

1. Announcements • Please fill out CAPES! • Office hours Th 2-3 @ CCC • Presentation Mon: Ann, Zhi, Erin, Tristan • Final (revised) reading posted on website

2. Dogeaters Women and political power

3. dogeater • Term of power and representation • Filipinos as “dogeaters” • Assumptions of primitivism, racialized inferiority • Some Filipinos as “dogeaters” • Class/ethnic division and colonial mentality  the miseducation of the Filipino • What does it mean to be a “dogeater”? How is Hagedorn challenging the term, exposing the difficulty of defining Filipinos?

4. The girl who had two navels • Rio Gonzaga  defined by love of Hollywood movies and “corny” Tagalog radio dramas • Family as symbolic of Philippine history • Taken to America by her mother • Connected to the Philippines by Pucha’s letters • “I never worry about my father… My father is a cautious man, and refers to himself as a ‘guest’ in his own country” (7) • Her uncles  “’Adaptibility is the simple secret of survival’” (8-9) • Lola Narcissa  from southern province, marries Whitman Logan but is linked to indigenous culture • Rio as product & observer of Marcos-era Manila

5. Major themes & motifs • Imposition of order vs chaos of multiplicity • Madame & President vs multiple characters/viewpoints • Popular culture  films, movies, television, radio • High versus low culture; cultural imperialism • Hybridity  cultural, linguistic, ethnic • Multiple forms of mestizaje • Tagalog vs Spanish vs English vsTaglish • Beauty and the role of women in society • Daisy vs Madame President vs Baby

6. “Sleeping Beauty” • Why is it ironic that Daisy Avila becomes a beauty queen(101)? • Why is Daisy plagued by tears? (106)? And why does she finally stop crying(108-109)? • 105 – gendered dichotomy of emotion • Beauty pageants – women as aesthetic object  the culmination of La Vidal’s ideology of beauty • To challenge gender subordination is to challenge political subordination (109) • Sleeping beauty versus waking to consciousness

7. The iron butterfly • What is the significance of Madame President’s dream (121)? How does the dream depict Madame’s character? • Crossing an ocean  Tony’s method of keeping afloat • What is the white plantation house in the middle of the Pacific? • “throne of bananas” (124) • Madame’s delusions versus Daisy’s consciousness