The Sound of Queer Diaspora: Sonic Enactments of Filipinx Desire, Loss and Belonging
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The Sound of Queer Diaspora: Sonic Enactments of Filipinx Desire, Loss and Belonging by Casey Mecija A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Women and Gender Studies Institute University of Toronto © Copyright by Casey Mecija 2020 The Sound of Queer Diaspora: Sonic Enactments of Filipinx Desire, Loss and Belonging Casey Mecija Doctor of Philosophy Women and Gender Studies Institute University of Toronto 2020 Abstract In this dissertation, I foreground Filipinx cultural production in building an aesthetic archive of transpacific aesthetic expression. From this point, I listen for its queer sounds. My research draws on queer theory, performance studies, and Filipinx diaspora studies to suggest that sound offers a methodological framework that can uniquely register modes of collectivity and desire that may otherwise go unrecognized. I also deploy psychoanalytic concepts of mourning and reparation to elaborate a definition of sound that explains its material and metaphorical force as it creates conditions for new relational possibilities. Broadly, I suggest that sound has an affective quality that capaciously allows Filipinx diasporic subjects to create forms of home, desire, and belonging that defy racialized ascriptions born from racism, colonialism, and their gendered dimensions. This dissertation includes four chapters, each offering a critical reading of an aesthetic object. The objects that I have assembled in this dissertation include videos that feature performances by Filipinx children, visual art and music by Filipinx artists, and a film that expresses the queer dynamics of sound. By critically listening for queer sound as it is produced by these aesthetic objects, I hope to contribute a theory of diaspora that may otherwise be rendered unintelligible ii iii due to hegemonies of vision, empire, and heterosexuality. Ultimately, this project seeks to expose how sonicity can inhabit the affective force of desire, loss, and belonging in queer, transpacific representation. Acknowledgments Dina Georgis and Robert Diaz supervised this dissertation with enthusiasm, rigorous critique and sustained attention. I feel deeply indebted to their collaborative effort to deepen my theoretical interventions while also reminding me of the importance of remaining creative and unapologetically myself in my writing. I turn to their work as researchers and to their examples of community engagement as touchstones for queer hope. Dina and Robert have exemplified a form of pedagogy I will seek to carry with me into all of my future academic, creative and community endeavors. While completing my coursework, Dina’s class Aesthetic Expression and Radical Hope helped to shape the intellectual commitments of my research. Under her guidance, I have been encouraged to remain creative and curious. Her writing on queer affect has been especially generative, and her ability to seamlessly blend poetics and critical theory is a model I hope to emulate. Robert has been a generous mentor, before and during my doctoral studies. I am indebted to his work on Filipinx cultural practices and turn to his scholarship as an example of how to ethically and thoughtfully write about Filipinx subjectivity. Under his supervision, I have been treated with the utmost respect and care. Angie Fazekas, Aarzoo Singh, Henar Perales, and Lynn Ly have been valued interlocutors whose discerning comments, network of care, and energizing support lent much-needed structure and collegiality to my work. Our frequent check-ins have been reassuring and fun. Rinaldo Walcott is someone I have respected for a very long time. His presence as a committee member has been incredibly important to me, and I am honored to have been in conversation with him. Christina Baade has supported and influenced this work since its first utterances in my M.A. Christine Balance and Lucy Mae San Pablo Burns offer examples of how to produce feminist, Filipinx performance studies that leaves me awestruck over and over again. I thank them tremendously. iv v I owe much of this writing to my friends: Kieran Adams, Laurie Kang, Sean O’Neil, Miyako Kurishi, Chase Joynt, Vivek Shraya, Immony Men, and the Filipinx arts community I was first introduced to through the Kapisanan Philippine Centre for Filipino Arts and Culture. I also thank my former Ohbijou bandmates, Anissa, Heather, Andrew, James, and Ryan, for helping to elicit queer and Filipinx sounds. My deepest gratitude to my parents, Emma and Francisco, and to my sisters, Michelle and Jenny. I was first introduced to the transformative possibilities of sound when my parents enrolled me in singing lessons and gave me an outlet for creative impulses. The Dyer and Fannia families have also supported my work in countless ways. I dedicate this dissertation to Hannah Dyer and Asa Cy. The sounds that mark my words are always expressions of love for you. Table of Contents Acknowledgments .......................................................................................................................... iv Table of Contents ........................................................................................................................... vi Introduction ......................................................................................................................................1 Listening to Queer Diasporas .................................................................................................9 Framing Queer Sound ..........................................................................................................13 A Note on Method ................................................................................................................20 Chapter Summaries ..............................................................................................................22 Chapter 1 The Queer Sonics of Childhood: Listening to Capital, Labour and “Asymmetries of Innocence” ............................................................................................................................29 Balang’s Dance: Puro Arte as Queer Affect .........................................................................36 Puro Arte and The Child Who Acts Out ..............................................................................38 Bulang’s “Splendid” Dancing ..............................................................................................43 Blank Space and “The Asymmetries of Childhood Innocence” ..........................................49 Puro Arte and Filling Blank Spaces .....................................................................................55 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................58 Chapter 2 Queer Dissonance in Pantayo’s Kulintang ....................................................................62 “Come with Me:” Beyond the Sound of Multiculturalism ...................................................66 The Dissonant Sounds of Pantayo ........................................................................................72 Kulintang: The Sound of Nostalgic Return ..........................................................................79 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................85 Chapter 3 Skin as Ecstatic Surface: Hearing Diaspora in the Work of Patrick Cruz ....................88 Auscultative Listening and Diasporic Connection ...............................................................94 Hearing Racialized Skin: Turning the Inside Out ..............................................................104 The Ecstatic Surface of Plus Ultra .....................................................................................110 Conclusion ..........................................................................................................................113 vi vii Chapter 4 Queer Affect and Modalities of Sound in Hong Khao’s Lilting .................................116 Racialized Sound and Its Agentic Capacities .....................................................................120 The Sonic Frequencies of Queer Affect .............................................................................123 “Felt Sound” and Material Vibrations ................................................................................128 Conclusion ..........................................................................................................................134 Conclusion Sounds that Linger, Sounds that Queer in the Pandemic ..........................................136 (Dis)Identification and Queer Futurity ...............................................................................142 Works Cited .................................................................................................................................146 Introduction This dissertation theorizes sonic enactments made in and beyond Filipinx1 diaspora to make an argument about a “queer sound” that permeates diasporic sensibilities across multiple geographic, affective, and psychic spaces. My research draws on queer theory, performance studies, and Filipino/a diaspora studies to suggest that sound offers a methodological framework that can uniquely register modes of collectivity and desire that may otherwise go unrecognized. Here, I define sound as a material and metaphorical force that