SSStttooonnnyyy BBBrrrooooookkk UUUnnniiivvveeerrrsssiiitttyyy The official electronic file of this thesis or dissertation is maintained by the University Libraries on behalf of The Graduate School at Stony Brook University. ©©© AAAllllll RRRiiiggghhhtttsss RRReeessseeerrrvvveeeddd bbbyyy AAAuuuttthhhooorrr... Mood of Metaphor: Tropicality and Time in the Philippine Poetic A Dissertation Presented by Jayson Pilapil Jacobo to The Graduate School In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Comparative Literature Stony Brook University August 2011 Stony Brook University The Graduate School Jayson Pilapil Jacobo We, the dissertation committee for the above candidate for the Doctor of Philosophy degree, hereby recommend acceptance of this dissertation. Ira Livingston, Dissertation Co-Advisor, Professor, Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies and English Patrice Nganang, Dissertation Co-Advisor, Associate Professor, Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies Celia Marshik, Chair of Defense, Associate Professor, English and Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies Milind Wakankar, Assistant Professor, English and Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies Sanjay Krishnan, External Reader, Associate Professor, English, Boston University This dissertation is accepted by the Graduate School. Lawrence Martin Dean of the Graduate School ii Abstract of the Dissertation Mood of Metaphor: Tropicality and Time in the Philippine Poetic by Jayson Pilapil Jacobo Doctor of Philosophy in Comparative Literature Stony Brook University 2011 When the trope is exhilarated and enervated by a milieu, which in this case is tropical, the category of mood must be apprehended as a theoretical opportunity where a phenomenology of the time that it takes for the imagination to work through the limits of the earth could be delineated. What is at the heart of this undertaking is to draw the history and theory of metaphor in the Philippines nearer to its original point of reference—nativity, where time is posited as self- generative in its commencement, but also potentially moving towards the modern, in spite of this anterior existence. The Introduction nominates the figure of homo tropicus, who shall hold the theory of the trope between the traumauturgy of ecstasy and the thaumaturgy of agony. Chapter One derives from the tropicality of grammatical mood a vernacular tropology that dwells on metaphor as both predicament and possibility, arising from a thought-edifice and moving into ideative choreography. iii Chapter Two examines the folk verse/song as a form of gift-exchange between the worldly subject and the earthly domicile. Chapter Three looks at the metaphor of metamorphosis in the metrical romances Ibong Adarna and Bernardo Carpio in order to look at how imperial forms breed certain alterities to be represented as otherworldly in order for colonial language and anti-colonial eloquence to be fantasized as possible and historic. Chapter Four is an analysis of the offspring of modernism and tropicality that could be born and raised, by inhabiting the aesthetic temperaments of the tropical modernist poet Virginia R. Moreno. The Conclusion contends what the dissertation offers as promising in terms of contemporary tropography and postcolonial poetics. iv For D.M. Reyes, poet, and Patrick D. Flores, critic v Table of Contents Acknowledgments viii Introduction Homo Tropicus: The Premise 1 Chapter One Tropology of Patience: Predicament and Possibility I Tropics, the Temporal 12 II Mores of Never 14 III Earth, World, Metaphor 20 IV Terms of the Tropic 21 V Mood‘s Tropicality 24 VI The Talinghagà 34 VII Locus of Inception, Gestus of Inflection 40 VIII Metaphor and the Sublime 46 IX Time, the Tropical 51 Chapter Two Gesture‘s Abode: Earthen Tempos of the Folk in Verse and Song I Thresholds 64 II Kaloób: The Gift of Interiority 70 III Corpus of the Gift 80 IV Dexterity, or, Habitus 89 V Gracefulness of the Grace 95 Chapter Three The Trans-figure: A Morphology of Change through the Metrical Romances Ibong Adarna and Bernardo Carpio I Metaphor of Metamorphosis 101 II Romance in the Tropics 105 III Ibong Adarna: A Summary 108 IV Poison‘s Plumage 111 V Bernardo Carpio: A Summary 128 VI Quiver of the Gift 130 VII La Tierra Temblorosa 144 vi Chapter Four Vigor and Languor along the Tropical Modern: The Moods of Virginia R. Moreno I Radius of Reverie 148 II The Tropical Modern 161 III Virginia R. Moreno, Tropical Modernist 170 IV Terminus of Gesture 174 V Misshapenness‘s Shapeliness 181 VI Lyrical Tenures 186 VII Tempus Tropicus 194 VIII Final Ardor 198 Conclusion Homo Tropicus: A Promise 200 Bibliography 203 vii Acknowledgments My most magnanimous committee: Prof. Sanjay Krishnan, Celia Marshik, Prof. Patrice Nganang, Prof. Milind Wakankar, and Prof. Ira Livingston. The staff of the Main Stacks and the Interlibrary Loan of the Melville Library, State University of New York at Stony Brook. Prof. Gene Hammond of the Writing and Rhetoric Program, SUNYSB; Neda Atanasoskiof UC Berkeley; Prof. Sandy Petrey, and Prof. EK Tan, Alinda Askew and Mary Moran-Luba of the Department of Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies, SUNYSB; Prof. Nick Rzhevsky of the Department of European Languages and Literatures, SUNYSB; Prof. E. Ann Kaplan and Prof. Susan Scheckel of the Department of English, SUNYSB. Evren Akaltun and Celina Hung of the Department of Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies, SUNYSB; Aliza Atik, Eileen Chanza, Emily Churilla, Rachel Ellis, Amy Falvey, and Patrina Jones of the Department of English, SUNYSB. Felice Noelle Rodriguez; Jaimee Marquez; Katrina Dy; Erik Granada; Adele Dusenbury; the DiIannis. Nerissa Balce and Fidelito Cortes. The staff of the Rizal Library of the Ateneo de Manila University, especially Bernadette Garilao, Mark Garilao, Victor Perez, and Annalyn Parayaoan. Dr. Maria Luz Vilches, Dean of the School of Humanities, AdMU; Connie Camacho, Rose Gatchalian, and Tinay Garcia; Dr. John Paul Vergara, Vice President for the Loyola Schools, AdMU; Jessica Laroya and Paula Angeles; Dr. Ma. Assunta Cuyegkeng, Former VP for the Loyola Schools. Rene Raymond Rañeses of the Department of Political Science, AdMU; Dr. Fernando Zialcita of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, AdMU; Dr. Soledad S. Reyes of the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies, AdMU; Dr. Maria Luisa Torres Reyes of the Department of English, AdMU; Dr. Oscar V. Campomanes of the Department of English, AdMU; Aristotle Atienza, Gary Devilles, Dr. Michael Coroza, Marx Lopez, Dr. Jema Pamintuan Dr. Jerry Respeto, Julz Riddle, Kristine Romero, and Dr. Benilda S. Santos; Allan de Vera and Imelda Estrelles of the Department of Filipino, AdMU; Dr. Rebecca Anonuevo of the Department of Filipino, Miriam College; Dr. Flaudette May Datuin of the Department of Art Studies, University of the Philippines at Diliman; Dr. Gerard Rey Lico of the Department of Architecture, UP Diliman; Dr. J. Neil Garcia of the Department of English and Comparative viii Literature, UP Diliman; Dr. Eufracio Abaya of the Department of Anthropology, UP Diliman; Dr. Teresita Maceda of the Department of Filipino and Philippine Literatures, UP Diliman. Joey Baquiran, Tessa Guazon, Dr. Eli Guieb, Dr. Eloisa Hernandez, Noy Lauzon, Dr. Galileo Zafra, and the Film Desk of the Young Critics Circle; Pol del Mundo of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board. Fr. Andrew Recepcion and Kristian Cordero; Benedict Alegre; Randall Dagooc and Ryan Dagooc; Rogelio Braga; Anna Bernaldo-Romulo; Elizabeth Mapula. Ernan Muñoz, Jing Panganiban Mendoza, Jasper Po, Paul Sta. Ana, Alvin Yapan; Alwynn Javier; Ivy Rosales; Lawrence Ypil. Mr. Reiking. The Reyeses; the Rosaleses; the Franciscos. Joey del Castillo; Mayel Panganiban; Eileen Legaspi Ramirez; Chona Lin; Mark Anthony Cayanan; Leo Rey Fernandez Almero; Niccolo Rocamora Vitug; Gino Francis Dizon; Kanishk Kapilashrami; Manuel Ricardo Sacramento; Paul Dominic Olinares; Juan Ariel Gomez; Dante Lorenzo DiIanni. Kate Alyzon Ramil; Carlota Francisco; Christine Bellen. Michael Bowen Kulp. Justin Lee Miller. Victorio Pilapil (†) and Iluminada Pala (†), Godofredo Pilapil (†). Eulogia Nebres (†). Melly Goyena and Michelle Goyena. Benjamin Jalimbawa and Louisa Jalimbawa. Angel Jacobo and Lydia Pilapil, who bore me. Felicisimo Nebres and Alicia Pilapil, who raised me. ix Introduction Homo Tropicus The Premise How does the trope depart from its origins, in order to become truly tropic? This dissertation contemplates metaphor as a device that takes its leave from the earth only to aspire, after the composure of distance, to return to its solace. To elaborate on the cognizing affection that entitles the said transit to announce its figural itinerary, I wish to expand the field that has been rigorously covered by reflections on the tenor and the vehicle, the referent and the sign, or the context and the code1, by nominating the figure who traverses between valediction and homecoming, disavowal and reconciliation, interment and nativity, as a reluctant and yet indefatigable conduit of the intensities enforced and attenuated across the passage. This figure shall be summoned as homo tropicus. Such figure of aspiration was conceived in my consciousness upon reading Peter Hulme‘s essay on the ―polytropic man‖: The notion of ‗polytropic‘ man exists as an attempt to find an emblem for the center of gravity of those questions of mobility. The word ‗polytropic‘ comes from the epithet 1 See I. A. Richards, The Philosophy of Rhetoric (Oxford and New York: