Digital Commons Network^™

Performing Elusive Homecomings: Mobility, Embodiment, And Diasporic Filipino Youth, Martin F. Manalansan Iv

Kritika Kultura

The Filipino global diaspora has precipitated the circulation of embodied modes of identification and belonging. This paper focuses on the experiences of Filipino young people who were born and/or raised abroad, and who have returned to the Philippines to seek fame and economic mobility in the entertainment industry. These migrant hopefuls, unlike older counterparts, enact the material tensions and semantic contradictions that form part of popular discourse around life abroad. As such, institutional media practices and mass audience perceptions mirror such conditions and create shifting systems of valuation around such things as skin color, accent, and bodily comportment. To respond …

Performing Global At Intelstar: Figuring The Call Center On Manila Stage, Sir Anril Pineda Tiatco

Kritika Kultura

Set in Makati, the central business district of the National Capital Region, Welcome to IntelStar is a monodrama satirizing the call center industry in the Philippines. The performance is an exemplar in positioning a diasporic consequence of globalization vis-à-vis nationalism because it calls on a national sentiment to the extent that the play illustrates resistance to globalization’s economic and neoliberal attachments, often perceived as the destructive force of cultural diversity and uniqueness. In relation, the performance used a recurring trope in Philippine culture, which is called in the essay as the Americanization issue: the conception of the Filipino/a as a …

Front Matter, Kritika Kultura

Kritika Kultura

No abstract provided.

Reincarnation Of The Pinay Subaltern In Foreign Cinema, Taeyun Yu

Kritika Kultura

This paper explores the paradoxical condition of postcolonial practice in South Korea1 that is, in many ways, complicit with dominant discourses such as nationalism, patriarchy, and global capitalism. In such a condition, what remains obscured is the voice of women that behooves us to hypothesize that the image of diasporic Filipino women in Korean cinema is predetermined by such complicity and is ideologically reincarnated as the subaltern. By conflating two postcolonial concepts, hybridity (Bhabha) and subalternity (Spivak), the study inspects the hypothesis through an analysis of two films that depict diasporic Pinay images: as entertainer in Yangil Choi’s All Under …

Phantom In Paradise: A Philippine Presence In Hollywood Cinema, Joel David

Kritika Kultura

The Philippines’ experience with its last foreign occupant, the US, resulted in an entire clutch of problematic “special relations” that, coupled with the country’s responses to the challenges of self-government, ultimately led to a global dispersal of the population, effectively turning the Philippines into the major Asian nation arguably most reliant on its citizens’ overseas remittances. This paper takes the position that diasporic Filipinos, for a variety of reasons starting with the effectiveness of maintaining unintrusive presences in alien cultures (including the acceptance of menial positions), have possibly developed and have enabled others to perceive them as silent and discreet …

Resistant Acts In Post-Genocide Rwanda, Ananda Breed

Kritika Kultura

Performances of justice and human rights have served as international platforms for truth-telling and nation-building both in the aftermath of apartheid in South Africa, and genocide in the case of Rwanda. There are moments of overlap between actual court proceedings, which can in their own right be deemed as a performance, and the use of theatre for dialogic negotiations between past atrocities and present juridical systems for reconstruction.1 Within the messy context of post-conflict reconstruction, speech often falters. Articulations of identities and speech acts become disjointed between personal and collective memories and identities; but are forced into the construction of …

Looking For Melayu: Translators And Seafarers, Corazon D. Villareal

Kritika Kultura

This essay explores literary relations between the Philippines and Malaysia through a study of translational exchange between the two countries. It argues that translational exchange between the Philippines and Malaysia cannot be understood only through a study of contemporary translations since the connections between the two countries date back to pre-colonial times. Other than a discussion of some contemporary translations, the article cites two cases of translational exchange. The first is Pigafetta’s account of Enrique, the Malay slave/translator who accompanied Magellan in his expedition to the Philippines, and the appropriation of this account by a Malaysian historical novelist. The other …

Region And Microhistory: Writing The Chinese Diaspora In The Philippines, Richard T. Chu, Caroline S. Hau

Kritika Kultura

No abstract provided.

Translating The "No Man", Markus Locker

Kritika Kultura

On the premise that language is untranslatable a priori into another (Ricoeur), this essay suggests that the task of the translator is not only to translate what words express, but likewise what they do not express. The translation of the expressionless word (Benjamin) leads the translator into the realm of the self, imagined vis-à-vis language and culture. It is through the imagination that the self encounters the non-self (Fichte), i.e. the expressionless self that complements the expressed self. The ultimate task of translation—it is thus argued—equally requires the translation of the non-self, i.e. the poetization (Novalis) of the human confined …

Higher Than The Original Stands The Translation: Translating Heidegger Into Filipino, Remmon E. Barbaza

Kritika Kultura

This paper is a reflection on the author’s experience of translating Martin Heidegger into Filipino. It first addresses the questions of principles underlying the act of translation, such as those of fidelity (to both source and target languages, original author and translator), as well as the role of the translator as an intermediary between the original author and the readers. Then it demonstrates examples of his experience of translating selected key terms and passages in Heidegger—such as sein, stellen, Ereignis, and their cognates—indicating the difficulties as well as the challenges that arise in the work of translation. A notable problem …

Culture On Trial: Translating Gremer Chan Reyes's Men At Sea, Hope Sabanpan-Yu

Kritika Kultura

Translation has emerged as a relevant medium through which countries can be familiar with and understand each other, and people can gain access to knowledge which would not have been available in any other way. Translation works like a mirror where one can reflect upon the self as well as use it as a window to look through other cultures. This paper refers to this contextual frame as it attempts to introduce a Cebuano text, Gremer Chan Reyes’ Men at Sea, to English speakers.

Fidelity In Translating Religious Practice: Illustrations From Filipino Christanity, Jose Mario C. Francisco Sj

Kritika Kultura

What fidelity consists in has always been a central concern in translation studies and practice. This essay first discusses its shifting meaning in relation to the various turns in contemporary translation theory, and their application to the translation of religious practice. It then examines the translation of late medieval post-Reformation Spanish Catholicism into Filipino Christianity through an analysis of its texts and performances. It concludes by revisiting the meaning of fidelity and relates it to root-metaphors for translation in some Philippine languages. Fidelity appears not as the transfer of an unchanging meaning but as the recognition of self within the …

Translation And/As Research, Harry Aveling

Kritika Kultura

The paper will consider some possible relationships between literary translation and research, the latter briefly defined as “the curiosity-driven production of new knowledge” (Nowotny xix). Two of these relationships are simple: (1) research as a stage in the preparation for the process of translation, and (2) research about the cultural and historical dimensions of already-existing translations. The third is more complex and controversial. The paper further asks: (3) whether the practice of translation is in itself an act of research. The third question raises further considerations about the different types of knowledge to be found in the university, and how …

Lexical Creativity In Thai English Fiction, Pairote Bennui, Azirah Hashim

Kritika Kultura

Unlike some varieties of English in Southeast Asia, the notion that there is a ‘Thai English’ is debatable. This paper examines distinctive non-native features of a lexicon found in contemporary Thai writing in English to ascertain if English in this Expanding Circle country is developing its own linguistic norms. An analysis of features of lexical creativity in five short stories and novels is carried out to determine whether the characteristics found indicate that a Thai English vocabulary exists. An ‘integrated framework’ which combines concepts in World Englishes by Braj B, Kachru, Peter Strevens, and Edgar W. Schneider is adopted in …

Mis-Education, Translation And The Barkada Of Languages: Reading Renato Constantino With Nick Joaquin, Vicente L. Rafael

Kritika Kultura

This paper re-visits the classic piece by Renato Constantino, “The Mis-education of the Filipino” (1959/1966), inquiring into the colonial basis of his anti-colonial critique of American English. It explores the affinity between his view of language and those of American colonial officials, especially around the relationship between English and the vernacular languages. Both conceived of that relationship in terms of a war of and on translation. It then turns to an important but overlooked essay by Nick Joaquin published around the same time as Constantino’s, “The Language of the Streets” (1963). By closely considering Joaquin’s views on “Tagalog slang” as …

Front Matter, Kritika Kultura

Kritika Kultura

No abstract provided.

Staging The Nation: Claro M. Recto’S Domestic Dramas, Eugenio Matibag

Kritika Kultura

Near the beginning of a prolific and productive career as a writer and statesman, Claro M. Recto (1890-1960) authored two prize-winning dramas that were performed at the Manila Grand Opera House. Each of the plays—La ruta de Damasco (1913) and Solo entre las sombras (1917)—is a drama that represents the interactions of an ilustrado family in its relationship to the imposition of cultural practices and power structures under American rule. This essay proposes that in these dramas written by an ilustrado and performed for an interpellated ilustrado audience, the ilustrado home stands as a metonym of the nation, its family …

Death, Event, And A Deconstruction Of Gihapon In ‘Flores Ni Maria Santisima’, Cyril Belvis

Kritika Kultura

This paper proposes a deconstructive reading of Flores ni Maria Santisima, a Hiligaynon novena written by Padre Raymundo Lozano and printed in 1867. Set against the economic bustle of nineteenth-century Iloilo after it opened port to foreign trade,the novena demonstrates a homological relationship between capitalism and the practice of spiritual accumulation in the Flores. Nevertheless,teasing out the liminality of this text undermines its self-assurance as a monologic triumph of signification.A recurrent word in the novena, gihapon (always) plays an important transactional role in the promise of a happy death. As an incalculable event which subverts anticipation, death is a call …

Front Matter, Kritika Kultura

Kritika Kultura

No abstract provided.

Si E. San Juan Bilang “Interpretant”, Virgilio S. Almario

Kritika Kultura

In this rejoinder to E. San Juan’s lecture “Kahulugan, Katotohan, Katwiran: Pagpapakilala sa Semiotika ni Charles Sanders Peirce,” Almario addresses San Juan’s critique of his reading of Cirio H. Panganiban’s poem in his essay “Pormalismo at Marxismo sa Pagbasa ng ‘Three O’ Clock in the Morning.’” Almario’s essay was delivered in 1992 in a seminar at Ateneo de Manila University and published in 2006 in his book Pag-unawa sa Ating Pagtula. Although Almario lauds San Juan’s critical interventions on C.S. Peirce’s semiotics, which updates Saussurian linguistics with the role of the “Interpretant,” he nevertheless deplores San Juan’s shortsightedness when the …

Front Matter, Kritika Kultura

Kritika Kultura

No abstract provided.

The Significance And Impact Of Traditional Naming Practices In The Meru Community Of Tanzania, Wariaeli Ismaeli Pallangyo, Eliakimu Sane

Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

In Africa, names are not assigned arbitrarily. They are deliberately chosen to reflect communities’ social, economic and political understandings. The Meru people, residing in northeastern Tanzania, near Mount Meru, identify themselves through ethnic names that embody their cultural practices. This article examines the significance of Meru traditional names, variations and their enduring value in increasing globalisation and cultural homogenisation, drawing on data from the Meru community. Employing a case study design, qualitative data were collected through focus group discussions and semi-structured interviews with 49 participants recruited using snowball sampling. Thematic analysis, facilitated by Microsoft Excel, was utilised for data transcription …

Patient-Reported Outcome Measures For Mohs Reconstruction: A Systematic Review, Neha Garg, Shreya Mandloi, Natalia Queenan, Jay Trivedi, Adam Mccann, Vivian Xu, Dev Amin, Howard Krein, Ryan Heffelfinger

Jefferson Hospital Staff Papers and Presentations

OBJECTIVE: Mohs micrographic surgery (MMS) and subsequent reconstructive procedures for the treatment of facial nonmelanoma skin cancers (NMSCs) significantly impact quality of life (QoL). A validated patient-reported outcome measure (PROM) for patients who undergo Mohs reconstruction is not yet established. This study aims to systematically assess the quality of existing PROMs to determine their effectiveness in capturing the challenges faced after Mohs reconstruction for facial NMSC.

DATA SOURCES: A systematic review following established Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses guidelines was performed. Medline, PubMed, Scopus, and Cochrane databases were searched using keywords relevant to MMS, NMSC, facial reconstruction, …

Quality Interpretation, Quality Interpretation Assessment, Back Translation, Communication Breakdown, Sense-Based Theory, Liyenja Mwinuka

Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

This study assesses the quality of English-Kiswahili Sermon interpretation in church settings in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, with a specific focus on the accuracy of vocabulary interpretation and its impact on effective communication between preachers and audiences. Conducted in two purposively selected Pentecostal churches, the study employed the Sense-Based Theory as its guiding framework. Data were gathered through interviews, non-participant observation, and video recordings; and were analysed qualitatively. The findings reveal frequent misinterpretation of preachers’ English vocabulary by Sermon interpreters, leading to significant communication breakdowns between preachers and their audiences. The incorrect interpretations of vocabulary were primarily attributed to the …

Memories Of Resistance To Slavery In South-Eastern Tanzania, Nancy Rushohora

Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

This paper examines the historical representation and memory of slavery in Tanzania, arguing that the current curriculum predominantly employs a Marxist lens that emphasizes the economic dimensions of slavery while overlooking the complexity of resistance. The study’s objective is to present a more comprehensive understanding of Tanzanian slavery, focusing on forms of resistance at Mgao, a 12th–18th century Swahili site. Methodologically, this study draws on ethnographic accounts, documentary sources, and archaeological findings to uncover diverse acts of defiance, including seeking refuge, negotiating relocation, and engaging in violent confrontations. The results reveal that resistance was a widespread, multi-dimensional phenomenon in Tanzanian …

Ad Hominem Arguments In Zimbabwean Political Discourse: An Analysis Of Political Argumentation, Jack Mutsvairo, Mawande Dlali

Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

The article investigates the motivation behind the prevalent use of the subtypes of ad hominem (personal attacks) arguments in Zimbabwe political discourse in the build-up to the 2023 harmonised council, parliamentary and presidential elections. This qualitative case study research looks at the use of ad hominem arguments by Zimbabwean politicians. Using analytical tools and concepts from informal logic and pragma-dialectical argumentation theories, this article focuses on identifying, analysing, and evaluating ad hominem arguments used in Zimbabwean political discourse, particularly in parliamentary debates and broadcast interviews. Data were purposively sampled and gathered from Hansard records, and a television interview transcript. It …

Review Of La Lingüística Hispánica: Una Introducción, Ana Peña-Oliva

Open Educational Resources - Reviews

No abstract provided.

A Critical Discourse Analysis Of The Representation Of Gender Images In Wedding Speeches In Tanzania, Reuben Ndimbo, Antoni Keya

Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

This study examined parents’ counsel during weddings to determine how wedding discourse represents gender relations. This article utilized a qualitative methodology, using audio-visual records of speeches and the focus group discussion technique to gather data. Using critical discourse analysis, the study found that wedding discourse reinforces stereotypical gender roles following the dominant male ideology, portraying men as the supreme heads of households who are responsible for making important decisions, including financial and political matters. On the other hand, women are projected as obedient, showing humility: perpetuating the image of dependent and submissive individuals. The study provides a basis for linguistic …

Evaluations Of Digital Public Health Interventions In The Who Southeast Asia Region: A Systematic Literature Review, Nachiket Gudi, Elstin Anbu Raj, Beate Jahn, Uwe Siebert

Open Access archive

Introduction Digital health technologies have been enhancing the capacity of healthcare providers and, thereby, the delivery of targeted health services. The Southeast Asia Region (SEAR) has invested in strengthening digital public health. Many digital health interventions have been implemented in public health settings but are rarely assessed using the holistic health technology assessment (HTA) approach. Methods A systematic literature review was performed to provide an overview of evaluations of digital public health interventions in the World Health Organization (WHO) SEAR. Searches were conducted on four electronic databases. Screening title abstracts and full texts was independently conducted by two reviewers, followed …

Exploring Kindergarten Teachers' Perspectives On The Interpretation Of Standards In A Developmentally Appropriate Way In Kindergarten Classrooms, Shawanza Demetrist Lockett

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Many kindergarten teachers are feeling the effects of standard-based education. The problem is that it is unknown whether teachers implement mandated state standards in a developmentally appropriate way. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to investigate kindergarten teachers’ perspectives on implementing standards in a developmentally appropriate manner. Shulman’s theory of teacher knowledge was the conceptual framework for the study. The research question focused on kindergarten teachers’ perspectives of implementing standards in a developmentally appropriate way. Twelve kindergarten teachers were recruited from three Title 1 elementary schools in a rural southeastern state in the United States. Thematic data analysis …