P-04 "Hollywood Dreams": Gender Oppression and Postcolonial Resistance in Jessica Hagedorn’s Dogeaters
Abstract
This paper addresses how gender, sexuality, and resistance affect personal and national identity construction in Dogeaters, a novel tracing the lives of Filipino characters during President Ferdinand Marcos’s dictatorial regime—a period that reshaped the Philippines’s national identity. Using gender theory and nationhood studies, I highlight how women and queer individuals who challenge masculine norms attempt subversion by creating communities outside of patriarchal constructs but ultimately fail. Specifically, I read Joey Sands’s and Daisy Avila’s marginality, failure to comply with societal expectations, and acts of defiance as helpful modes for self-actualization and self-identification that nevertheless prove futile against the larger system.
Thesis Record URL
https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/honors/180
Start Date
3-2-2018 2:30 PM
P-04 "Hollywood Dreams": Gender Oppression and Postcolonial Resistance in Jessica Hagedorn’s Dogeaters
This paper addresses how gender, sexuality, and resistance affect personal and national identity construction in Dogeaters, a novel tracing the lives of Filipino characters during President Ferdinand Marcos’s dictatorial regime—a period that reshaped the Philippines’s national identity. Using gender theory and nationhood studies, I highlight how women and queer individuals who challenge masculine norms attempt subversion by creating communities outside of patriarchal constructs but ultimately fail. Specifically, I read Joey Sands’s and Daisy Avila’s marginality, failure to comply with societal expectations, and acts of defiance as helpful modes for self-actualization and self-identification that nevertheless prove futile against the larger system.
Acknowledgments
Dr. Vanessa Corredera.
J. N. Andrews Honors Program.