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Myth, identity and the colonial experience
Author(s) -
ROSCA NINOTCHKA
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
world englishes
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.6
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1467-971X
pISSN - 0883-2919
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-971x.1990.tb00262.x
Subject(s) - mythology , identity (music) , colonialism , politics , subject (documents) , context (archaeology) , sociology , linguistics , constructed language , aesthetics , history , political science , art , computer science , law , archaeology , philosophy , classics , library science
The Philippines consists of 150 languages, 7100 islands, a past characterized by political and cultural discontinuity, and a present subject to endless extraneous influences. These facts have a powerful bearing on the construction of self. Moreover, as the author demonstrates, the Filipino writer must work out his or her fictional ‘self’ in not one but many languages, in the midst of an ongoing tussle between the language of reality and the language of writing that is further exacerbated by the colonial heritage of the country. In this paper, the author examines the question of what it is to write creatively in English in this context, making, as it does, vital connections with myth, identity and the colonial legacy.