Salamat Doktora Pila!!

Writers and faculty affiliated with University of the Philippines Institute of English and Philippine Collegian published commentary during and after Faulkner’s visit, some skeptical of the “missionary” tone of U.S. literary ambassadors.

N. V. M. González, a rising fictionist, was more explicit in asserting that Filipino literature should stand on its own. González’s essays and interviews often stressed that Philippine writing must “return home” linguistically and imaginatively—an implicit critique of imported literary authority.

Nick Joaquín wrote the The Woman Who Had Two Navels (1961), which expose how the Filipino psyche is fractured by colonial mimicry, a subtle critique of U.S. literary dominance embodied by figures like Faulkner.

Which Filipinos challenged Faulkner’s visit and concepts of U.S. exceptionalism?

Filipino intellectuals in the mid-1950s invoked Carlos Bulosan as a counter-figure to Faulkner—someone who wrote from the underside of empire rather than representing it.

The encounter reveals how postwar Philippine intellectuals resisted U.S. cultural dominance and reframed literature as a site of decolonization.

If it wasn’t so far from my family in Miami FL I would consider moving !

Thank you ! 🙏🏽

It was amazing thank you !