Philippine E-Journals

EDEL GARCELLANO, THE FILIPINO CRITIC IN A TIME OF WAR

Caroline S Hau

 

Abstract:

Edel Garcellano’s coruscating wit, trenchant analyses, and principled critical stance and interventions on literary, cultural, social, and political issues have made him one of the most influential, though underappreciated, critics of our time. This article combines personal reminiscences with an attempt to provide a preliminary overview of Garcellano’s key ideas about the inter-disciplinal task of imagination and criticism, the role of “the Filipino critic in a time of war” (to use Garcellano’s term) and the necessity of engaging in “contrapuntal readings” that interrogate the politics of reading, writing and the text, while remaining vigilant about the location and locution of the critic herself/himself.