Jessica Hagedorn's "Dogeaters"

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that Jessica Hagedorn's novel Dogeaters, which takes place in Manila in the Philippines during the heyday of the Marcos dictatorship, is written in a style that is sensually seductive, structurally fragmented and with a multiple-viewpoint. The author points out that this novel reflects, in depth, the contrast between the overwhelming superficiality of the wealthy and powerful in keenly class-conscious Manila and the "dogs", the various down-and-out young Filipinos characters in the story. The author points out that "Dogeaters" is 'radically-disjunctive' in form, which means that instead of writing in a traditional linear storytelling framework, Hagedorn allows bits of memories to surface so that characters can recall past impressions and experiences through their senses.

From the Paper:

"Throughout this story, Rio looks back at past times spent in her homeland, by way of adult associations often spurred by memories. In the end, the fragments Hagedorn describes do not quite add up to a clearly recognizable picture. (Proust's, or even Rushdie's do so much better.) Still, Hagedorn's main character Rio continually recollects sharp (for whatever reason) youthful impressions from distant memory. In what still might be loosely but justifiable called "Proustian [sic] fashion", Hagedorn also implicitly "shifts" the former, original, significances of them, in Rio's adult mind, to a more integrated adult one. "

Sample of Sources Used:

• Gleek, Lewis, Jr. President Marcos and the Philippine Political Culture. Manila: Royal Press, 1987.
• Hagedorn, Jessica. Dogeaters. New York: Penguin, 1990.
• Proust, Marcel. [In Search of Lost Time] Swann's Way. Terence Kilmartin (Trans.). New York: Modern Library New edition, April 27, 2004. 1-27.
• Rushdie, Salman. Midnight's Children. New York: Picador, 1981.

More papers on Jessica Hagedorn's "Dogeaters":

• Analytical Essay # 13579 : "Dogeaters" ( Jessica Hagedorn ) & "Rolling the R's" ( R Zamora Linmark )"
• Comparison Essay # 23756 : "Identity"
• Essay # 44897 : "Jessica Benjamin and Frantz Fanon"

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