Enshrining The Nation: Monuments To Forgetting And The Invention Of Historical Memory

by Jaymee T. Siao

What purpose do monuments serve in Filipino society? Defaced, politicized, personalized, or simply ignored, they now appear to stand for everything which they are not. Critiquing the use and abuse of monuments, this study investigates the ways monuments serve to provide an incisive criticism of social reality, and yet also produce, rewrite, and politicize historical practices of remembrance. No longer functioning as keepers of memory to be consumed/used by the public, monuments have come to stand stolidly as parodies of a people's past and present. Analyzed as texts, both cultural and literacy, monuments are able to offer a view of history as literally weaved into the urban fabric and which allows for social, historical, and cultural critique. It is the tension between remembering and forgetting that is explored in this book.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

89 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Jaymee Siao has written a book on the irony of remembering in cultural texts, specifically monuments, and her other works have been published in journals on literary studies, urban studies, and popular culture. She has presented her works internationally; the healing aspects of traditional tattooing, the art of mummification, as well as the culture behind human dissections. Her interests lie in traditional arts and medical humanities.

Reviews

[justin · Rating 5 out of 5]

given to me for free by a professor. i read this in full in preparation for writing a project in the near future and fell in love with the text. accessible and clear language and incredibly compelling

[JB Beltran · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of those books that open your eyes a little bit wider, make you a little bit more aware of the world around you and as it was before you, and even point you to where you should go.

[june · Rating 5 out of 5]

too many annotations and highlights from each chapters and page to page i am in awe with how the author was able to explicate monuments into something more than what we perceive it to be and making monuments tantamount to literary texts, its just so genius. became more aware of these as sites of construction of our national identity, which we are perpetually experiencing according from the author.

a delight and interesting read, and it was a fairly good book and how fortunate am i to have had the author as my professor.

[George Gonzaga Deoso · Rating 5 out of 5]

"...without them [monuments], without the tangible reality they offer us, perhaps nations will simply remain in the surface of abstractions."

Would not look at monuments from now on the same way again.

[rizhareads · Rating 5 out of 5]

"For we create monuments as we invent a nation; we need monuments just as much as we need a nation."

[Zymon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was introduced to the works of Jaymee Siao by my Humanities instructor back in college. Her essay on monuments, billboards, and footbridges was an assigned text for that class. That essay (whose title I forgot, unfortunately) opened my eyes to the possible functions of these three commonly overlooked objects that make up Metro Manila’s urban landscape. That essay made me admire Siao and her interpretations of Philippine culture. (Later on, I would formally meet her since she served as a guest editor for the literary folio of the campus paper for which I was a staffer. How I wish I officially became her student. I’ve heard lots of great things about her and her teaching styles through students from UST’s Literature program.)

Her book, Enshrining the Nation, isn’t far from that essay content-wise. Just as that essay critiques monuments, so does this incisive work. We can even say that this book is an extension of that essay. Here, she manages to survey, question, and ultimately provide insights about monuments in the Philippines. She begins with sharing examples of the many forms of monuments from the precolonial to the postcolonial periods, then she interrogates the purpose of these monuments to Filipinos in relation to collective memory. Personally, I’m a little on the fence about how majority of the chapters were written. Siao, however, manages to compose an accessible yet elevated conclusion by the end of the book. From what I understood, she claims that monuments, despite their intended purpose of remembering, have meanings that depend on the interpretation of the people for which they are made. These people, in return, can use these monuments to shape their nation.

[Ciel · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is rare to find contemporary non-fiction literature that discusses such things about Filipino culture. Not much of our identity as a nation (which still is a work in progress) is being thought of or studied to be understood.

It amazes me how, through the study of monuments and their meanings (which, by the way, is unsurprisingly non-homogeneous), Siao managed to connect our history and our present culture as a nation that was colonized by stronger influences.

Siao's collection of essays about Philippine monuments is also refresher to an old question posed upon us -- who are we Filipinos? What *is* and what *makes* something "Filipino"? The thing is, there is no 'lack of meaning' in monuments, but there is a diversity -- a lack of unified thought and beliefs that can also be seen and experienced beyond the conversation of monuments and memorials. I hope the author would continue her studies about the Filipino urban landscape; it's something all Filipinos should be conscious of, if we are ever going to rediscover our national identity.