Satire: Filipinos’ Aesthetic Expression of Socio-Political and Cultural Concerns

Philippines, ID LLCE2016-224;       Hornedo, a Filipino literature icon asserts that “A piece of literature documents the world and the worldview of its author.” Anchored on the said premise that some literary pieces can provide information on the socio-political and cultural background of a certain society, this paper aimed to identify the aesthetics of satire in Merlinda Bobis’ three novels, Banana Heart Summer, The Solemn Lantern Maker and Fish-Hair Woman. Specifically, it sought to describe the novels’ socio-political and cultural aspects using food, star, and hair as primary tropes in each novel. The paper also aimed to present the reality frame of the depicted societal problems of the Filipinos. This paper is a type of literary criticism. The formalist-contextualist theory was applied in the treatment of material.  In conclusion, this paper asserts that Bobis uses satire in her works for the readers to literarily see the flaws of the society; alongside, she also implicitly calls for hope and solution.

Keywords: aesthetics of satire, socio-political and cultural aspects, Filipinos, Formalist-Contextualist theory, Merlinda Bobis