Crissot and his ‘Alang Dios’: A Metacritical Study

Abstract

Informed by John Guillory’s theory on canon-formation, and Michel Foucault’s author-function, this present work critically analyzes the criticisms about Juan Crisostomo Soto and his masterpiece Alang Dios! It intends to disclose and interrogate the power relations/struggle at work in the creation of a “Crissot” that was over and beyond the historical man that he was—a construct, a revered author, a literary icon, a “myth” of Kapampangan Literature. Significantly, it offers critical foundation and framework in the study of regional literature which is the pressing need at the moment to help characterize national literary sensibility. Using close reading and metacriticism to unveil the assumptions, norms, and contexts that necessitated the criticisms, findings show that the critics were moved by the needs of their own time and space. This means that their criticisms were meant to satisfy the demands of time that led to the use of similar means of propagating such demands through the use of press, newspapers, agencies, relevant situations, and celebrations that led to the sense of identity and valor for every Kapampangan and Kapampangan literature as a whole amidst colonial influences, subjugations, and promising literature across regions.