Revolutionary Songs

The Center for Southeast Asia Studies, UC Berkeley, presents:

"Laments of People's War"

Neferti Tadiar
Associate Professor, History of Consciousness, UC Santa Cruz


 This talk is an exploration of the role of the musical form of the lament in the organization of experience in the contemporary Philippine underground movement. Inspired by Maoist political aesthetics, the movement set out to revive traditional musical forms and to infuse these with 'revolutionary content' as part of waging a revolutionary 'people's war.' The political significance of lament in songs and other literary works of the revolution is examined by tracking its relation to practices of guerilla warfare and intelligence and mass mobilization during the height of the 'People's War' from the early 1970s to the mid-1980s. The talk reconsiders the role of such cultural resources in shaping notions of the Filipino people (bayan), revolutionary subjectivity and collective struggle and their consequences for post-authoritarian national politics. It is part of a broader effort to re-examine the legacies of radicalism in the contemporary period.
 

Wednesday, March 31, 2004
4:15 - 6:00 p.m.
2223 Fulton St., (at Kittredge), Berkeley, CA
IEAS Conference Room, 6 th floor

All Center events are free and open to the public.


The Center for Southeast Asia Studies, International and Area Studies, University of California-Berkeley, in consortium with UCLA, is a National Resource Center under Title VI of the National Education Act. Tel. (510) 642-3609; E-mail: cseas@berkeley.edu; http://ias.berkeley.edu/cseas