Imagining Manila: Literature, Empire and Orientalism

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The city of Manila is uniquely significant to Philippine, Southeast Asian and world history. It played a key role in the rise of Western colonial mercantilism in Asia, the extinction of the Spanish Empire and the ascendancy of the USA to global imperial hegemony, amongst other events. This book examines British and American writing on the city, situating these representations within scholarship on empire, orientalism and US, Asian and European political history. Through analysis of novels, memoirs, travelogues and journalism written about Manila by Westerners since the early eighteenth century, Tom Sykes builds a picture of Western attitudes towards the city and the wider Philippines, and the mechanics by which these came to dominate the discourse.

This study uncovers to what extent Western literary tropes and representational models have informed understandings of the Philippines, in the West and elsewhere, and the types of counter-narrative which have emerged in the Philippines in response to them.

Reviews

Imagining Manila has the merit of shedding light on a myriad of texts from the Anglosphere, some of them relatively unknown ... The variety of sources and references quoted is such that it makes it a very engaging reading. Intellectually stimulating, this book will be of utmost interest for scholars researching travel literature in South East Asia and postcolonial studies. * South East Asia Research *
Tom Sykes demonstrates how Manila functions as the metonym for the Philippine meta-archipelago, often with breath-taking reductiveness and strikingly telling material effects. Imagining Manila has much to teach us on the matter of representations, and why representations matter. * Oscar V. Campomanes, Ateneo de Manila University *
Sykes provides a powerful antidote to the orientalist worlding of Manila in Anglo-American literature. Rigorous, engaged and insightful, his postcolonial critique of Manilaism exposes the poverty and hypocrisy of this discursive paradigm and presents cogent analyses of anti-Manilaist writing, thereby offering a radically different imagining of Manila. * Roderick G Galam, Oxford Brookes University, UK *
Tom [Sykes] weaves a unique and nuanced picture of Manila and the layers of history that make it distinct. He shows us sides to the city that even Filipinos (and I am one) may never have noticed before For those in the West, Sykes offers an excellent primer on contemporary Filipino history, and unique insights into one of the least discussed aspects of American empire. For those coming from the East, and for Filipinos in particular, it reminds us to view the modern Filipino experience through the lens of history and to recognise within it the patterns that our post-colonial hangover has left behind In the times that we live in, this is most welcome. -- Bianka Tibayan Venkataramani, Royal United Services Institute, UK * Asian Affairs *
Presents a framework for understanding how representations shape not only public perceptions but also the real-world development of urban spaces. By analyzing the cultural and ideological forces at play in the representation of Manila, Imagining Manila ultimately contributes to a deeper understanding of the complexities of urban history in a colonial context. * Planning Perspectives *
Sykes's ability to unapologetically hold authors and creators, especially western contemporary ones, to account when discussing Manila, be it through the lens of sociology, culture, or politics is impressive ... He calls for readers to view all media in a more considered light ... In the times that we live in, any reminder of this is most welcome. * Asian Affairs *

Author Bio

Tom Sykes is Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Portsmouth, UK. His previous books include The Realm of the Punisher, and his essays have appeared in A Global History of Literature and the Environment, Supernatural Cities, The Journal of Postcolonial Writing, Social Identities and Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction. His journalism has appeared in Private Eye, New Statesman, The Scotsman, The Telegraph, New Internationalist, Monocle, New African, Red Pepper, South East Asia Globe and numerous print and digital media around the world.