The usual martial law novel follows a certain trajectory, where the violence of detainment and extrajudicial killings march on for three decades until the dictator is finally overthrown, whisked away to safety by the US military.
Our protagonist is Danilo Cruz, whose coming-of-age takes place in a Filipino military base under a dictatorship in the 60s and 70s. This scene exemplifies much of Danton Remoto’s novel Riverrun, where simple surface details hint at the tensions simmering underneath. On the one hand, the fear of drowning, the water an unpredictable threat on the other hand, an undertow of yearning, a throbbing that becomes familiar to our young, gay protagonist. The river can swell at any moment, he explains.
Luis calls for Danilo to join him, but Danilo refrains. Danilo observes his friend’s body as the first stirrings of desire bob up. His body of work is cited in The Routledge Concise History of Southeast Asian Writing in English, The Encyclopedia of Postcolonial Literature, and The Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Literature.In the middle of Riverrun: A Novel, the main character Danilo watches his childhood friend Luis slip into the river. He has published a book of short fiction, three books of poems, and five books of non-fiction, all written originally in English. He was a Fellow at the Cambridge Conference on Contemporary Literature at Downing College, Cambridge University and the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference at Middlebury College, Vermont. The Writers’ Union of the Philippines gave him a National Achievement Award in Literature (Gawad Balagtas sa Panitikan) in 2015. He has received fellowships and honours from the Asian Scholarship Foundation, British Council,įulbright Foundation, and the Don Carlos Palanca Awards for Literature, among others.
He was educated at Ateneo de Manila University, University of Stirling, University of the Philippines, and Rutgers University. Danton Remoto is a Professor of Creative Writing and Head of School, English, at the University of Nottingham Malaysia.
0 kommentar(er)
