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Deconstruction

The document summarizes key concepts from the short story "The Summer Solstice" by Nick Joaquin: 1) It explores the traditions and rituals surrounding the summer solstice festival in the story, including the role of the female "Tadtarin" who embodies the spirit during the celebration. 2) It discusses the rising tensions between traditional beliefs and Catholic influences, represented by two seminary students attempting to lead hymns amidst the chaotic pagan rituals. 3) The main characters debate the nature of male and female roles and the relationship between worship/veneration versus love and respect.

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Patrick Joseph Conda
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174 views

Deconstruction

The document summarizes key concepts from the short story "The Summer Solstice" by Nick Joaquin: 1) It explores the traditions and rituals surrounding the summer solstice festival in the story, including the role of the female "Tadtarin" who embodies the spirit during the celebration. 2) It discusses the rising tensions between traditional beliefs and Catholic influences, represented by two seminary students attempting to lead hymns amidst the chaotic pagan rituals. 3) The main characters debate the nature of male and female roles and the relationship between worship/veneration versus love and respect.

Uploaded by

Patrick Joseph Conda
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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DECONSTRUCTION

RIGHT IS WRONG
What Is Deconstruction?

Seeks to dissolve the barrier Explores to reverse the Highlights what is already
between terms to reveal in the text.
dominant and non-
oppositions to be non-
oppositional and therefore dominant binary
claims based upon one valorized oppositions.
term of the pair to be unstable.

2
Responsible for the pervasive Instead of showing how everything fits
phenomenon of modern together in a hierarchical structure,
literary known as deconstruction tries to show how texts
“deconstruction” unravel themselves, particularly showing
how the privileged item in a binary can be
JACQUES DERRIDA reversed and subverted

3
“Oh no, señora: I have not touched
The Summer her.” “Then why is she screaming?
Solstice, Is she ill?”
by Nick Joaquin “I do not think so. But how do I
know? You can go and see for
yourself, señora. She is up there.”

4
The “What is this Amada? Why are you
Summer still in bed at this hour?
Solstice And in such a posture! Come, get
up at once.
You should be ashamed!”

5
The “Tell me, Entoy: has she had been to the
Summer Tadtarin?”
“Yes, señora. Last night.”
Solstice “But I forbade her to go! And I forbade you to
let her go!”
“I could do nothing.”

6
The “But now I dare not touch her.”
Summer “Oh, and why not?”
“It is the day of St. John: the spirit is in her.”

Solstice “But, man—”


“It is true, señora. The spirit is in her. She is the Tadtarin. She
must do as she pleases. Otherwise, the grain would not grow,
the trees would bear no fruit, the rivers would give no fish, and
the animals would die.”

7
Their teeth flashed white in their laughing faces and their hot bodies glowed
crimson as they pranced past, shrouded in fiery dust, singing and shouting
and waving their arms: the St. John riding swiftly above the sea of dark heads
and glittering in the noon sun—a fine, blonde, heroic St. John: very male, very
arrogant: the Lord of Summer indeed; the Lord of Light and Heat—erect and
godly virile above the prone and female earth—while the worshippers danced
and the dust thickened and the animals reared and roared and the merciless

The fires came raining down form the skies—the relentlessly upon field and river
and town and winding road, and upon the joyous throng of young men

Summer
against whose uproar a couple of seminarians in muddy cassocks vainly
intoned the hymn of the noon god:

Solstice Overhead the sky was brightening, silver light defined the rooftops.
When the moon rose and flooded with hot brilliance the moveless
crowded square, the black-shawled women stopped wailing and a
girl approached and unshrouded the Tadtarin, who opened her eyes
and sat up, her face lifted to the moonlight. She rose to her feet and
extended the wand and the seedlings and the women joined in a
mighty shout. They pulled off and waved their shawls and whirled
and began dancing again—laughing and dancing with such joyous
exciting abandon that the people in the square and on the sidewalk, 8
and even those on the balconies, were soon laughing and dancing,
too. Girls broke away from their parents and wives from their
husbands to join in the orgy.
The “I do not know. I can only feel it. And it
Summer frightens me. Those rituals come to us from
the earliest dawn of the world. And the
Solstice dominant figure is not the male but the
female.”
“But they are in honor of St. John.”

9
The “I remember that you are a woman, yes. A beautiful
Summer woman. And why not? Did you turn into some
dreadful monster when you married? Did you stop
Solstice being a woman? Did you stop being beautiful? Then
why should my eyes not tell you what you are—just
because you are married?”

10
The “Is it so shameful for a man to adore
Summer women?”
Solstice “A gentleman loves and respects Woman.
The cads and lunatics—they ‘adore’ the
women.”
“But maybe we do not want to be loved and
respected—but to be adored.”
11
“I adore you, Lupe,” he said tonelessly.

The She strained forward avidly, “What? What did you


say?” she screamed.

Summer And he, in his dead voice: “That I adore you. That I
adore you. That I worship you. That the air you
Solstice breathe and the ground you tread is so holy to me.
That I am your dog, your slave… “
But it was still not enough. Her fists were still
clenched, and she cried: “Then come, crawl on the
floor, and kiss my feet!”

12

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