A Future for the Philippines: Dystopian Dictatorship in Gregorio Brillantes's "The Apollo Centennial" (1981)

Abstract

This paper examines the influence of the modern Philippine contexts in constructing the dystopic and post-apocalyptic visions in the short story “The Apollo Centennial” (1981) by Gregorio Brillantes. Written at the height of Marcos’s dictatorship, the story envisions a unique future for the Philippines extrapolated and exaggerated from the context of the Marcos era Philippines. 

Presenter Biography
Sandya Maulana is an ABD student in the English Literature program of the Department of English at the University of Kansas. He is currently working on his dissertation on Southeast Asian speculative fiction in English as efforts to decolonize the genre and the region. Sandya also teaches first-year English composition classes as a graduate teaching assistant.