Jan
14
12:00am
Gina Apostol: The Revolutionary
By TPLCulture
Revolutionaries are often portrayed as dour, serious political animals or as radically unstable and emotionally explosive firebrands. But Gina Apostol in her novel, The Revolution According to Raymundo Mata, shows us a revolutionary as sensitive soul, bookish and loving as he reflects back (in this novel-cum-fictionalized memoir) on his roots as a revolutionary. Apostol, one of contemporary America’s most creative and unique storytellers, frames the story with ironic prefaces and footnotes depicting the way academics and contemporary scholars battle over how to best present the legacy of an iconic figure, particularly one so associated with nationalism (Mata is loosely based on real-life Filipino revolutionary José Rizal who led the resistance to Spanish rule in Philippines). The form that Apostol adopts here plays with the way nationalistic symbols can exploited, misrepresented and emotionally resonant. Do figures like Mata show us the best of ourselves or the worst? As she does in her novel Insurrecto (2018), Apostol offers a unique storytelling experiencing: fragmented, intelligent, bold and unlike anything else on the current literary landscape.
Gina Apostol talks with Lorina Mapa (Duran Duran, Imelda Marcos and Me) about The Revolution According to Raymundo Mata.
About this event’s guests:
Gina Apostol
Lorina Mapa
Author photo by Margarita Corporan
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Toronto Public Library is committed to accessibility. Please let us know as far in advance as possible and we will do our best to meet accommodation requests. Call 416-393-7099 or email [email protected]
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This event is part of TPL's Asian Heritage series.
Generously supported by:
📷
hosted by
TPLCulture
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