A Semiotic Reading of Nick Joaquin’s May Day Eve

[A Short Story in the Middle Period of Philippine Literature in English]

Abstract

This paper is an attempt to interpret a short story in Philippine Literature in English employing the processes of literary semiotics in reconstructing the meaning of the text. Victor Shklovsky’s Theory of Prose was used as the basis for this study and Umberto Eco’s Process in Reading an Open Text was used as the framework or model in analyzing the text. His seminal work on “Open Text” posits that texts can not only be freely interpreted but also cooperatively generated by the reader [addressee]. Thus, this short story of one of Philippines’ finest writers in English, Nick Joaquin, was chosen as the text for semiotic reading since his writing is known to have subliminal messages or meanings that are hiding in the texts. Words (or texts) as signs are the objects of study in this critical paper. Therefore, words, phrases, and sentences as well as its structure are the primary concerns of this paper since they represent important information that will help in interpreting the texts. Consequently, this semiotic reading of Nick Joaquin’s May Day Eve poses four points:

1. That incestuous marriage did exist between Badoy Montiya and Agueda (they are cousins)
2. That oppression among women was grievously manifested in the circumstances that Agueda was involved in (confrontation in the dark hall; she was forced to marry Badoy)
3. That corruption (sexually) among youth was explicitly demonstrated (Badoy was a lot older than Agueda)

That objectification of women was rampant (Badoy desired for Agueda that turned him to be deliriously “in love” with her”)