A Filipino Grandmother Grimm: Subversion of Foreign Fairy Tales through Indigenization and Cultural Appropriation in Mga Kuwento ni Lola Basyang (The Stories of Grandmother Basyang)

Abstract

Many cultural strategies of appropriation serve as weapons of the weak (Scott), testifying to the dynamic identity work and formation among the colonized amidst structures of unfreedom. This paper explores subversion, decolonization and cultural appropriation in Mga Kuwento ni Lola Basyang (The Stories of Grandmother Basyang), early 20th century Filipino fairy tale stories of Severino Reyes. We found greed with capitalistic undertones, mockery of the excesses of authority and the ruling political class, re-inscribing of agency and self-determination among society’s weak and marginalized, as well as subtle racism in intercultural contact. Lola Basyang and her stories, retold many times amidst the onslaught of profit-driven writing and the business of writing for consumers of Disneyfied versions of folktales, as well as a global culture that devalues reading in general, remind us that the Filipino identity is constantly being remade and we actually have an active role in shaping it and claiming ownership over it.