LOUIE JON A. SÁNCHEZ

On first day of Teleserye class, Ateneo prof says everyone watches soaps
Tricia Aquino-InterAksyon.com
November 11, 2014

On Monday, the first day of “The Philippine Teleserye” class at the Ateneo de Manila University, majority of the students confessed that they had enlisted in the Literature subject because they loved to watch Filipino soap operas.

One said he enrolled because he was never allowed to watch teleseryes growing up, and wanted to know what he was missing.

Another replied that it was the most fun class the English department had ever offered.

This semester, professor Louie Jon Sanchez will be discussing the likes of “Mara Clara”, “Be Careful with My Heart”, and the 1995 run of “Villa Quintana” with around 30 college students from the prestigious school. (A tidbit of information about the third teleserye: “It was so top-rating, nag-reformat ang ‘TV Patrol’,” said Sanchez.)

The class was the first to close during enrollment because of the speed with which the students signed up.

Rather than books, they will be perusing videos spanning 30 years of the teleserye, from post-EDSA Revolution shows to the current “Korean turn.” They will be looking at telenovelas, fantaseryes, and adaptations through historical, poetic, and aesthetic lenses.

The roster of one-year-olds at the time it was showing will get to watch “Marimar” now that they are 19 or 20 years old. They will understand why “Pangako Sa ‘Yo” made Jericho Rosales and Kristine Hermosa stars in parts of Africa and Southeast Asia. And they will have the opportunity to relive their childhood days watching the F4 bully San Cai in “Meteor Garden”.

‘A Serious Study’

It promises to be an enjoyable class, but a tough one, as well. The students will be submitting a paper every Monday on the week’s topic, and will hand in two other term papers for the midterms and finals. At the end of the semester, the best papers will be presented at a small conference dubbed the Teleserye Research Colloquim.

“We have to balance off our indulgence in watching teleseryes. This is not showbiz. This is a serious study we will embark on,” quipped Sanchez.

Ateneo has been offering classes on pop culture since the 1970s. Arguably the most prominent teacher is professor emeritus Soledad Reyes, who taught classes such as “Reading the Romance,” and who was sought for her expertise even by foreign scholars.

Despite this, netizens were shocked by the news of Sanchez’s teleserye class, leaving nasty remarks on an article by the Philippine Star, where it was first reported.

“No, just no,” said one.

“I don’t want to live on this planet anymore,” posted another.

“Waste of money,” added the third.

Why dedicate time to something Sanchez described as “something almost insignificant, common, everyday?”

This is exactly what the first part of the subject will tackle, a topic called “Arguing for the Teleserye.”

“The course is a statement in itself. The mere fact na pinahahalagahan natin ang isang bagay na parang napaka-ordinaryo, pang-araw-araw, is already a feat in itself. Because we don’t get to study popular culture in this matter. The mere fact na pinayagan ng school ang kursong ito, ibig sabihin pinahahalagahan ng eskwela ang aspetong ito ng culture that is usually sidetracked because it is perceived to be low,” he told InterAksyon.com in an interview after the class.

The university was still expected to be a bastion of high – as opposed to low – literature. The public still believed that it was a place where one “became cultured.”

“There is still a debate between high and low culture. Hindi natatapos ang debateng ‘yun, apparently, kahit na maraming scholars na nagsasabi, ‘Dapat walang debate, walang kaibahan ang literatures, walang literature at saka Literature. Lahat ‘yan literature, lahat ‘yan text.’ Apparently hindi pa rin pala nagbabago ‘yun,” Sanchez said. “When you study pop culture, you are what? When you watch something as popular as a teleserye, you are this. Nakakahiya ka.”

Alternative Perspective

It was important for teachers to provide an alternative perspective to students to debunk this sort of thinking, he stressed.

The academician who graduated with a journalism degree and holds a masters degree in creative writing, majoring in poetry, has been teaching in Ateneo for five years. He specializes in literary history, and has written papers on television studies.

His peers in the English department were supportive of the subject he proposed, as they were united in defining a literature that was distinctly Filipino. And the teleserye, whether the public realized it or not, was part of that literature.

“Lahat nanonood. Hindi lang siya pang-yaya. Hindi lang siya pang-tindera. It cuts through borders. Tayo lang siguro, ‘yung mga middle class, upper middle class, ayaw lang nating mahuli,” Sanchez said. “Aminin, pinanonood din natin. ‘Pag pinapag-usapan halimbawa ‘My Husband’s Lover’, tini-tweet (ito ng mga tao). Sino ba ‘yung mga may social media accounts? Hindi naman sila ‘yung mga masa.”

In fact, he was not surprised to hear that his students were fans of the genre.

“Class drama lang ‘yan. Ayaw lang nating mabuking na nagko-consume din tayo ng popular culture. Kunwari hindi tayo nanonood ng teleserye, pero nanonood din tayo ng teleserye. May mga pagkukunwari ‘yung class natin na ayaw nating makita, pero kitang-kita naman. ‘Pag pinag-usapan mo ‘yung pop culture, mas alam mo pa kaysa sa sinasabi mong gutom na tao na nanonood,” he said.

Part of Everyday Life

The teleserye transcended itself in that Filipinos of different socioeconomic classes were actually discussing it in everyday life.

“‘Yung text ng soap opera, lumalagpas siya sa hangganan ng sarili niya kasi napupunta na siya sa karaniwang diskurso ng mga tao. Nagtatagpo sa teleserye ‘yung mga perspective ng iba’t ibang class, pero iisa ‘yung paksa nila. That something holds them together, perhaps because they pretty much relate to it,” he explained.

For example, “The Legal Wife” became the starting point for discussions of infidelity, among other things. The teleserye was a powerful medium because its audience was decoding various things out of it.

A teleserye had the power to either perpetuate former beliefs about infidelity, or shatter them.

In “The Legal Wife”, he said, these beliefs were shattered, even if only a little bit in a society as macho as in the Philippines. The man no longer continued to be proud when caught in the act of disloyalty. He suffered for it. In previous forms of pop culture discussing the topic, the man did not suffer; only the women did.

“The soap opera is here to stay, that’s why we have studies like this, that’s why we need to commit everything to scholarship, so that eventually when it innovates again, it turns into something else, meron tayong point of origin,” Sanchez explained.

Despite these small “tectonic shifts” in the way teleseryes tackle certain topics, three elements always remain.

First, it has to feature an actor adored by the masses. The decision of which star lands the role depends on market research, Sanchez explained.

Second, it has to revolve around the family. “The culture values the family a lot,” he noted. There is often a threat to destroy the order, but the equilibrium will be restored in the end. The longevity of “Be Careful with My Heart”, for example, can be attributed to its focus on the smallest unit of society. The widowed “Sir Chief” heads a motherless family, and the story revolves around the woman who eventually takes on the mother’s role.

Third, it has to have a romance. This romance had to be complete, said Sanchez, which was why so many teleseryes end in weddings.

“Ngayon sinusubukan nating lumihis sa trajectories ng istorya. Pwedeng hindi na siya ikakasal. O maghihiwalay na sila. Magkikita sila after five years,” he said. “Pero hindi tayo masyadong lumalayo sa terrain na ‘yun. Nagre-reinvent tayo pero hindi tayo masyadong lumihihis. Mahirap lumihis sa gusto ng market.”