Surviving the tides of contemporaneity: Textual poaching in Paolo Chikiamco\u27s Alternative alamat

This thesis delves into Alternative alamat, a collection of short stories by contemporary Filipino writers. Edited by Paolo Chikiamco, this collection featues remodeled versions of Philippine folklore and mythology. The six stories I have selected are contemporized versions of traditional Philippine mythology wherein mythological creatures are made to interact and live among ordinary humans in the contemporary world. Using the concept of textual poaching, as developed and utilized by Michel de Certeau, John Fiske, Jack Zipes, Henry Jenkins, and Kinga Varga-Dobai, this thesis compares the old and new and seeks to unravel the truths hidden beneath them. This paper primarily aims to answer the following questions: How are the stories alternative and in what way are they altered/reinscribed? How do the characters cope with the fast-changing technology, the current economic system, and new sets of beliefs? How do the themes from the old and the new differ, or do they? How is the concept of textual poaching seen in these texts