Niccolo Angelo Vitug is a PhD music student at the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman. He obtained an MA in Literary and Cultural Studies from the Jesuit-run Ateneo de Manila University (Quezon City, Philippines), where he currently teaches. He is a graduate of well-known writers’ workshops, such as the Silliman University National Writers Workshop (2003) and the UP National Writers Workshop (2022). His first solo book of poems, Enter Deeply, was published by the UP Press. E-mail: nvitug@ateneo.edu
Towards Expanding the Literary Through Explanatory Notes in the Posthuman Era
Abstract: The author of this paper wrote a book review for a translation of poems by Julia Wong KComt. The translator Jennifer Shyue admitted in a short note that the title, Vice-royal-ties, came from an Internet Anagram Translator that generated the name among a number of possible translations of Bi Rey Nato. This admission enriches the reading of translations that are in themselves powerful manifestations that there is no separation between the technological and the human. This paper explores the possibility of notes and annotations, tools aligned with the goals of invitational rhetoric, creating a new way of approaching the writing of poetry in the posthuman age. Typically, poems and their translations are read without the need for explanatory notes associated with educational materials. However, these days, when boundaries between the technological and the human are being blurred, new rhetorical techniques might be needed to expand forms as they are currently known. The explanation, which might be seen as a lessening of literary merit, can now be viewed as integral to the creative work. Ultimately, this expansion helps people to come across through poems and other literary works and connect with one another. The increase in difficulty in poetry is a mark of the modernization of the form. However, poetry might now need to be simplified, which is really a mark of growing complexity because of rampant technological development.
Keywords: translation, posthuman, Internet Anagram Translator, invitational rhetoric, literature, creative writing