Llana,
Jazmin

The Bicol region in the Philippines has two highly active volcanoes in two provinces in the south and two dormant ones in the north. It is land that smolders and sizzles underneath and explodes intermittently. Located at the eastern edge of the Philippine archipelago on the island of Luzon, Bicol juts into the Pacific Ocean, on the path of destructive typhoons. No wonder the literature and performance of the region exhibit qualities of explosiveness, of irruption, smoldering and surging with fire underneath. The material conditions of life in the region shape the sensibility of the people who live there and breathe in the rhythms of intermittent explosions from below and violent visitations of wind and rain from above. The Bicol sensibility thus negotiates life and death, draws from the strength and power of legends and beliefs about the land and surrounding waters, and makes itself felt in the languages it speaks, their various creative expressions, and in the performances the Bicolanos persist in doing. Using the materiality of Bicol as method, the paper explores these qualities of explosiveness and irruption in the literature and performance traditions using key texts.