ABSTRACT

This article revisits the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair as a primal scene of Philippine subjection to U.S. imperialism with a queer Filipinx Midwestern sensibility. While the Filipinx-as-dogeater trope is ubiquitous, I argue that such a signification is regional in form. Reading the Fair’s legacy through white American author Jesse Lee Kercheval’s little-known short story “The Dogeater,” I illustrate the domestic routes of U.S. empire and challenge the idea of diasporic Filipinxs being out of place in regional narratives of nation. In so doing, I reimagine empire as a technology of forced intimacy rather than simply racial division.

摘要

本文回顾了1904年的圣路易斯世界博览会，以此作为菲律宾对菲帝国主义中西部敏感性的屈服于美帝国主义的原始景象。尽管Filipinx即食者的名言无处不在，但我认为这种含义在形式上是地区性的。通过阅读美国白人作家杰西·李·克切瓦尔（Jesse Lee Kercheval）鲜为人知的短篇小说“ The Dogeater”来阅读博览会的遗产，我阐述了美国帝国的国内路线，并挑战了流放菲律宾人的观念在国家区域性叙事中不合时宜。这样，我将帝国重新想象成一种强迫亲密的技术，而不是简单的种族分裂。