2026 IJRSE – Volume 15 Issue 6
Available Online: 9 March 2026
Author/s:
Salcedo, Francis Xavier R.
De La Salle University Manila, Philippines (francis.salcedo@dlsu.edu.ph)
Abstract:
This paper examines selected works of Nick Joaquin through an eco-critical lens, arguing that his fiction articulates a complex ecological imagination embedded within Philippine cultural and historical contexts. While Joaquin is widely celebrated for his engagement with identity, colonial history, and ritual, this study contends that his narratives also anticipate contemporary concerns surrounding environmental sustainability and ecological justice. Employing a qualitative textual analysis, the study integrates eco-criticism and postcolonial theory, drawing on Cheryll Glotfelty’s definition of eco-criticism, Lawrence Buell’s criteria for environmental texts, Greg Garrard’s thematic categories, and postcolonial eco-critical insights from Graham Huggan, Helen Tiffin, Ursula Heise, and Rob Nixon. The primary corpus—Doña Jerónima, Candido’s Apocalypse, The Woman Who Had Two Navels, Tropical Gothic, and May Day Eve—is analyzed to foreground how landscapes such as rivers, caves, ruins, tropical settings, and urban spaces function not as passive backdrops but as dynamic agents shaping human experience. These ecological spaces emerge as contested terrains where colonial history, cultural memory, ritual practice, and environmental transformation intersect. By situating Joaquin’s literary imagination within global eco-critical discourse, the study demonstrates how his narratives critique ecological degradation while envisioning sustainable cultural practices rooted in myth, ritual, and memory. Ultimately, the paper contributes to Philippine eco-criticism by highlighting literature’s enduring role in reimagining the relationships among humanity, history, and the environment.
Keywords: eco-criticism, Nick Joaquin, Philippine literature, postcolonial ecocriticism, environmental imagination, cultural ecology
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5861/ijrse.2026.26806
Cite this article:
Salcedo, F. X. R. (2026). Eco-criticism and sustainability in the works of Nick Joaquin: Reimagining Philippine landscapes and cultural ecology. International Journal of Research Studies in Education, 15(6), 53-63. https://doi.org/10.5861/ijrse.2026.26806