Reading Guide: Exile and Visions of Homeland

Familial Exile:

“In Whispers” by Michelle Macareg Bautista

  1. Who is the narrator? How does her position affect her understanding of exile? 
  2. What significance does the title “In Whispers” lend to the tone and overall meaning of the poem? 
  3. The author writes, “I can never speak to her only of her.” How is historical revisionism an iteration of self-imposing exile? 
  4. What statements does Bautista make regarding the relationship between “home” and family? What role does motherhood play in this relationship?
  5. Can the human body be one’s home? (Note: “They say, the one who rots the family name with her disease of dishonor. Her fruit is spoiled. Her seed is unholy.”)

Expressions of Home:

“White Turtle” by Melinda Bobis

  1. What relationship does Bobis draw between “home” and indigeneity? Home and nature? Nature and indigeneity? 
  2. How does Lola Basyon attempt to “find her own home” during the writers’ event when she is made to be the outsider? How do the attendees exile her? What role do the turtles play in affirming her sense of “home”? 
  3. Reading closely into Lola Basyon’s chant, how does she express the concepts of departure and return in being “home”? 
  4. How does this story explore the notion of colonial exile? Can we equate “othering” to exile? 
  5. How does Lola Basyon utilize oral literature to defy literary colonialism, the act of exiling the stories (often oral) of marginalized communities to the periphery? How is “home” associated with language? 
  6. What does the ending of the story represent? What political statement does Bautista make about colonialism and Western ignorance? 

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Thematic Questions:
1) What relationships do both protagonists have with exile? Are they aware of it? Do they actively combat it? 
2) How is nature utilized as a uniting theme of connecting to one’s home?