Peripheral Visionaries: Corruptive Mysticism and the Problem of Miracle

The article explores the ways in which the discourse and affect of miracle is performed in Philippine cinema, with the view of understanding how it exploits and inevitably corrupts mysticism and spiritual belief. Central to this project is the woman miracle worker, the visionary who is made to bear the exceptional gift of otherworldliness as well as the stigma of being bared as false and fictitious. This double coding becomes a productive site of critique of the miracle in the various unveilings of history in film and social life.