The Remains of Empire and the “Purloined” Philippines: Jessica Hagedorn’s Dream Jungle

This essay examines Dream Jungle’s intervention into the imaginary configuration of the Philippines. Lacan’s elaboration on “purloin” prompts a reading of the Philippines as not simply “stolen” by imperialism but “prolonged”—via Hagedorn’s fictional creativity—into a community evolving through imperial intrusions, translocal displacements, and encounters.