''Cave and Shadows'' is a 1983 whodunit and Martial Law era “

metaphysical Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of conscio ...

”

thriller Thriller may refer to: * Thriller (genre), a broad genre of literature, film and television ** Thriller film, a film genre under the general thriller genre Comics * ''Thriller'' (DC Comics), a comic book series published 1983–84 by DC Comics i ...

Roces, Alejandro R
Regarding Nick Joaquin
Roses & Thorns, Opinion, The Philippine Star, philstar.com, November 10, 2009 novel written by Philippine National Artist Nick Joaquin. The setting of the novel is during

Ferdinand Marcos Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos Sr. ( , , ; September 11, 1917 – September 28, 1989) was a Filipino politician, lawyer, dictator, and kleptocrat who was the 10th president of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. He ruled under martial ...

’s martial law in the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

,Cave and Shadows by Nick Joaquin
britannica.comCave and Shadows by Nick Joaquin
britannica.com including the time in Manila when activism was alive and demonstrations were frequent before August 1972 (described as Joaquin’s “‘objective correlative’ to the Crisis of ’72”), before the declaration of martial rule. It is a

detective fiction Detective fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator or a detective—whether professional, amateur or retired—investigates a crime, often murder. The detective genre began around the same time as s ...

that also deals with and arcane and historical cults involving ''

beata Beata or Beate is a female given name that occurs in several cultures and languages, including Italian, German, Polish, and Swedish, and which is derived from the Latin ''beatus'', meaning "blessed".''Behind the Name''"Given Name Beate" Retriev ...

s'' or “beatified women” (a group of religious lay women who were "repressed by a male-dominated, colonial order") and strange events occurring inside unfamiliar

cave A cave or cavern is a natural void in the ground, specifically a space large enough for a human to enter. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. The word ''cave'' can refer to smaller openings such as sea ...

s in the

Metro Manila Metropolitan Manila (often shortened as Metro Manila; fil, Kalakhang Maynila), officially the National Capital Region (NCR; fil, link=no, Pambansang Punong Rehiyon), is the capital region, seat of government and one of three List of metrop ...

area. Other themes include

politics Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...

love Love encompasses a range of strong and positive emotional and mental states, from the most sublime virtue or good habit, the deepest Interpersonal relationship, interpersonal affection, to the simplest pleasure. An example of this range of ...

, family, friendship, reconciliation, and tyranny.Cave and Shadows by Nick Joaquin (born in 1917)
Book Summary, portal.unesco.org One of two novels authored by Joaquin during his lifetime
, from the ''Biography of Nick Joaquin'', The 1996 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts, rmaf.org (written twenty-two years after Joaquin’s '' The Woman Who Had Two Navels''), it is regarded as an important bookOther important books by Joaquin include: (...) Cave and Shadows, 1983 (...)
, nationalartists.panitikan.com to read for Philippine literature students. In this work, Joaquin interspersed historical facts and with fiction resulting to a mesh of “multi-layered meanings”. One of the main concept for the plot is the “routinary paganisation” by

Filipino Filipino may refer to: * Something from or related to the Philippines ** Filipino language, standardized variety of 'Tagalog', the national language and one of the official languages of the Philippines. ** Filipinos, people who are citizens of th ...

s of the Western-rooted religion known as

Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

.Garcia, J. Neil C
(...) ''Depicting the routinary paganisation by Filipinos of the Western religion called Catholicism is not anything new in Filipino fiction, and indeed novels like Nick Joaquin’s Cave and Shadows have in fact made it the conceptual center of their plots.'' (...)
from ''The Postcolonial Perverse: Hybridity, Desire, and the Filipino Nation in Federico Licsi Espino, Jr.'s Lumpen'', Intersections: Gender, History and Culture in the Asian Context, Issue 14, November 2006, intersections.anu.edu The bizarre events in this novel includes the inexplicable death of Nenita Coogan.San Juan, Epifanio Jr
Celebrating the Virgin and Her City: An Introduction to Nick Joaquin
philcsc.wordpress.com Coogan’s body was found naked inside a cave located within the suburban regions of

Manila Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populate ...

. The death by Coogan triggered a criminal investigation, truth searching, collision of the past and the present, and the unhinging of reality. The end of the novel exposes

human nature Human nature is a concept that denotes the fundamental dispositions and characteristics—including ways of thinking, feeling, and acting—that humans are said to have naturally. The term is often used to denote the essence of humankind, or ...

belief A belief is an attitude that something is the case, or that some proposition is true. In epistemology, philosophers use the term "belief" to refer to attitudes about the world which can be either true or false. To believe something is to take i ...

, and certainty.Cave And Shadows by Nick Joaquin
, Contemporary Philippine Fiction, anvilpublishing.com

References

*San Juan, Epifanio
Chapter 7: Cave and Shadows: Toward the Production of Utopian Discourse
Subversions of Desire: Prolegomena to Nick Joaquin, pages 169-189, books.google.com

External links

Cave and Shadows Summary
at valmar.wordpress.com
Bookcover image
for Nick Joaquin's ''Cave & Shadows'' at openlibrary.org {{DEFAULTSORT:Cave And Shadows Detective novels 1983 novels Philippine English-language novels Novels set in Manila