Richard Yap and Jodi Sta. Maria in a scene from ABS-CBN's 'Be Careful with My Heart.' ABS-CBN/PR photo
MANILA, Philippines – Mara and Clara, Maya and Ser Chief as part of the class curriculum?
Ateneo de Manila University students will soon have the option to take a course on "teleserye."
Officially titled “Literature and Ideas III: The Philippine Teleserye,” the said elective—which will be offered as an open elective to students of ADMU in this schoolyear's upcoming second semester—will attempt to study the “modes and development” of the contemporary Philippine soap opera. It is thought to be the first academic course in the Philippines to focus on the teleserye.
The course will require undergraduates to “explicate the development of the genre as it was practiced, defined and re-defined in the last 30 years” using “cultural studies and media studies frameworks.”
“This course is designed for literature majors and minors wanting to engage in Filipino popular cultural texts, communication majors desiring to deepen their understanding of the genre, and all interested in subject,” the course syllabus explained.
Students will also be required to watch episodes of a number of soap operas spanning from the past 30 years—from “classics” such as “Mara Clara” and “Familia Zaragoza” to more contemporary shows like “Iisa Pa Lamang” and “Be Careful With My Heart.”
Tom Rodriguez and Dennis Trillo of GMA-7's 'My Husband's Lover.' The 2013 soap opera is one of the shows included in the viewing list of poet and scholar Louie Jon Sanchez's teleserye elective at the Ateneo de Manila University. Shows in the course's viewing list include GMA-7's 'Amaya,' 'Encantandia, 'Mulawin,' and "Villa Quintana' and ABS-CBN's 'Mara Clara,' 'Pangako Sa 'Yo,' 'Dyesebel,' 'May Bukas Pa,' and 'Maging Sino Ka Man,' among others.
It will be taught by poet and scholar Louie Jon Sanchez, who has been watching and studying the teleserye for several years now.
Sanchez said the idea from the course came about from his own scholastic explorations about the genre. He was also inspired by writer and scholar Soledad Reyes' academic discourse on the Filipino romance novels.
“I was interested in trying to find out how the teleserye turned into what it currently is, and as a scholar, my response to this challenge was to provide a historical perspective,” he explained.
Why is there a need for formal and academic study on the Filipino soap opera, a topic that is considered a “low brow” by a number of scholars and critics?
“We need to study the teleserye because it is part of our culture, and it is part our everyday [lives]. I say that the teleserye is often a misunderstood genre, and people can’t be blamed for complaining about its usual predictability and formula. What people don’t understand is that there’s much to be found in predictability and formula, things that may actually explain our social and cultural realities,” Sanchez explained.
The course, he added, does not intend to defend the teleserye from its haters. Rather, he wants the course to “unearth” the clichés and stereotypes embedded in the soap opera and show how the genre “is very much informed by our history, by our contemporaneous realities.”
Sanchez also believes there is no need for the local soap opera to upgrade to “Hollywood level,” in reference to a viral online article that lists down reasons why the teleserye will not reach “the expert level” of US shows.
“I really don’t see the need to upgrade to Hollywood level. We know that we’re not Hollywood. Hollywood has its own imaginaries, demons to slay. We have our own realities and fantasies to consider,” he said.