Tracing Hybridity in Fields Avenue through Flanerie

Abstract

Introduction

This thesis is geared towards the identification of the representations of Fields Avenue through various texts of different media as hybridity is traced after the spatial analysis. Through flânerie, the narratives in these representations are identified as the hybridity is traced in every medium.

Methods

The paper employs story walking including the initial autoethnography for the background with the researcher as a flâneuse to supplement the spatial analysis of the selected written and visual texts and the determination of their representation of the street. The written texts include John Jack Wigley's "Bui Doi in the City" and "Fancy Dancers," which involve the author's experiences on Fields Avenue in the memoirs. The term hybridity is employed in the written materials using the selected characters as the flâneurs. The visual texts include the photographs of Hannah Reyes-Morales, Dave Tacon, and John Keatley. Fields Avenue is read, seen, and walked along. The researcher recalled her memories and experiences of the street. A close reading of the written texts employing the concepts of hybridity was also done. Roland Barthes’ Camera Lucida terms studium and punctum were used for the photographs. The narratives of the representations were enumerated and compared based on the materials used.

Results

Upon walking along, reading, and seeing the Fields Avenue, the paper finds out that Fields Avenue is consistently represented through the selected texts as the street as a hybrid space considering all the walkers and involved individuals in the process. The process of walking along Fields Avenue proved that the street is more than just a center for international sex tourism and has multiple functions for the involved people. In addition to this, upon reading the texts about Fields Avenue, intended and unintended consequences were identified causing the street to be a hybrid, heterotopic, and diasporic space. Lastly, upon seeing the space, the realities of the street are captured as the ambivalence and hybridity surfaced in the selected photographs.

Discussions

The paper finds the presence of hybridity in the elements of the street and the match among the representations of Fields Avenue in the selected texts. With that, Angeles City's Fields Avenue becomes a space that offers more than sex and entertainment and is consistently represented by different media as this street stitches various stories of the walkers who traverse it to create its possessed identity.